Free Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs Page A

girl. ‘She was always so scared the Martians would get her,’ Ruby revealed, sighing. ‘She said she could glimpse into the future, now and then. And there were lovely things to come, but terrible things, too. And she used to tell me that the Martians would come back and it would be the death of her. I’d tell her to hush her mouth. No one wants to hear awful stuff like that. The Martians were long dead to begin with, I’d say. Even if all of the Martians weren’t exactly dead, then they had retreated so far underground so as to be no real danger to us…’
    All my family were staring at Ruby. The quiet old woman in the patched and stained safari suit had never made such a long speech in all the time I had known her. The words came tumbling out and we could hardly keep up. She was bringing out secrets from the long past.
    â€˜M-Martians underground?’ said Ma, looking very troubled.
    â€˜That was one theory,’ Ruby shrugged. ‘Just one theory among many. During the first settlement we found cities that had been abandoned. Not ancient cities or cities that had been nuked or burned to the ground or smashed by sandstorms. No, just cities where everyone had seemingly stopped what they were doing, got up, and walked out. There was food on the tables, some folk said, just like our food here. They left things half-done and simply Disappeared themselves.’
    A chill ran through every one of us.
    â€˜You knew more about them than you’ve ever told us,’ said Da. ‘I’ve never heard this stuff before.’
    â€˜It was a long time ago,’ said Ruby. ‘We’ve spent all these years making this part of the planet our very own. Pretending no one else was ever here. We didn’t want to rake up the past by worrying about who might or might not be still around…’
    Da’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘You must have been crazy! How could you pretend there was no danger?’
    Ruby jumped to her feet, shouting back at him. ‘Because as far as we knew, there was no danger. Every few years or so, one or two people might have Disappeared. Just a paltry few. But the settlement was working out, against the odds. Babies were being born and the colony was expanding. People felt that a handful of Disappearances was a small price to pay, for us getting a whole new planet to live on. And they were usually the sick or the old who were taken, anyway. They were seen as the sacrifices that had to be made.’
    â€˜My God,’ said Da, looking horrified.
    â€˜You can’t blame me – or Margaret,’ Ruby said. ‘We were just kids then. We were Lora’s age. What could we have said or done that would have made any difference?’
    We all looked at her, until she slumped back down into her seat.
    After that supper and Ruby’s revelations, things weren’t quite the same between Da and our adopted aunt. He no longer trusted her. He made a few remarks along the lines of, was there anything else that we should know? Any other sixty-year-old secrets about our world that she knew but hadn’t cared to tell?
    Evenings at that time would see Da unrolling maps and charts he had found among Grandma’s belongings. The maps were brightly coloured in cheerful shades of orange and red. Some showed how early landings had found the planet in its native state, and others were projecting ahead into the then-future, showing the marvellous cities of glass and steel that mankind intended to establish there.
    â€˜It was all meant to be so much grander,’ I heard Da mutter. He studied those maps long and hard. Grandma had always talked about the wealth of materials she had hidden away about the first settlements. But now she was dead, Da was left looking at these naïve versions of a future that had never come.
    Toaster joined him, peering over his shoulder. I saw Da turn on him. ‘Did you know what Ruby knows? About the