Henry would never forget the day the Martians moved out.

When he got up that morning they were still living there, right next door. But then all morning they carried stuff out of that house and put it in a big truck, and by the time Henry finished lunch they closed the truck’s big back doors, piled in the front of the truck and drove away.

Henry thought it looked pretty much like they wouldn’t be coming back. And that was all right with Henry because, by the time that day was over, he had decided that Martians are not exactly who you want living next door right beside you.

He hadn’t known they were Martians until that last day, after they drove away. He only knew they had moved into the house last spring, just about the time warm spring was leaving cold winter behind, and they had lived there all summer. Now here it was the end of summer going into fall, and already the house they had lived in was empty again. He wondered why they had bothered.

No, Henry did not discover they were Martians until they were gone and then he saw what he saw. What he saw went like this.

“That house next door must be completely empty now,” thought Henry, “because I saw them empty it and drive away. But,” he also thought, “suppose maybe they forgot something and left it behind. Suppose it was something small that they might easily overlook—like, say, a candy bar maybe. Suppose that candy bar is just laying around over there, in a corner somewhere, where they didn’t notice it, and it’s going to go to waste because they’ve moved away and nobody knows the candy bar got left behind.”

That’s when Henry made his decision. “A perfectly good candy bar, still in its wrapper, should not go to waste like that,” he thought. “I’d better go check.”

And so he did. He thought probably he should be rather quiet about checking. He thought about how his mother just might not be all for him going into somebody else’s house, even if it was empty, to check and see if it was really empty and had no candy bars. So he had better not worry her about the matter. And he certainly should not let his sister Hannah Kate in on it. She might cause trouble. Henry certainly did not want trouble. He wanted to find a candy bar.

What Henry did was, he went out his front door and closed it quietly instead of letting it bang the way he usually did. Then he walked quietly across his front porch and down his front steps and out his front walk to the sidewalk beside the street.

There he turned left and sorta slow-like walked down the sidewalk beside the street until he came to the front gate of the fence that went all the way around the yard of the house next door. Then, just sort of casually noticing that no sister or mom or anybody else seemed to be noticing him, Henry casually turned left through the gate, which was propped open, onto the front sidewalk of the house next door. Then he casually walked along that front walk until he reached the front steps, which he walked up, and proceeded on across the front porch and stopped in front of the front door of the house next door.

Standing there in front of the front door, Henry reminded himself of what an awful waste it would be if a perfectly good candy bar had gotten left behind inside this house that was now empty inside. He looked through the front door’s window and saw…that the house was indeed empty. No furniture, no rugs, everything gone. He could see what looked like a long central hallway, with doors that opened into rooms on each side.

And so his arm extended itself until his hand touched the front door’s doorknob. No harm in going into a house that’s so empty nobody could ever accuse him of stealing anything. Anyway, if a candy bar had got left behind it would be an accident.

And then Henry’s hand turned the doorknob and pushed to see what would happen. To Henry’s amazement, the door was not locked…and so it opened itself, right there right in front of him. So Henry of course stepped inside and immediately looked around the floor so see if any candy bars were laying about there in the front room of the house. They were not. But they might be in other rooms.

And so just to be thorough and responsible, just like the grownups always told him he should be, Henry thought he probably should walk forward through the hall so he could check the floors of the rooms on each side of the hall. Maybe also some shelves inside closets in some of the rooms—you never knew where a candy bar might get laid down and forgotten about.

And so he did. And that’s how he discovered the machine in the last room at the far end of the hall.

————————

Henry had never seen such a thing before, and he thought probably nobody else had either. He had heard the grownups mention things they called “contraptions.” He decided this thing he saw before him must be a contraption. No wonder it got left behind—it was w-a-y too big to get moved out through the door. The contraption was taller than the door. It was also so long and so wide that it almost filled the entire room, with just barely enough room to walk around between the machine and the four walls. Which he did, looking in at the machine from all four sides. The machine contraption was the strangest thing Henry had ever seen, and he forgot all about looking for candy bars.

Here’s what he saw.

The machine had four big tall corner posts made of metal or gray wood or something, and everywhere inside those posts there was just a whole gang of stuff setting around. The biggest thing of all, sitting on a bench near the middle of the contraption, was a lifesize pretty-big and sorta-fat older woman who was made of plastic, though Henry thought she did look pretty real. There was also a very skinny big white plastic dog with a long very skinny plastic tail that Henry decided must be what he’d heard the grownups call a “hound.” The hound looked pretty real too.

There were several big lumpy things sitting around on the floor inside the machine, surrounding the plastic woman and plastic dog. Each lump had a hole in it, down at at floor level, big enough that Henry could have stuck his fist through the hole if he wanted to, which he immediately decided he did not want to. There was also a small lump with a small hole in one side of it. And sitting right there beside the small lump was also a tiny lump with a tiny hole in one side of it.

There was a chain sort of thing that wrapped around a wheel at the top of the contraption and around another wheel at the bottom of the contraption, and the chain thing had little buckets attached all around it. A big see-through plastic box was built in just above the top of the chain thing. The box was filled with what looked like pretty round marbles, which Henry thought was very interesting indeed.

And up near the top of the machine, facing Henry right there in front of where he stood, was a metal ring big enough to stick your finger through. And fastened right there beside the ring was a small sign with big red letters. The letters said: “PULL ME.”

Henry stared at the sign beside the ring. He looked back at the ring. He looked at the sign again. He looked back and forth at the ring and the sign that said “PULL ME.” Henry felt his finger twitch. Henry felt his arm raise. Henry felt his index finger extend out toward the ring…almost. Then Henry felt his arm quickly jerk back and stick his hand deep down into his pocket. The hand that was now deep in his pocket did not move.

But neither did Henry’s eyes. His eyes kept looking at that ring and that little sign with red letters that said “PULL ME.”

Then Henry felt his other arm reach out and, without the slightest hesitation, it stuck his other index finger into the ring and PULLed. About two half-moments later is when Henry first realized it had to be a Martian Machine, and the people who made it but couldn’t move it out when they left had to be Martians.

Here’s what happened next.

At the top of the chain thing marbles began to fall from the big see-through plastic box into the little buckets that were fastened to the chain. The marbles fell one at a time, but they fell fairly quickly, and in no time at all the top bucket was full of marbles. And that bucket, with the chain thing attached, started to move downward a little. As the chain side with the bucket full of marbles moved down due to the weight of the marbles, the other side of the chain with empty buckets moved up.

When the next bucket got under the marbles, marbles fell into it too. And then the chain thing moved down slightly faster. Then the third bucket got filled with marbles…then the fourth…and the chain thing moved a little faster every time another bucket got filled with marbles. By the time all the buckets on the down side of the chain were full of marbles, and all the buckets on the up side were still empty, the chain was moving right along, not real fast, but fast enough.

As each bucket got to the bottom of the chain thing it dumped its marbles into an empty see-through plastic box that was just setting there, real handy-like for catching the marbles. And every time a bucket got emptied at the bottom, another empty bucket went over the top wheel and got filled with marbles. So now the chain thing was constantly moving as marbles kept filling buckets at the top and getting dumped at the bottom. Henry could see exactly what was happening, and why it was happening, and he was amazed.

And that’s when other really amazing things began happening right before his eyes.

————————

From out of the tiny hole in one side of the tiny lump there came—a bug. The bug was red, with tiny white spots, and it was running. The bug ran straight toward the big plastic woman, and here’s what happened next. The big plastic woman’s eyes looked straight at the bug, and her jaw dropped open, and just like that her mouth was open wide in what looked very much like a scream.

The hound also saw the bug. The hound started to leap toward the bug. But the big plastic woman’s hand grabbed the plastic hound’s long skinny plastic tail and stopped the dog in mid-leap. At the same time the big plastic woman’s big plastic leg went up and, just like that, the leg stomped down…and just missed stomping the bug because, lucky for the bug, the bug was running really fast. Behind the big plastic woman’s stomped foot the bug ran straight into another tiny lump Henry had not noticed before, and the bug was not seen again.

More things happened. What was seen about two seconds later was a plastic mouse. The plastic mouse ran out of the small hole in one side of the small lump and, like the bug before it, ran straight toward the big plastic woman. This time too, the woman’s eyes looked straight at the mouse and her jaw dropped really wide open in what looked very much, again, like an even louder scream.

Just as before, the plastic hound also saw the mouse. This time too, the hound began a big leap toward the mouse. But, again, the big plastic woman’s hand grabbed the plastic hound’s long skinny tail and stopped the hound, with quite a jerk, in mid-leap. The plastic hound did not look happy. This time both of the big plastic woman’s big plastic legs jerked upward and, just like that, both legs came stomping down…hard. But once again the big plastic woman just barely missed her target, and the plastic mouse, which was running really really really fast, escaped into a small hole in the side of a small lump, that Henry also had not noticed before, setting just behind the big plastic woman’s big stomped feet.

The plastic mouse had barely escaped the big stomp when things moved into the big time.

From out of one of the big lumps there emerged a little animal about the size of a kittycat. The little animal did not look as if it were plastic. The little animal was wrapped in very black fur that was not quite solid black because it had a solid-white stripe running down the middle of its back. Henry could not help noticing that the little animal waddled as it walked.

He also noticed that this time the big plastic woman did not act at all as she had acted those first two times. She did not raise either leg as if she meant to stomp the little animal. Instead, what she did was, she sat very, very still, as if she were sort of frozen in place, almost as if she were glued to her seat.

This time her jaw did not drop wide open, nor did she look as if she was uttering a very loud scream. No, instead of those things, the big plastic woman’s eyes stared in a manner that looked as terrified as if she were facing a plastic-woman-eating tiger. The big plastic woman in fact made only three slight moves, and they went like this.

As you would expect, the plastic hound immediately saw the little kittycat-sized black animal with the white stripe running down the middle of its back. This time too and most predictably, the hound started to make a big leap—but it only started. This time (one) the big plastic woman’s hand not only grabbed the plastic hound’s long skinny plastic tail and stopped it before it even got as far as mid-leap. She then (two) yanked it backwards until its head was almost behind her, and then (three) her hand quickly moved from its plastic tail to its plastic head, which she pushed firmly down flat onto the floor and there she held it. Firmly she held the dog as still as it is possible to hold a thing perfectly still…until the little kittycat-sized animal had waddled across the floor and into a fist-sized hole in one of the large lumps that Henry, again, had not noticed.

Then these things happened.

The big plastic woman and the white skinny plastic dog both went back to sitting as they had been sitting before the machine started moving, and there they sat unmoving, very, very still. The red bug with white spots and the plastic mouse and the kittycat-sized black animal with a white stripe all ran backwards to the holes in their original lumps where they had been in the first place. The plastic see-through box that was now full of dumped marbles moved up to the top of the contraption and the now-empty top box moved down where the other box had just been.

The contraption was back to exactly how it had been before anything started moving.

————————

Henry stood and stared at the contraption for a long time. Then he stared some more, and then he thought three thoughts in a row: “Nobody’s gonna believe this. I need a witness. Hannah Kate will do.”

Thoughtfully, Henry re-traced his steps back through the hall, out the front door and around the sidewalks back into his own front door. He still moved slowly, but for a different reason than before.

He immediately found Hannah Kate who was never hard to find. “Come with me,” he told her, “there’s something I’ve gotta show you.”

“Just tell me,” said Hannah Kate, who was not much interested in whatever he wanted to show her.

“No, really!,” said Henry, “y’gotta see this to believe it. You won’t believe it unless you actually see it for yourself.”

Hannah Kate stopped what she was doing and looked straight at Henry. Knowing her brother better than most people alive, she could always tell when he was worth paying attention to. “Okay,” she told him, “but this had better be good.” “And not take too much of my time,” she added.

Henry led the way. By the time he reached the next-door front gate and turned in, Hannah Kate felt that feeling in her stomach that she always felt when she had misgivings. “Henry, where are you taking me?” she demanded.

Sensing opportunity starting to slip away, Henry put on the most persuasive face he could manage. “You just gotta see this,” he pleaded. “You’re not gonna believe it unless you see it. It’s im-por-tant.”

Hannah Kate had a momentary tug of war between the nagging, cautious uncertainty she felt and her sixth sense that Henry probably had actually run upon something she really should see. Curiosity won over caution. She followed him in the front door and then to the back room where she stood amazed at the weirdest contraption she had ever seen. Nearly filling the room, it contained a fat woman and white skinny hound both made of plastic, a bunch of marbles, some wheels, a bucket chain, some odd lumps and more. What in Heaven’s name was this odd thing?

Henry let her stare for a full minute or more. Then he said, “Do you see it?”

“See what?”

“The ring. That ring, right there,” he pointed, “the one that says PULL ME.”

“Oh, that ring,” said Hannah Kate. “There’s a lot of stuff to see here.”

“Do what it says,” said Henry. “Pull it.”

“Are you crazy? It might blow up!”

“No it won’t.” Henry put on his best all-knowing look. “I pulled it. Are you too fraidy to do what I already did?”

“Of course I’m not afraid, dummy. Did you really pull like it says? What did it do?”

“Pull it and see,” said Henry. “I did, and it was the most amazing thing I ever saw. You won’t believe it.”

For a full minute and more they both stood silent, staring at the contraption machine and especially its little round ring beside the little sign with red letters saying PULL ME.”

Then Hannah Kate reached straight out and pulled the ring.

————————

Nothing happened.

Hannah Kate waited. Henry stared at the ring. “Pull it again,” he said.

Nothing happened again.

“Well, what’s it supposed to do?” said Hannah Kate, more as a statement than a question.

Henry reached out and pulled the ring. Then he pulled it again. And again.

Nothing happened every time.

“You’ve dragged me over here in somebody else’s empty house on a wild goose chase,” said Hannah Kate in a tone of voice that held no uncertainty at all. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait!,” said Henry. Stretching upward, he reached into the marble box, got a handful and dropped them all into the top bucket on the chain thing.

The chain did not move but something did happen.

From behind one of the upright corner posts that were made or metal or gray wood or something, a little metal tablet Henry had not noticed before swung around, clicked and faced them. On the tablet was a note. The note said: “Manual operation not permitted.”

Henry and Hannah Kate stared at the note. Henry stared especially hard. He reached out and tried to move the plastic dog’s plastic tail. It would not move. He tried to lift the big plastic woman’s feet up, as they had been lifted up when she tried to stomp the bug and the mouse. He could not budge them.

But again something happened.

From another post there swung out another little metal tablet. Like the first tablet, this one too had a little note on it. This note said: “No manual operation! HANDS OFF. You have been warned.”

“That’s it,” said Hannah Kate, and she left.

Henry stood staring at the machine. This time he stared for quite a long time. He looked at every square inch of space inside the four corner posts, and this time he noticed a few details he had not noticed before, but not very many. “Why not?!” he muttered. Perhaps fifteen minutes went by.

Then, very slowly, Henry got down on his knees and reached out to the tiny lump…and lifted its edge and peeked inside. There was no tiny bug inside.

He then reached over to the merely small lump, lifted it and likewise peeked inside. There was no mouse.

Heaving a great sigh, he worked his fingers under the edge of the large lump that had held the kittycat-size black animal with the white stripe down its back. It was heavier, but he lifted it and peeked in.

The little animal was in there, all right. It stared at Henry, and he stared back at it. Then it turned about end for end and, amazingly, stood on its front feet.

And then Henry suddenly noticed a strange smell in the air. It was a very strong strange smell. In fact it was so powerful that Henry dropped the large lump, jumped up and ran, as fast as he could run, in a direction that was anywhere away from the large lump. As he headed out the hall toward the front door, he realized that the powerful smell seemed to be following him, maybe even getting there before he did. As he banged his way out the front door he realized that the kittycat-size animal’s terrifically powerful small had filled the entire house, just that quickly, and was keeping up with him as he fled out the front walk.

Just that quickly Henry was banging through the front door into his own house. He went straight to the kitchen. He felt so frustrated he just ate an orange.

Cautiously, the next day, he went again to the house next door. He fully intended to try to figure out whatever might be figured out about the Martian machine contraption. The contraption was not there. The room was empty, the Martian Machine was gone. But the extremely powerful smell was still there.

Henry went home muttering to himself. He ate three oranges back to back.

He never went back to the room at the back of the house next door, where the Martians had lived. Hannah Kate will tell you, if you ask, that he’s never ever mentioned the Martian machine again.

*          *          *

For my grandson Henry and his big sister Hannah Kate