The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree

by Slobodkin, Louis

  “Yoo-hoo,... Eddie!... Eddie!” she called from the front porch. “I’ve been thinking.... If your little friend’s going to play around with you this afternoon he’d better change into a pair of your blue jeans. Marty, your ma isn’t going to like it if you get that nice green suit all dusty. There’s a pair of Eddie’s jeans hanging on the barn door. You’d better change into them, Marty.”

  Eddie looked at the little man for a moment and worried what he was going to do.

  “Good,” said the little man and he nodded his head, to Eddie’s amazement. “Where barn?”

  Eddie led the way. They climbed over the fence which separated the barnyard from the road and they jumped over the little brook which ran alongside it, and they ran up to the barn. A few of the farm animals (the goat and a calf) and some of the geese stood around and watched as the little man changed into Eddie’s blue jeans. He took off his green jacket and hung it on a nail in back of the door. Then he stuffed a lot of the instruments and gadgets, which he had carried in his jacket, into the pockets of the jeans. At last he snapped his black box onto his belt and indicated to Eddie he was ready.

  “Good disguise — no?” He seemed pleased with himself. “Look like native American boy. No?”

  Eddie nodded, even though he thought the little man looked sort of strange with all his pockets so stuffed with gadgets they stuck out all over him and his jeans rolled up like shaggy tires around his ankles. Eddie had seen boys who looked like that before. “Ready? Come on,” he said.

  “One minute,” said the little man. He bent over and began to adjust one of the knobs on his shoes. “Speed limit — forty miles!” he suggested.

  “Now don’t go doing that,” insisted Eddie. “I’m not gonna run to the village. Nobody runs when they run on an errand. It’s not natural.”

  The little man thought a moment as he looked up at Eddie. Then he nodded his agreement.

  “Yes,” he said. “Must walk slow like native American boy.”

  To Eddie’s relief they met no one Eddie knew on the road down to the village, and there was no one but old Captain Jack himself in his general store and post office.

  “Hot enough for you boys?” said Captain Jack as they came into the cool peppery-smelling shade of his store. Then after he read Eddie’s grandmother’s note he said, “Yes, sirree. I’ll fill this order out before you can blink an eyelash. You can each help yourselves to one lemon drop out of that jar while I’m filling it. Remember, I just said just one lemon drop. And keep away from those boxes.”

  Eddie stood around uncomfortably sucking his lemon drop, praying silently that the little man would not do or say anything unusual. Fearfully, he watched as the little man wandered around the general store, looking at things and touching things.

  “Eddie,” said Captain Jack as he weighed out some sugar. “Did you hear about the Boy Scout Jamboree we’re gonna have around here out at Miller’s Pond? You’re a Scout, aren’t you?”

  “I’m almost a second-class Scout,” said Eddie. “Just gotta pass two more tests.”

  “Good boy. You’ll make it, I bet,” said Captain Jack. Then he turned to the little man. “What about you, young feller? You a Scout?”

  Eddie answered quickly before the little man could say a word.

  “Nope, not him. He’s a stranger around here. Just got here yesterday.”

  “A foreigner, eh?” said Captain Jack. “W-e-ll, ought to be a Scout. Scoutin’s good for you. Yessir, scoutin’s good for boys.”

  “Right you are,” said someone who came into the store just then. It was Mr. Pearson. Mr. Pearson was the principal of the village school, magistrate of the local court, a notary public and the scoutmaster of the village Boy Scout troop. He was a rather plump man, dressed as he always dressed during the summer months in his scouting uniform.

  “Yes indeed, Captain Jack,” he said. “You’re absolutely right. Scouting makes fine men out of fine boys. Oh, hello, Eddie, and hello there....” He nodded to the little man as he continued talking cheerfully.

  “Eddie, has anyone told you about our Jamboree next Thursday out in the pasture alongside Miller’s Pond?”

  “Yessir,” said Eddie. “Captain Jack has just been saying—”

  “Well, I do hope you come out and get into it,” said Mr. Pearson. “Of course, you’re not a member of our troop but I’ll be glad to have you with us. I’d like to have you get into some of the races. Let’s see how you city Scouts stand up against our country boys. Say, I just remembered you’re a pretty good swimmer, Eddie. I guess you might walk off with maybe a second, or even a first prize ribbon!”

  “Aw, I’m not that good,” said Eddie blushing modestly.

  “And your friend here,” said Mr. Pearson, turning to the little man. “Troop 333 would like to have you come to our Jamboree, too. Come along next Thursday with Eddie. Now, Captain Jack, is there any mail for me?”

  “Nothing!” said Captain Jack.

  “Right you are. Well, good-bye. Remember, Thursday,” said Mr. Pearson, and he snapped a three-fingered salute at Eddie and the little man and was gone.

  “Gotta lotta pep, that man,” said Captain Jack. “Here’s your grandma’s order, Eddie. I put it in two bags so you both can carry. Watch out you don’t bust that bag of sugar.”

  Eddie took one bag and the little man, after a moment’s hesitation, picked up the other.

  “So long, Captain Jack,” said Eddie.

  “So long. Don’t take any wooden nickels,” said Captain Jack with a chuckle, as he waved them out the door.

  The little man seemed thoughtful as he and Eddie plodded along the dusty road back to Eddie’s grandmother’s house. About halfway back he asked Eddie, “What is Boy Scouts?”

  Eddie explained as best he could about the Boy Scouts — what the Scouts stood for, how to become a Scout, about good turns. And he told about the Scout Oath, the Scout Handshake, the Scout Salute, the three different Scout classes — tenderfoot, second-class and first-class Scout. And just as Eddie was beginning to explain about merit badges the little man interrupted him.

  “Silence!” he commanded sharply as he looked up at the sky. There was the sound of an airplane off in the distance. Eddie could not see the plane and he could hardly hear it. The little man put down the package of groceries and hunted through his pockets. He had stuffed his equipment in the blue jeans so quickly he had forgotten where he had put things. Finally he found the little telescope and his little typewriting machine. For a moment he studied the distant plane through his telescope, then he ticked away at his typewriter. When he finished typing out his report on the airplane he had observed, he told Eddie to wait just one more minute.

  “Must arrange equipment,” he said. “This not efficient.”

  During the next few minutes the little man moved things around from one pocket in his jeans (or rather Eddie’s jeans) to the other. But he stopped suddenly. He looked at Eddie with a most peculiar expression. His usually florid face had become a sickly white, then it turned to green. It was evident something was terribly wrong. His hands raced in and out of his pockets with amazing speed.

  “Where is Zurianomatichrome Wire?” he gasped hopelessly. “Cannot find Zurianomatichrome Wire!”

  “Gosh!” exclaimed Eddie. “You sure? Did you look carefully?”

  The little man searched desperately through his pockets again.

  “Zurianomatichrome Wire not here!” he said in a hollow voice.

  “Maybe you dropped it... or something,” said Eddie.

  The little man said nothing for a moment. Then he swiftly bent down and twirled the knobs on his shoes.

  “Must return to general store,” he said quickly. “Speed limit sixty miles!”

  And he grabbed Eddie’s arm, and before Eddie could say a word he found himself flying along the road back to the village. Fortunately, there was no one along the road, no one in the village street and no one in Captain Jack’s general store that hot afternoon. Perhaps everyone
had gone fishing as the Captain had, because they found the door locked and a penciled note, tacked to the door, which said, “Gone fishing. They’re biting in Kinderhook Creek.”

  But the locked door did not stop the little man. With one sharp tap of his finger he snapped the lock and rushed through the door. In a flash he was in the general store and he whirled about every which way, searching the floor, the counters, the barrels and the shelves. He did not let go of Eddie’s arm when the door was opened and since he did not turn down the speed knobs of his shoes, they still traveled at the speed of sixty miles an hour.

  In a few minutes the little man was satisfied that the spool of Zurianomatichrome Wire had not been dropped in Captain Jack’s general store. Then he started up the road toward Eddie’s grandmother’s house again.

  “Slow up!” shouted Eddie when he finally caught his breath. “You can’t find anything speeding along like this.”

  “I can see quick!” said the little man grimly and he did not reduce his speed until they stood on Eddie’s grandmother’s front porch once more.

  “Well! Well!” said Eddie’s grandmother. “Now that was nice and prompt. You boys can have some cookies if you want some — cinnamon cookies.”

  “Grandma,” said Eddie breathlessly, “did you find something?”

  “What something?” asked Eddie’s grandmother.

  “Did you happen to see a spool of shiny wire around? My friend here lost it.”

  “A spool of wire. H-m-m,... a spool of shiny wire?” asked Eddie’s grandmother.

  “Why, yes. I think I remember seeing one lying around somewhere. Now where did I see that spool of wire?”

  Eddie’s grandmother tapped her forehead, rubbed her chin, looked up over her glasses, down under them, and then she rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. The little man and Eddie waited with bated breath.

  “Let me see now. Was it on the porch? No-o.... On the lawn? No-o.... Oh, I remember. On the barn floor! Your friend Marty must have dropped it as he was getting into your jeans. Yes, that’s where I saw it. I saw it on the barn floor. I’d gone out there to get some baling wire and...

  But the little man did not wait to find out what Eddie’s grandmother wanted to get in the barn. He ran for the barn with the speed of the wind.

  “My! My!” gasped Eddie’s grandmother. “Somebody is in a hurry.”

  “That wire’s terribly important to him, Grandma,” explained Eddie just before he too raced off to the barn.

  Eddie’s grandmother looked after them and chuckled.

  “Dear, dear. Boys do decide some of the strangest things are terribly important sometimes. Dear, dear, all this fuss over a little spool of wire.”

  5. The Search

  LIKE a whirlwind the little man had already gone through the barn before Eddie got there. The barnyard was in an uproar. The hens cackled, the geese hissed, the ducks quacked, the calf mooed and the goat raced around looking for someone to butt. The big gander stood with wings spread, neck outstretched, hissing angrily in the barn door. He stabbed at Eddie with his beak, as Eddie came through the door, and missed him by a fraction.

  Eddie found the little man scurrying back and forth across the floor of the barn on his hands and knees. He was inspecting every inch of the barn floor through his high-powered telescope. He looked (Eddie thought) very much like a large nervous mouse, darting across the floor that way.

  Suddenly he stopped and concentrated his telescope on one spot on the floor. He adjusted the telescope quickly and again peered through it at the same spot.

  “Find something?” asked Eddie.

  The little man turned his head, then he straightened up and pointed stiffly to the spot he had been looking at.

  “Microscopic dust of Zurianomatichrome,” he said dramatically. “Secret Power Z wire rest on floor here!” Then he went back to inspecting the floor which surrounded that spot. He worked carefully, swiftly, in an ever-widening circle. Again he stopped. He was very excited.

  “What you got?” asked Eddie as he crouched down beside the little man.

  “Large fragments of Secret Power Z wire here!” he shouted in a horror-stricken voice. “Someone cut wire here!”

  “Someone cut wire here today!” he repeated. His voice had risen to a shriek.

  “Dear me, yes. I cut it!” said Eddie’s grandmother as she stood in the doorway. “That’s just when I came over to tell you. I just remembered I did see that spool of wire here as I came looking for the baling wire. I had to fix the hole in the screen door you’d pushed into it, Eddie. Well, I couldn’t find any baling wire and I did see that little spool of shiny wire and I snipped a short length of it with my sewing scissors. I do hope you don’t mind, Marty. It was just a little piece.”

  It seemed to Eddie that the little man did mind! He minded very much. He jumped to his feet, his eyes flashing angrily and his mouth pressed down in a thin line. He was bursting with rage!

  “Grandma,” said Eddie in desperation before the little man exploded. “What did you do with the spool after you snipped the wire? And, Grandma, was there anyone else in the barn?”

  “Why, I just put it right back where I found it,” said his grandmother. “Did you say was there anyone else around the barn, Eddie? Why, no! Let me see.... No, no one except this old gander. Shoo away, you (she snapped her apron at the old gander as she spoke). Yes, this silly old gander was strutting around the barn and some of the baby ducks. But I didn’t see anyone else. Now, Marty, don’t you feel too bad about it. I think if you look carefully I’m sure you’ll find it.”

  With that consoling thought Eddie’s grandmother left them in the barn as she went hunting a nest of eggs the old leghorn hen had hidden away out in the bushes.

  Eddie stole a side glance at the little man. He was still boiling mad, but his anger had cooled a little. For just one moment, as his grandmother talked, it seemed to Eddie that the little man’s hand had moved toward the black box that hung on his belt. What if he had pointed that box, which he said “could destroy anything to the horizon,” at Eddie’s grandmother! What could Eddie do? What could anyone do? Eddie’s mouth became dry with horror at the thought of it!

  “Where screen door?” demanded the little man sharply.

  “Guess Grandma meant the screen door to the kitchen,” said Eddie. “I came through it fast yesterday and I guess I must have ripped it a little. I was gonna fix it but....”

  The little man had stopped listening to Eddie. He was looking suspiciously at the old gander who had returned to ,stare in at them again from the doorway.

  “This bird live here long?” he asked Eddie in a very low voice.

  “Yeah, guess he has,” Eddie answered. “Ever since I remember. Why?”

  The little man kept studying the old gander a few more seconds. Then he took out his little dictionary box and he ruffled through the luminous cards. He seemed to be looking for a number of words. At last he snapped it shut. He began speaking very carefully, weighing each word.

  “Do... United States Army... train... goosebirds... like train pigeon-birds and dogs... to spy in war?” he hissed sharply.

  “Say! What are you talking about?” Eddie almost shouted. “Listen here, that old goose is my grandmother’s goose gander. He’s been here for years, long as I can remember. And the United States Army ain’t training any gooses — geeses — geese, I mean, to spy in war! Or carrier pigeons or dogs either. Lookit here! Nobody around here is spying.”

  The little man listened with his mouth clamped shut.

  “Lookit here,” continued Eddie. “I’m real sorry you lost your spool of Zurianomati... er... what-ever-you-call-it wire. And I’m willing to help you hunt around and find it. But don’t go getting mad at people and geese. Nobody wants to hurt you and don’t you go around looking to hurt anybody else. That box there now if you go pointing that at people.”

  The little man looked down at the box. Suddenly the look of anger left his face and he looked sad, sadder than Eddie
had ever seen him.

  “This no longer weapon,” he said slowly. “With no Zurianomatichrome, this no power.” And the little man pointed to his non-gravity shoes, the bracelet on his wrist and all the other machines he carried in his pockets. “With no Secret Power Z, this no power.” He sadly shook his head.

  “But how come they have been working right along?” asked Eddie.

  “Will work for small time,” said the little man. “Must recharge with Zurianomatichrome Power regular, or no work.”

  “Oh! Like an electric battery, I guess. You gotta recharge it,” said Eddie. “This Secret Power Z might be like an extra-supercharged electricity.”

  The little man was too downcast to confirm or deny Eddie’s latest guess on the secret power of Zurianomatichrome. Suddenly as he thought of something he started for the door.

  “Where you going?” asked Eddie. “The spool of wire must be here someplace.”

  “Screen door!” shouted the little man before he dashed out of the barn. In a few minutes he was back. He held a length of the shiny wire. It was about a foot and a half long. Still clinging to the Secret Power Z wire were a few corroded black shreds of the screen door. He must have ripped it out of the kitchen door fast.

  “Here is piece of Secret Power Z wire,” he said triumphantly. He seemed pleased there was so much of it.

  “Bet he wished Grandma had snipped more,” said Eddie to himself. And as Eddie watched the little man insert one end of the wire first into a tiny hole in the side of each of his shoes, he explained to Eddie, “Now charged with Zurianomatichrome Power. Each machine with very small vacuum box.”

  Then he charged his bracelet, his tiny pinwheel helicopter and the various other little machines in his pocket. He started to insert the wire in the little black box hanging on his belt, then he looked at Eddie and changed his mind. He did not charge his terrible weapon with Zurianomatichrome Power.

  Eddie breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. It looked as if the little man was beginning to get the idea that Eddie and his grandmother and everyone else in the United States were friendly people (and friendly geese) and that he did not need his terrible weapon.