I walked down the crowded aisle. Crowded, of course, with Martians. But surprisingly enough, normal Martians are restricted in these areas. Only five people, including me, have access to this place. Then why is it so crowded? It’s because today is the 57th year after the Independence against the earthlings who wanted to rule Mars. And 57 is considered a holy number according to Mars mythology (the holy book of the only religion in Mars, Spaceship). And preparations were going on for tonight’s celebrations, whose Chief Guest was Mars E. N. (the ruler of the one and only country in Mars, Matlantis). Workers from all over Mars were rushing here and there, preparing for the celebrations.

I was walking down the aisle, looking at the different rooms as I had been assigned the work of checking the status of the machines of the different rooms. I just had two more machines left to be checked, the Chocolate Making Machine and the Shower Machine. The Chocolate Making Machine was one of the most popular machines in the area. But it was hidden somewhere. However, I knew where it was. I went out of the Agriculture Lab and towards a door. The door had thumb print sensing machines installed. I pressed my thumb against a blue box. The door opened. Inside was a long tunnel with doors on either side. I walked down till I found the door with a banner on it saying “This is not the Elevator Room”.

I went inside. There were many elevators everywhere. In the corner of the room, there was a huge machine. I typed ‘The Chocolate Making Machine’ on a typewriter that was fixed to the machine. The machine whirred and hummed and suddenly, a chit of paper came out of a printer attached to the machine. On it was written “AR34$6 SH@#685 NC95@&”. Now you might be wondering what on Mars does it mean. To make you understand this, I have to explain what this machine is and what does it do.

This machine is known as the “Help Me Out” Machine. There are many elevators in the area but there are more rooms than that. As all the rooms cannot have an individual elevator, to go to a certain room one has to go through one elevator, climb down to go to another elevator, and so on, until one reaches the desired room. So those three codes were actually elevator numbers to help me reach the Chocolate Making Machine. So, I went through the three elevators and finally reached the Chocolate Making Machine.

The Chocolate Making Machine provided chocolate to the whole of Mars. Everything was okay there, so I didn’t need to bother much. Now there was just one more machine left – the Shower Machine. And luckily for me, the room that housed the Shower Machine was just beside this room. So I went there quickly.

The Shower Machine, as you might have guessed already, is actually a shower. The prefix, Machine was added to its name to make it look posh. To check whether the Shower Machine worked, I had to take a shower. I turned on the hot water tap to take a shower of hot water. And guess what, it was malfunctioning. Crystal clear cold water was coming out of the shower. Wait, this isn’t possible. And before I could repair the machine, I heard a strangely familiar sound, “Wake up!” Suddenly, I saw myself lying on my bed and my mother, holding a bucket of cold water, staring down at me. I realised what had happened, I was ten minutes late for school (on Earth)!

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