What's He Doing in There?

"What's He Doing in There?" by Fritz Leiber is funny science fiction about when the first Martian comes to Earth and hides in the bathroom, creating a whirlwind of confusion for a cultural anthropologist and his family. The story looks at how silly it can be when humans and aliens meet, especially when clueless about each other's cultures. It all starts when the Martian gets here and then disappears into the bathroom, staying there way longer than expected. The family wonders and worries about what he could possibly be doing. The worry gets bigger and bigger while the family tries to guess what's going on. When the Martian finally comes out, totally happy and unaware of all the stress it caused, it shows how hard it is to understand someone completely different.