Artsy Contest..Judith Hearthsong

   Aleeia glanced upwards from under the foliage trying to get a quick look at the mysterious sphere that had suddenly appeared near the Green Woods.  "Ouch!!..Stop that!! Shush..don't push me Grinlee or else!" Aleeia whispered under her breath to her soon to be erstwhile friend.   Grinlee replied "Come on Aleeia, don't be a fraidy cat..what's gonna get us? From what I could see it just looks like a big ball covered in square rocks!"  " Hummpf..responded Aleeia..I am just being careful, you know the legends about this place as well as I do."

  She stepped gingerly out of the green into the open space occupied by this large round mysterious sphere.  Aleeia kept walking towards the object, stomach all a quiver..taking hesitant steps the closer she came to it.  Grinlee followed closely behind her....finally quiet.   She stopped directly in front of the object...slowly reaching out her hand to touch the bright object, ready to pull back in an instant if threatened. 

 As her hand touched the surface of the strange creation she felt herself being pulled into it...being stubborn, with her other hand she grabbed Grinlee and dragged him along too!    They felt themselves floating...flying without wings..a thought crossed Aleeia's mind.."this must be what it feels like to fly as a dragonfly flies!" She liked it, for some reason she did not feel fear, it was exhilarating, so freeing, actually as they started to land she was sorry it stopped.  Grinlee was shaking with fear, he did not like not being in control of himself..."Aleeia, find a way out now!" he said loudly.  "Shush again, Grinlee...this is something totally new to me I want to see everything, feel everything, know everything" said Aleeia.

  Aleeia surveyed the space they were in...it had a soft blue hue to it, one side ofthe room had what looked like control panels with a huge screen up above it. The floor felt like a metal, but had a weird glow emitting from it almost like a pulse.  She crossed over to the panel and without a second thought she pressed the largest button on the panel..Woosh!!! Another panel appeared and a strange looking purple creature stepped into the room and started walking towards them.  Oh, no, she thought just what did I do?   Aleeia studied the creature as it slowly approached them..it was roughly 5 ft. tall, looked to be about 95 lbs. had this strange fur-like purple hair spiking from different aspects of his/it's body...oh, but the face..if you could call it a face, it had one eye, huge black unreadable, no nose to speak of...there was a mouth, a terrible looking mouth, filled with tiny pointy teeth!!  The ears were pointy, the hands had fingers but claw like.  Aleeia, even as young as she was, realized that this was nothing ever produced on planet Earth.

  They had come so far now to discover the mystery of the Sphere...they had to know.  She had to conquer her fear of the unknown, charge ahead and find the answer!   "Hello, this is planet Earth, where are you from?" Aleeia said in her best English.  Grinlee had stepped to the side of Aleeia, thereby putting her between him and the creature. The little creature brought his hand up to his throat to adjust a strange metal device at his throat..."Hummm..zebat du? NOn, parle vous? Nihongo? English?"...Aleeia..yelled "Yes, English!!..wow you are speaking English!! Where are you from, hope you are friendly, what are you doing here, how long have you been here? How long are you going to stay?"

  The little alien shook it head, actually his whole body shook and said "sloww sloww speaking...need learn."  "I'm so sorry I just get so excited I forgot this is new to you too" said Aleeia.  Go slow and tell me your story please....   I am called Meerac I come from another place and time, way in your future from far out in space. I landed here by mistake, I was supposed to cross your Milky Way to the beyond Universe - I quess in your language I zigged when I should of zagged...Meerac made a gesture, similar to a shrug in a human. I think I damaged my ship when I landed so I may be here for quite awhile trying to repair it.   "Wow...you learned English real fast! said Grinlee...Meerac sort of uttered a laugh, saying "No, No..this device, as he touched his throat, makes me hear the right words to say."

 Aleeia by this time had lost almost all her fear of him..saying "How can we help you? What do you need to repair your ship?"  Meerac replied "That's very welcoming of you to offer your help...I've damaged the tiles on the outside of the sphere. I need about 40 to 50 square & rectangle bits of turquoise stone....it has to be replaced or the ship will not make the jump into hyperspace."

  Meerac..how did we get into the ship? All I did was touch the outside of it"..Aleeia asked.   Meerac rocked back & forth a bit, thinking, finally he said..."You are made of small bits, pieces..atoms...they broke apart and passed through my ship...forming again on the other side".   "Holy Crap!! It's just like on Startrek, Beam Me Up Scotty!! Wow!! Never thought I could say that to someone...said Grinlee".  He had finally lost all fear of this little creature and his huge smile reflected the moment.

Aleeia was a little perplexed as to what to do next.  She knew that she had to get her parents involved, as she was too young to be able to obtain the materials that Meerac needed. "Listen Meerac I will have to go to my parents for help...how do we get out of here?   Meerac looked down at the floor saying look for the lighter spot and stand on it...soon you will be on the outside again.
They said goodbye tohim and stood on the lighter circle soon they were flying again through time and space, finding themselves sprawled on the fragrant green grass outside of the mysterious blue tiled sphere.   Aleeia and Grinlee picked themselves up, running towards home as fast as they could. 

They entered the house yelling.."Mom, Mom where are you?"  Hearing noise from the kitchen they ran in that direction...opening the kitchen door they saw the Constable of the town speaking to Aleeia's parents.  "That was some light show last night wasn't it? I think something hit over by the Green Woods, I'm heading over that way in a bit to investigate." said Constable Williams.   Aleeia and Grinlee gulped a bit, looked at one another and said at once in a loud voice.."We've been there, we've seen it, it's big and blue....he needs our help!" Aleeia's mother turned to look at the children, seeing them breathless and tumbled she asked "Just what are the two of you up to now? Who needs our help?" 

 Aleeia..sputtered the entire story out within minutes, with Grinlee vigorously nodding his head in approval of her tale....the three adults in the kitchen just shook their heads not knowing what to believe.   Aleeia's Dad said "How can this be? Of All the people on this planet, this happens to us? How do you know he's really friendly?"  Aleeia said "No, Daddy..he's little, he means no harm just wants to go home....sort of like E-T did..except he's not calling for help, he's asking us to help him."  "OK, let's take a little trip to the Green Woods, is that okay with you Constable Williams?"  Constable Williams was a good natured fellow, and quite frankly thought the kids were pulling their legs a bit...so he said he would go along too.

   So the five of them proceeded toward the Green Woods...as they got nearer they could see the gleaming mysterious round object resting on it's side on the beautiful green grass.  "I almost didn't believe you" said Aleeia's Dad..."It's alright Daddy I wouldn't of believed myself yesterday either" said Aleeia.  She said we all need to hold hands and don't break the link...they did as she said and in the blink of any eye they were all flying through space, twirling, floating, spinning...they all came to a sudden stop and found themselves inside the little control room again.  

 Meerac was in a little cubicle on the farside of the room...he rose to meet them as they approached him...Aleeia said "Meerac, these are my parents and an important man from my town...I brought them to talk to you to see how they can help you."  Meerac "hello, the little ones are very helping if you please...can you help also to get my ship ready for space?" Constable Williams said "We can try to help, I'm not sure of what you need...we have to be careful not to let the outside world know of you...there would be people who would not be helpful to you."

  "We need to get about 40-50 pieces of rectangle turquoise stone flattened like tiles to replace what was damaged on the outside of the ship"...said Aleeia.  "Oh, boy that's going to be difficult and expensive"..said her father. Meerac shook his head, again his whole body shook too...he said for them to come closer to his console, he pushed a few buttons, pulled a lever or two and in the blink of an eye..lo and behold...was a huge, beautiful diamond!   Aleeia clapped her hands in glee, Grinlee started giggling, Aleeia's Mother gasped at the size of the stone..but Dad understood that Meerac had found a way to pay for the turquoise that he needed desperately. 

 So the little group came together, found the materials and helped the strange little creature from space rebuild his spaceship...all the while keeping it secret so that the outside world would not threaten the little alien.   The day came for Meerac to test his craft, if successful he was leaving immediately.  Goodbyes at this point were a bit painful for Aleeia and Grinlee. They really didn't want the adventure to end.  Meerac took Aleeia aside, asking her what if she could have anything in the world what would she want?

  Aleeia, barely twelve years of age had never really given thought to having any wish of hers fullfilled.  She was a loving child of this universe, wanting to believe in unicorns, dragons, angels and magic....she blurted out .."Peace, I would have world peace, no more hatred, no more fear...just lovely peace.."   Meerac placed an object in her hand, it was a miniature of the mysterious sphere that they were in...he told her that all she had to do was hold the sphere, press on it's sides and her fondest wish would come true.  Meerac said "I want to thank you all for helping me, I was not supposed to make contact with anyone..not even be here...so I thank you for not telling about me."

  With that he entered the blue sphere, they backed away a bit as it started to vibrate faster and faster until it was nothing but a blur...snap! it was gone!  

 Aleeia explained to the group about the gift that Meerac had left for her.....she looked up at her Mom and Dad saying "Should I try it now?"  They formed a circle around her with her in the middle holding the mysterious blue sphere as she pressed the sides and wished for world peace.....suddenly a glow was emanating from the sphere it got bigger, bigger and bigger....the glow was spreading across the land as fast as the speed of light.   Aleeia asked "how will I know that it's working?"..."Oh, honey believe me we will know her parents said in unison...The next day odd things started to happen, neighbors who had been feuding suddenly were hugging each other on the street, soldiers in war torn countries were laying down their arms, saying war is over, Israel and Palestine announced a peace settlement..with everyone in accord, people stopped hating each other for no reason, there was harmony and joy throughout the world....all due to one little girl who had no fear of the mysterious blue sphere.  

http://journals.aol.com/judithheartsong/newbeginning