Derek's Pages
Home Tuition Photos Contact Me
Chapter 1
Hi. I’m Daniel, my friends call me Dan. And I’m going to Martian Camp tomorrow. I am nine years old. Mum says that’s a very young age to travel to Mars. But my friend Steven is going, and he’s only eight.
Mum’s packing my bag right now.
“Do you want to take Edward?”
“No Mum!”
Edward is my teddy bear. I’ve had him since I was two years old, so Mum says. If I take Edward the other kids will think I’m a baby. Mum thinks I’m a baby too sometimes. But that’s Mums for you.
“Shall I pack Floppy?”
“No Mum!”
Floppy is my toy rabbit and he would be much too scared to go to Mars. I think I’m a little scared too.
“What about Beak?”
“No Mum!”
Beak is my real favourite. He’s a bird. A toy really.
“Don’t you want to take any of your animals?”
“No Mum!”
“You might get lonely.”
“Mum, there are four hundred kids at Camp and thirty leaders!”
That’s my Mum for you, she worries too much.
“Now, let’s see if we’ve got everything,” said Mum. “I’ve packed your sleeping bag. It’s a nice warm one. I’ve heard the Martian nights are very cold. Then there’s your ground sheet.”
“Mum, you don’t sleep on the ground on Mars.”
“You slept on the ground at Summer Camp,” replied Mum.
“Summer Camp was on Earth.”
In fact, Summer Camp was only a mile from home, in the local woods. On Mars we sleep in special tents because there’s not much air on Mars. You’d think mums would know that.
“Okay, I’ll unpack the ground sheet,” said Mum. She still had the suitcase open. “You’ve got your pyjamas, socks, pants, shirt, shorts and spacesuit. It doesn’t seem a lot.”
Mum would pack the entire contents of my bedroom if I let her, she was that kind of Mum.
“You’ve packed enough, Mum.”
“What about your raincoat? Are you sure you don’t need a raincoat?”
“It never rains on Mars,” I said.
“Never?” asked Mum.
“Never.”
“Well, perhaps we should go there for our holidays sometime,” said Mum thoughtfully.
“That would be great,” I said. But what I really wanted was to get to sleep. Though how I was going to sleep tonight I really didn’t know. I was far too excited and Mum had been fussing for the last hour. I couldn’t get her out of my bedroom. I did my best to look tired.
“Oh, you look tired dear,” said Mum. “Perhaps you are unwell. Maybe you shouldn’t go to Camp. Leave it till next year? You’ll be ten then.”
“No no Mum, I’m fine,” I replied quickly. Mum really didn’t want me to go. But I had told her Steven was going and he is younger than me. Dad said the trip would be good for me. Help me grow up. But Mum still didn’t want me to go. So I had to look sad, really really sad. I’m good at that. It never fails. So tomorrow I will meet Steven and the others at the Spaceport. It’s a four hour flight to Mars from there.
Mum switched off the light and left my bedroom. I lay my head back on the pillow. Edward, Floppy and Beak lay beside me. I knew they really wanted to go to Mars with me. But some of the others Girls and Boys at Camp would be quite old, as old as fourteen. What would they think of me if I brought my animals?
I didn’t know how I was going to get to sleep...
Chapter 2
Mum said, “Good morning.”
Wow! Morning already.
“What time is it?” I asked. The spaceship was due to leave at ten o’clock.
“It’s half past eight,” replied Mum.
I bounced out of bed.
“Plenty of time yet,” said Mum.
It was Saturday, Mum and Dad took me to the spaceport. Dad was driving. I was glad. He drives much faster than Mum. Sometimes Mum has to cover her eyes.
Steven was already there. So were Kate, Sarah and William. They were the only ones from my Scout pack going to Mars Camp. There are over twenty in my pack. But I guess Mums don’t like to send their kids to Mars. Most of the other kids at the spaceport were older than us, ten years old or more.
I began to feel scared.
“You scared?” said Steven.
“No,” I said.
“Me neither,” said Steven, with a huge grin on his face.
Steven said he was not scared of anything. He was always smiling, so I guess he wasn’t scared.
William was clutching a bear. I thought of my bear, Edward. Maybe I should have brought him?
The girls, Kate and Sarah, were talking to our pack leader, Bryan, who was quite old, at least thirty. Bryan said he had been a scout himself once.
“You can leave Dan with me,” Bryan said to my Mum.
I could see Mum didn’t want to go yet but Dad said ‘goodbye’ and so Mum said ‘goodbye’ too.
“Hello Daniel,” said Bryan. “Now we’re all together I’ll tell you a bit about the space flight.”
We listened while William clutched his bear tighter.
“We’re very lucky,” said Bryan. “We’ve got window seats. We’ll be able to see the Earth get smaller and smaller. And if our spaceship gets holed by a meteor we’re right next to the emergency exit,” he laughed.
Bryan was like that. Always making jokes to scare us. There aren’t many meteors in space, are there...?
“Sometimes,” continued Bryan, “the ride gets a little bumpy and you can feel quite sick.”
“Not me,” said Steven, “I’m never sick.”
Steven was still smiling, so I guess he never was sick.
Sarah made a horrible noise.
H-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r...
She pretended to be sick into a bag. Kate and Steven laughed. I smiled and William clutched his bear even tighter.
We didn’t have to wait long. We were soon sitting on board the spaceship. It was full of Scouts. There looked like more than four hundred of them. I sat next to Steven who was right by the window. Bryan sat opposite me.
I had never travelled on a spaceship before. Mum and Dad had, but that was before I was born.
“Pay attention to the safety video,” said Bryan.
“What’s a safety video?” I said.
“That,” said Bryan, and pointed at a small television screen fixed to the ceiling.
I watched the video.
“There is an emergency spacesuit under each seat,” said the video.
I glanced under my seat and could see nothing.
“In the event of an emergency,” continued the video, “we have four exits...”
I was starting to worry.
“...the lifecraft are located...”
“What if the lifecraft are damaged?” I asked Bryan.
“Then we’re dead,” he smiled.
Gosh! I wondered if we would make it to Mars. Maybe Mum was right, I should have stayed at home. At least that way I’d live another year. Ten was a much better age to die than nine.
Ten, nine, eight, ..., three, two, one. Blast-off!
The ship shook beneath me. I started to feel sick. William was sick. He opened a bag and tried to hold it to his mouth.
H-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r...
William threw up again. He missed the bag. His bear on the table in front of him took it full in the face. Poor bear, I thought. What a mess.
Kate and Sarah had stopped giggling. Even Bryan looked strange; but Steven was still grinning. I was glad I had a small breakfast.
Four hours later we could see Mars out of the window. It was growing larger.
“Well, we’ve missed the meteors and space pirates,” said Bryan.
“Space pirates!?” I said, surprised.
“Yeah,” smirked Bryan. “One ship to Mars was attacked by pirates.”
“Wow!” said William.
Kate said, “My Mum’s a pirate.”
“So’s mine,” added Sarah.
Suddenly, I realised Bryan was joking. But William thought it was all true.
“Wow!” said William to Sarah. “Has she killed anyone?”
“Lots,” replied Sarah proudly.
“Gosh,” sighed William who decided to be friends with the girls.
“There’s Camp!” exclaimed Steven and pointed out the window.
I strained to look past Steven and out the window, but had to keep my seatbelt on. We were about to land.
Our spaceship rumbled to a halt. I was glad it had stopped shaking, though my tummy still thought it was moving.
“Thank you for flying Mars Spacelines,” said the Captain. “I hope you had a pleasant flight.”
“Let’s go,” said Bryan.
We all stood up and made our way to the exit. We had to stick together. It would have been easy to get lost. There were hundreds of Scouts and many Leaders.
“Don’t worry if you get lost,” said Bryan, “there’ll be more room in the tent for the rest of us.”
William was clutching his bear. Sarah had nick-named it Smelly, though I think the bear’s real name was Cedric. But Smelly sounded much better to me.
“I can’t wait,” said Steven.
I was very excited and a little nervous.
When we got off the spaceship it was a short ride to Camp. We had to queue for a Mars’ bus. The bus had big fat tyres that threw dust everywhere. You could hardly see out the window. The bus rocked almost as much as the spaceship.
“Looks real dusty out there,” said Steven.
“Yeah,” said Bryan. “I’ll bet there’ll be a wild dust storm when you do your explorer’s badge. That would be great fun.”
Sometimes it was hard to tell when Bryan was joking. I didn’t fancy getting lost on Mars; not in a dust storm. How would I get home for tea?
“When my Mum was small she got her explorer’s badge on Jupiter,” said Kate.
“My Mum got hers on Pluto,” said Sarah.
“Wow!” said William. “You have real cool Mums.”
“Yeah,” said Kate
“Yeah,” added Sarah.
Steven said, “I gonna get my Martian explorer’s badge.”
“We’ve got to register first,” said Bryan. “The Camp Leader wants to know who’s here.”
When we had registered our names and collected our bags we found our tent. It was a large tent. A very special tent made for Mars. The girls had one section and me, William, Steven and Bryan had the other.
“When do we get to meet the aliens?” asked Steven.
“There are no aliens on Mars,” laughed Bryan.
“But I’ve read about them,” said Steven.
“That’s just in stories,” smiled Bryan.
“My Mum’s met an alien,” said Kate.
“Mine too,” added Sarah. “We had an alien to tea once.”
“Wow!” said William.
“Don’t believe you,” I said.
“It’s true,” objected Kate. “I saw it too.”
“Well, what colour was it then? I asked.
“Green,” said Kate immediately.
“There always green,” smiled Bryan, “especially Martians.”
It was clear Bryan did not believe any of it. I wasn’t so sure. Did aliens exist? Had Sarah had an alien to tea?
That night we put on our spacesuits and had Mars burgers and beans around the camp fire. It wasn’t a real fire. You can’t have a real fire on Mars, so Bryan says. We played games and sang songs until the sun went down. It was great fun. Then it was time for bed. Tomorrow we would go exploring. I couldn’t wait.
Chapter 3
Bryan woke us at six o’clock. It was very early but Steven and I had been awake for an hour. Bryan said we’d be tired later in the day. I was too excited to ever feel tired. Steven couldn’t wait to get his explorer’s badge.
“Today we will explore Dead Man’s Valley,” said Bryan.
“Dead Man’s Valley!” repeated Steven excitedly.
“Dead Man’s Valley,” said William nervously. He was clutching Smelly.
“You can’t bring that bear,” said Bryan. “He might get lost.”
“But Cedric always comes with me,” objected William.
“Not today,” said Bryan.
William started to look sad, but then Kate had a brilliant idea. She suggested that William hide Smelly down the leg of his spacesuit. So William did. This made William look uncomfortable. Though Bryan would never spot Smelly now.
“Who wants to try for their Map reader’s badge?” asked Bryan.
“I will,” I said. Though I wasn’t really sure how to read a map.
“Good boy Dan,” said Bryan and handed me the map. The map was covered with many strange names and lines and things...
“The other way up,” laughed Bryan.
The girls giggled; I turned the map around.
“Where’s Dead Man’s Valley?” asked Steven.
I looked at the map. There were too many names. I couldn’t find it.
Suddenly Kate said, “There it is!” and put her finger on the map.
“How far is it?” asked William. I could see that William was worried.
“Not more than two miles,” said Bryan.
“Two miles!” exclaimed William.
Two miles. I don’t think William had ever walked that far in his life. Two miles with Smelly stuck down his leg. Would William make it?
“We’ll have a lunch break when we reach the valley,” said Bryan who was trying to encourage William.
“And then we get the Mars bus home?” asked William hopefully.
“No no no,” said Bryan. “To earn your explorer’s badge you must walk home.”
William looked more worried.
“Well, let’s go,” said Bryan.
“This is great,” said Steven.
“Cool,” said Kate.
I was going to enjoy this trip. What a lot I’d have to tell Mum.
Walking two miles on Mars is easier than walking two miles on Earth. You don’t weigh as much. That’s why it’s easier. In fact, you can bound along. Skip and jump as high as you like. Very high. Steven was really going for it. He jumped right over Kate.
“Careful,” said Bryan.
Steven didn’t hear and jumped over Sarah too.
“Steady,” said Bryan. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Then we can do our first aid badge,” I said.
“Cool,” said Steven. “I’ll have more badges than anyone when I get back to Earth.”
William was walking funny. Smelly was stuck down his trousers. The bear was clearly making William uncomfortable.
We reached a small hill and climbed up it. At the top the path split into two.
“Which way Daniel?” asked Bryan.
I looked at the map.
“Hmmmm,” I pondered.
“Hmmmm,” said Kate, looking at the map as well. I think she wanted her map reader’s badge too.
“Well?” said Bryan.
“Left,” I said.
“Right,” said Kate.
“Make up your minds,” said Bryan.
“Left,” I said.
“Right,” said Kate.
“Left!”
“Right!”
“Left!!”
“Right!!!”
I decided to change my mind. Just in case Kate’s mum was a pirate.
“Okay, we’ll go right,” I said. “But it’s Kate’s fault if we get lost.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t get lost,” said Bryan confidently.
Thirty minutes later we were lost.
“We had better retrace our steps,” said Bryan.
“What does that mean?” asked William.
“Go back the way we came, silly,” said Steven.
So we tried to retrace our steps but we got even more lost. I had to give the map to Bryan. I wondered if I’d get my map reader’s badge now. We walked for another thirty minutes. We were all getting tired. Bryan had the map in his hands. He looked confused.
“How old were you when you got your map reader’s badge,” I asked Bryan.
“I didn’t get that one,” he said.
“Great,” said Steven. “Now we can do some real exploring.”
“We’ll never get back to camp,” moaned William.
“Shut up, baby,” said Kate.
“Yeah,” added Sarah.
William looked like he wanted to cry. I felt sorry for him. I was worried too. Were we all going to die on Mars?
“Are we going to die?” William asked Bryan.
“Don’t be silly,” laughed Bryan. But it was a nervous laugh. “Let’s have lunch,” he suggested.
Chapter 4
We had lunch: sandwiches, cake and squash. We had just finished when suddenly...
Knock!
“What was that sound?” said Kate.
“What sound?” said Bryan.
“I heard a knock,” said Kate.
“Me too,” said Sarah.
“You hear it, Dan?” asked Steven.
“No.”
I hadn’t heard it.
Knock! Knock!
“There it is again,” said Kate excitedly.
I heard it this time. We all turned our heads and looked in the direction of the noise. William’s bear, Smelly (or Cedric) was lying on the ground. At least I thought it was Smelly.
“I told you not to bring your bear,” said Bryan.
William said nothing. He could still feel his bear stuffed down the trouser leg of his spacesuit. In fact, William was turning quite white.
“Pick up your bear if you don’t want to lose it,” said Bryan.
William didn’t move. The bear looked like Cedric. Exactly like Cedric. It could almost have been Cedric; but it wasn’t. William knew that.
“Well, pick it up,” said Bryan.
William cautiously touched the bear. He picked it up. The bear was warm! He could feel its heart beat. It was alive! William wanted to drop it, but couldn’t. The fall might hurt the bear, or whatever it was. Suddenly, William heard a voice in his head. I heard the voice too and so did the others; but not Bryan. I guess he was too old.
“Put me down!” said the voice.
The bear was talking.
“Yes, it’s me you idiot,” said the bear. “Put me down!”
William carefully put the bear down.
“That’s better,” said the bear.
“What’s your name?” I said out loud.
“Who are you talking to?” asked Bryan who thought I’d gone mad.
“Oh, no one,” I said.
“Cedric,” said the bear, inside my head,”but my friends call me Smelly.”
“Hello, Smelly,” I said.
Bryan said, “Are you all right Dan?”
“Yes, fine.”
“You don’t have to talk to me out loud,” said Smelly, inside my head, “just think it and I can hear you.”
“That’s fantastic!” I said, but this time I didn’t use my voice, I just thought the words.
“Are you a Martian?” asked Kate. She could hear Smelly inside her head too.
“Of course I’m a Martian,” replied Smelly. “What did you think I was?”
“You don’t look like a Martian to me,” objected Kate.
“Well, what did you think Martians looked like?” asked Smelly.
“Hmm. Sort of green. Well, greenish,” said Kate.
“Yeah, greenish,” said Sarah. “And you’re kind of brown and smelly. Yeah, very smelly, so you can’t be a Martian.”
“Well I am a Martian,” said Smelly. “And that’s that.”
“He’s kind of strange,” added Steven. “He could be telling the truth.”
“Maybe,” said Kate, “but he’s not very scary for a Martian.”
“I don’t like being scary,” said Smelly.
Suddenly Steven had an idea. Maybe Smelly could help them find their way back to camp? It might just work. If Smelly was a real Martian then he would know the way back. I guessed what Steven was thinking. Steven, who wanted to impress Bryan, wanted all his outdoor Scouting badges, the explorer’s, the map reader’s and the navigator’s.
“Can I have the map?” Steven asked Bryan.
“No, I want it,” said Kate.
“I could share it with Kate,” said Sarah.
Everyone was thinking the same thing. With Smelly’s help, they all wanted to impress Bryan and get their badges. But we must find out if Smelly knows the way back to camp before we get too excited, I thought.
“Do you know how to get back to camp?” I asked Smelly.
“Martians know everything,” boasted Smelly.
“Great,” I said, “then can you help us get back?”
“Maybe,” replied Smelly.
“Maybe?” I said. “What do you mean?”
“It means, if I help you get back to camp then you help me.”
“But how can we help a Martian bear?” I asked.
“I want to go to Earth,” said Smelly.
“Earth?” I said, surprised.
“Yes, Earth,” said Smelly.
“Okay, it’s a deal,” I said. We could easily hide Smelly in one of our bags and get him back to Earth.
William, who’d heard the whole conversation in his head, picked up Smelly again.
“Mind my belly button,” said Smelly.
“I thought you were going to leave your bear on Mars,” said Bryan.
“Oh no, he’s coming back to Earth,” said William.
William looked at Bryan and said, “Can I have the map?”
“Why does everyone suddenly want the map?” asked Bryan.
No one had an answer. Well, not one they could tell Bryan.
“Perhaps we can all share the map,” I said. “Then we’d have a much better chance of finding our way back.”
“That sound like a great idea,” said Bryan and handed me the map.
I took the map and pretended to study it hard, really hard. Steven, William, Kate and Sarah all looked over my shoulder and pretended to study really hard too. Secretly, I asked Smelly, “Which way?”
Smelly said, “Walk towards the sun for a mile. When you reach a large rock shaped like a head, turn left.”
We all pretended to study the map for a bit longer. Finally, I said, “That’s the way,” and pointed towards the sun with my finger. All the others agreed.
“Strange that everyone agrees,” said Bryan.
“We studied the map hard,” I said.
“Yes, real hard,” said Steven. “I think we will have earned those badges.”
“We have to get back first,” said Bryan.
We started off.
Chapter 5
Twenty minutes later we reached the rock. It was shaped like a head. I thought the rock looked like Steven. Steven thought it looked like William and William thought it looked like Bryan. But Bryan thought it looked like a rock.
“Where now?” said Bryan.
“Left,” I said confidently.
“No, right,” said Smelly.
“But you said left, earlier.”
“No I didn’t,” objected Smelly.
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did!”
“No I didn’t!”
“Okay.” I decided to give in. “We’ll turn right then,” I said.
We turned right.
Bryan, who had not heard the argument between me and Smelly, said, “I thought you wanted to turn left?”
“I didn’t mean turn left,” I lied, “I was just saying, soon we’ll have no energy LEFT.”
Bryan nodded but he looked doubtful. And I was beginning to doubt Smelly. Did Smelly really know the way back to camp? Our spacesuits had enough air for another six hours. But we had to be back at camp within an hour else the others at camp would think we are lost.
We walked and walked and walked. Then we walked some more. In fact, we walked for more than two hours. Everyone was really worried. I wondered if we going to die. I wouldn’t be able to tell Mum about Smelly. But maybe she wouldn’t believe me, anyway.
“I’m tired,” said William.
“Me too,” said Kate.
“And me, said Sarah.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I never get tired,” said Steven. But he was happy to stop walking.
“We’ll sit down on those rocks over there,” said Bryan. “I’ll use my radio transmitter.”
“Transmitter?” I said.
“Yes, in case of trouble I have a small radio transmitter on my spacesuit. I’ll send a message to camp and they’ll send a bus to rescue us.”
“Great,” I said. “But why didn’t you use it earlier?”
“Well, if I had done it earlier then you’d have failed all your badges,” replied Bryan.
Bryan reached for his transmitter.
“It’s gone!” he said. He was horrified.
“Gone,” sighed Steven.
“Gone!” said Kate.
“Gone!!” said Sarah.
“Gone!!!” I gasped.
“Gone!!!!” cried William.
“I ate it,” said Smelly.
“You ate it?” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, I ate it,” repeated Smelly. “I just saw it there, right on Bryan’s spacesuit, little and black. It looked very tasty. I thought it was a sweet.”
“But you can’t have eaten it,” I said, “It was fixed to Bryan’s spacesuit and it’s made of rubber and metal. It must have tasted horrible.”
“Well, it was hard to get off,” admitted Smelly, “and it didn’t taste very nice. I had to spit half of it out.”
“Were doomed,” said William.
“Now I’ll never get my explorer’s badge,” said Steven.
“And you don’t even know the way back,” Kate said to Smelly. “Hah! Some Martian you are.”
“Yeah, some Martian,” repeated Sarah.
William started to cry.
Bryan said, “Never mind. The others at camp will come looking for us. But I think we’d better try and get back to camp before our air runs out.”
We stood up on our tired legs. Bryan took the map and we started walking again.
“If we don’t get back to camp you’ll never get to Earth,” I said to Smelly.
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” said Smelly. “We had better ask my friend Cedric and see if he knows the way. He’s much better at directions than me.”
Suddenly, Cedric started to move inside William’s trouser leg.
“Whoa! What’s happening!” cried William. Cedric was tickling William’s leg.
“It’s just me,” said Cedric. He was talking just like Smelly, inside our heads. We all heard Cedric speak. Except Bryan, of course.
Would you believe it? Cedric, William’s bear, was actually a Martian too. Cool!
“Do you know the way back to camp?” William asked Cedric.
“Yeah,” said Cedric.
“Are you gonna tell us?” said William.
“Might do, might not,” said Cedric. “You were sick all over me.”
Cedric was still upset because William had been sick all over him on the spaceship.
“I promise not to be sick on the way back to Earth,” said William. Though William wasn’t sure if he could keep his promise. The spaceship ride had been mighty bumpy.
“Okay, okay,” said Cedric, “but I’m not coming back to Earth. It’s my friend Smelly who wants to go to Earth.”
“But you live on Earth,” objected William. “You were my Birthday present.”
“No, I was only on holiday on Earth,” said Cedric. “And as for your Birthday present, well, I was just looking around the teddy bear factory when -- grab! Someone picks me up and sticks be in a box. Can you believe it? Then I get all wrapped up in paper! That’s the last time I holiday on Earth. I’m glad to be back on Mars.”
“Pardon me,” I interrupted. “Our air is running out and we had better get back to camp.”
“Yeah,” said Steven, “I want my badges.”
“Well, I don’t like Martians and I don’t trust him,” said Kate.
“Me neither,” said Sarah.
“Well, we have too,” I said. “Which way?” I asked.
“Just over that hill,” said Cedric. “It’s only thirty minutes walk.”
Suddenly, everyone wanted the map again. They wanted to impress Bryan.
“Can I have the map?” said Steven.
“No, give it to me,” said Kate.
“I can share it with Kate,” said Sarah.
“I’ll give it to Dan,” said Bryan. “But I don’t know that it will do any good.”
“Oh, it will this time,” I said confidently.
I took the map and made a show a studying it. “I think it’s that way.” I pointed towards the hill.
We walked off slowly. We were very tired. Thirty minutes later we sighted camp. There must have been fifty tents. We were all glad to be safely back with the others.
“We thought you lot had got lost,” said the Camp Leader to Bryan.
“No,” said Bryan, “we were just enjoying the walk.”
Our tiredness was soon forgotten. That night we sang more songs and played more games. We were going home tomorrow. Camp was only two nights and I wished it could be more.
William swapped Cedric for Smelly, or was it Smelly for Cedric? I really can’t remember now. Anyway, Cedric or Smelly disappeared into the night, for when we awoke William only had one bear.
And, back on Earth, William’s bear never did talk again. It was all very strange. So I am still not sure if I believe in Martians. But at least William has his bear and Kate has another story to tell. And Steven got all his badges. And I get to go to Martian camp again next year. I wonder what will happen then?
© Copyright 2003. All rights reserved.Derek Jennings.