IS THAT A MARTIAN IN MY KITCHEN?

18 August 2003

There's a lot of buzz about the planet Mars these days. On August 27, Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles (55.76 million kilometers) away -- closer to our planet than it's been in nearly 60,000 years. The view, scientists say, will be stupendous. Amateur astronomers and people who have never paid attention to the heavens before in their lives are driving out of the cities, away from bright lights, squinting up into the sky and trying to get a glimpse of the red planet.

I wonder why it is that we're more fascinated with Mars than the other planets. I guess it's because it's closer to us than the others and, being a sociable people, we like to look over the back fence and get to know our neighbors.

I was glued to the television set when we landed a camera on Mars and watched with fascination as they guided that little rover across the terrain, praying when it got stuck that they could get it moving again. It was amazing to think that some scientists with remote controls were moving a little car around a planet millions of miles away, just like a little boy in the park moves his little remote-controlled car around an oak tree.

We've been intrigued by Mars for years. Martians have invaded planet earth in countless movies, Marvin the Martian has been a popular cartoon character for a long time, and Ray Walston was Bill Bixby's "Favorite Martian" on the popular television sitcom. Obviously we don't know whether real Martians are friendly or not. We don't even know if real Martians exist.

Well, some people don't know whether Martians exist. I know they exist.

You see, I have a good friend who is a Martian.

I didn't always know he was a Martian. I first became aware of him on a compuserve chat board. A single father had come on to discuss his adoption of a child, a child with the emotional difficulties that come with being abandoned, placed in foster homes, abused, and a number of other traumas that no 8 year old child should have to know about, much less endure.

Throughout the next year I watched the discussion with this Dad about his child, adding information and support from time to time, and the Dad and I became casual friends.

I'm not sure how far it was into the friendship that I discovered that this father I'd been conversing with was actually science fiction writer David Gerrold (the man who gave the world tribbles), writing under a nom de plume. By now I knew a lot more about his son Dennis, but I still didn't realize Dennis was a Martian.

But it makes sense, doesn't it, that the perfect father for a Martian kid is a sci fi writer who wouldn't blink twice on learning that his child was really conceived on another planet.

After the adoption was finalized and Dennis had become Sean, David sat down to write his incredible story, which won him some big sci fi awards (the Hugo and the Nebula). The novella was called "The Martian Child" and it tells how David was warned by the adoption agencies that Dennis-now-Sean claimed to be a Martian.

There are those who may feel that this was some flight of fancy on David's part and that the story was a work of fiction, based loosely on the facts surrounding Sean's adoption, but I think if you read it you will become, as I am, convinced that this is a fact-based book, thinly veiled as fiction.

David recently expanded the novella into a full-length book. It is perhaps the most compellingly honest work he's ever done. You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll believe in Martians.

It was some time before I actually met the real Martian face to face. I learned that Martians give great hugs and that they are eager to please.

Martians love to wash floors, for example. When Sean saw my once-white expanse of linoleum, you'd have thought he died and went to heaven. Give a Martian a mop and a pail of water and you'll both be very happy--and your floor will be spotless. (This love of water probably stems from the difficulty in finding any water at all on Mars.)

I even have an original piece of Martian artwork, which Sean made for me to cheer me up after he learned of the death of our first son. (I'm wondering if this depicts some strange creature that he remembers from his days back on Mars).

Sean is almost an adult now and the powers he once had for "Martian wishes," which did everything from causing baseballs to go sailing out of the ballparks for his favorite team or turning stoplights from red to green have disappeared as he has become more and more assimilated into earth culture.