Young Visitor to Mars

by Richard M. Elam

Ted made the fastest trip yet along the waterway back home. True to his word, the doctor arrived right at his heels. The doctor jumped out of his boat at the house, grabbed up a large case, and hurried toward the air lock. The boys went ahead and opened the door for him.

When the doctor had met Mrs. Kenton inside, he asked to see the sick girl alone. The boys and Mrs. Kenton paced restlessly in the front room as they waited for the doctor to come out of Jill’s room. Finally, when Ted thought he could not stand the waiting any longer, the doctor came out. He was briskly shaking down a thermometer, and his face was bland.

“She’ll be a sick girl for a few days,” he said, “but she’ll be all right. I gave her a shot of some special serum we developed to combat bog fever. It was none too soon, either.”

There were tears of joy on Mrs. Kenton’s face, and Ted felt as though he could turn handsprings. Randy, too, looked vastly relieved. Although he was not a true member of the family, it seemed as though Ted and Jill were brother and sister to him, especially since he had no brother or sister of his own.

“I’m afraid all of you will have to be quarantined for a week,” the doctor went on.

“What’ll we ever find to do with ourselves staying in the house for a whole week?” Ted thought. Then he remembered the garden that had to be tended, that antenna that had to be repaired, and other mechanical duties that had to do with the running of the house. If they kept busy, the time would pass swiftly, he reasoned. The boys went up on the roof to try to repair the antenna, but there was such a tangle of wires they did not know where to start. The doctor said he would leave word at headquarters for a repairman to come out.

“It may be a day or so before he can get out here, though,” the doctor warned. “It looks as though half the aerials in the settlement were blown down.”

It was actually two days before a repairman came. By that time, Jill had passed her worst time, and she was able to sit up a little and see the boys.

Ted and Randy were amazed at the rapid growth of the plants in the garden. Already they were eighteen inches high. Ted thought he could almost see them growing before his eyes.

As soon as the radiomen had repaired the antenna, the boys sat down to watch the television program in progress. It was a newscast that showed in color the events going on all the way back on Earth and within the settlement as well. The huge five-by-four-foot screen was sharp and clear.