Lost Race of Mars

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“Do you think they’ve forgotten?” Jim Chambers whispered.

His sister Sally, who was almost eleven, shrugged and shook her red head. “They’ve never forgotten before, have they?”

“There’s always a first time,” Jim said gloomily. He was twelve, old enough to know that grownups sometimes forgot the most important things. But would they forget Surprise Day?

That was like forgetting Christmas. Still, here it was, eight o’clock, and soon it would be bedtime, and Surprise Day would be over—without any surprise. It was hard to believe they had forgotten.

Surprise Day was a private custom of the Chambers family. Dr. Roy Chambers, the father of Sally and Jim, had always felt it was a pity Christmas came only once a year, so he had set up a special day, exactly midway between one Christmas and the next, for the giving of gifts.

Surprise day fell on the twenty-fifth of June.

And that was what today was: the twenty-fifth of June, 2017. But the whole day had gone by, and now it was long after dinner, and still no surprises had appeared. Jim and Sally had their gifts all ready. Jim had bought a pair of magnetic cuff links for his father and a collapsing purse-sized umbrella for his mother. Sally’s gifts were a new billfold for Dr. Chambers and, for her mother, a bottle of imported perfume to replace a bottle that had accidentally been spilled. For weeks, Jim and Sally had gone snooping around the house to find out what gifts would be most appreciated.

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