Martin was feeling exited. He’s invited his friends Margo, Mohamed and Maya over to play, and it had just started to snow. It got heavier and heavier, making the grass in the garden turn green to white, and began to settle along the top of the fence and the gate.
If it carried on like this, they’d be able to have a snow ball fight, and make snow cones to eat, and make snow angels on the ground.
There was a knock at the door, and there were Margo, Mohamed and Maya, wrapped up in scarfs and coats, just as excited as Martin.
“Look at it! It’s coming down so heavily,” said Maya, and she was right. The snow had turned from a flurry to a blizzard, and Martin noticed it resting thickly on top of his mum and dad’s car.
“The road’s gone!” said Martin, looking at the white strip where the road once was.
“It’s not GONE,” said Mohammed. “It’s buried! Come on, let’s get out into the garden!”
Martin put on his warmest coat, thickest scarf, wooliest mittens, driest boots and bobbliest hat. The snow wasn’t going to get him!
As they opened the back door, the snow had got even heavier - blocking out the whole sky!
“Wow! Let me show you a trick!” said Margo. “Have you got a torch or a flashlight?”
Martin knew they had four torches indoors. Two big ones and two little ones. He grabbed them, and handed them out.
“Okay! Watch this!” said Margo and shone her torch straight up into the sky. The beam from the flashlight made thousands of snowflakes glow as they fell to Earth.
“WOW!” said Martin, Mohammed and Maya, and in an instant FOUR beams of light were pointed up into the blizzard.
Well now, the snow was getting really heavy. They could barely see each other.
“Do you want to go back inside?” asked Martin.
“NEVER!” shouted the others.
“Well then I’ve got an idea!” suggested Martin. “Let’s go to the treehouse!”
Now Martin had one the best treehouses in town. It was high up the largest tree in the garden, and was built sturdily on top of three thick branches. There was a ladder up from the ground to a hole in the floor, and once inside it was like a living room, with two windows to look out of and lots of toys left lying around from summer adventures.
Maya went up, then Mohammed, and then Margo. Once inside, Margo said “Where’s Martin?” and they peered out of the window to see him running from the house with blankets and pillows.
Martin handed the warm and cosy blankets through the hole in the floor and now they were as warm as they would have been inside the house.
They shone their torches out of the windows, making patterns in the snowy air outside, when then - they heard a noise.
Hummmmmm…..
And then they saw green lights, coming from above in the snowy clouds, and then purple lights and pink lights.
Martin, Margo, Mohammed and Maya shone their torches in the direction of the colored lights, trying to figure out where they were coming from. And then, through the low white clouds, came the answer.
Two metal discs, surrounded by comforting, soft light, came down and landed in the garden.
“Space ships…” whispered Martin.
Well doors opened on each of the two craft, and silver ramps extended silently to the ground. Watching from their treehouse, the four friends watched in excitement and disbelief as three slivery slimy little beings emerged from each. Three from that ship. And three from that ship. So three and three, that’s… six.
“What shall we do?” whispered Martin?
“Go… go and say hello?” shrugged Mohammed?
They all climbed nervously down the ladder into the garden and stood in front of the creatures.
The snow had stopped and lay like a thick blanket on the ground.
“Were those your signals?” said one alien.
“Signals?” asked Maya. The friends looked at each other. “What signals?”
“The signals in the sky. The signals that saved us.”
“They mean our flash light beams!” said Margo. “Yes! That was us!”
“We were lost in the white rain. But we saw your signals. You have saved us.” said the alien.
“It’s not white rain,” laughed Martin. “It’s snow!”
“Snow?”
“Yes! Look!” Martin picked up a batch of snow and moulded it into a ball. And then threw it at the alien.
“SNOWBALL FIGHT!” said Mohammed!
The aliens soon got the idea, and six creatures from outer space, versus four humans, turned out to be one of the best snowball fights ever!
“What else can we do with this snow?” said an exhausted alien.
So Margo showed them how to eat it like an ice cream. The aliens liked that!
“Oh!” said Martin. “And the best thing! Snow angels!”
All ten of them lay on their backs in the snow and and waves their arms up and down and their legs in and out in the snow until all around them were the shapes of white angels.
“Hmmmmm…”
“What’s that noise?” asked Maya.
A huge, glowing blue disc sank through the clouds and filled the whole sky.
“The mothership!” cried the aliens, excitedly! “It found us! Goodbye! Thanks for making sure we were safe and teaching us about snow!”
“Goodbye!” the four friends shouted.
“Oh, why is it called the mothership?” asked Martin.
“Because Mother’s on it. She’ll want us home for tea.”
And as the three spaceships rose up through the clouds and away to their world in outer space, Martin, Maya, Mohammed and Margo looked at each other.
“Actually, I’m quite hungry, too…” said Martin. “Warm soup and bread, anyone?”
And in they trudged, knowing that even way up in outer space, they had some new friends.
