It was a warm June evening in California. The full moon was glowing large in a clear sky over a quaint suburban house. Inside of this house there was a middle-aged woman sitting by her bed writing a letter to her twenty-two year old son Michael who was now in college. In the next room her fifteen-year-old daughter Gertie was on the phone talking to a boy from her school who she was interested in.
"Well, alright. I'll think about it. Thanks for calling. Bye," said Gertie before putting the phone back onto the receiver.
Gertie went into Mary's bedroom just as she had finished her letter to Michael.
"Mom, I need some advice," she said.
"On what?" asked Mary.
"Boys," said Gertie simply.
Mary smiled with an understanding nod and urged her to continue. "Go on."
"Well, Mark just called me, and he said he would be honored if I would go to this concert with him this Saturday, and afterward he said we could have dinner at a Chinese or Italian restaurant, whichever one I wanted. Was it my imagination, or was he asking me out on a date?"
"I think so," said Mary. "That was how your father first asked me on a date."
"I've never been on a date with anyone before," said Gertie uneasily.
"Is that what you're worried about?" asked Mary.
"Well, yes... kind of," said Gertie. "Also, I like Mark well enough. But he isn't the only one I'm interested in. There's Craig, who's on the basketball team. I'm wondering if I should wait and see if he will ask me out."
Mary thought for a moment and then said, "Well, the shortest way I can give you my advice is to just let your catch come to you instead of spending your life fishing around for what you want. After all, I took my chances with your father and had you and then I took a chance again with Keys and both seem to have been the best catches for me."
"So, you mean that even if it doesn't work out with Mark I can always go fishing again?"asked Gertie.
"Exactly," said Mary. "And it would be wise for you to start now while you're so young so you'll have plenty of time to decide who your soul mate is."
"Thanks Mom. You're the best," said Gertie. Then she went to call back Mark.
In the room off to the next one, Mary's eighteen-year-old son Elliot was sitting with his stepfather who everyone called Keys at their new computer and looking up the various choices of colleges for Elliot as he was just about to graduate from senior high school.
"How about this one," said Keys. "It looks like you'd be able to get a real science degree at it."
"I also want to study astronomy," said Elliot. "And maybe just take a minor in botany."
"You want E.T. to be proud, don't you?" said Keys with a warm understanding smile.
"Yeah, I do," said Elliot. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have ever met you and might not even be able to go to college now. I just want to spread all the lessons I learned from E.T. to the world."
Keys nodded. "Tell you what," he said. "You choose your own college to go to, and you do your best while there, and then you and I will both build a foundation for E.T. and everything he brought to us. You'll be my partner as we try to discover more of extra-terrestrial life and learn how to bridge the gap between our worlds apart."
"It's a deal," Elliot said with a delighted grin.
Then after they had decided on the right college to fit Elliot's aspirations they went to their bedrooms to rest for the night.
It was a few hours later, around midnight, when Elliot was awakened suddenly by a slight tremor in his bed. He sat up and rubbing his eyes he saw the half dried up flowers on his windowsill burst into full bloom. Then he looked up and saw the cardboard planets hanging on strings from the ceiling begin spinning around faster and faster.
He's come back! He thought as his heart leaped up to his throat.
He leaped out of his bed and hurried over to the window. He saw a nearly blinding set of flashing light beams hovering down into the backyard. As the lights began to soften he could make out a big round blue object coming to a landing on the grass.
Now he was sure of it and he quickly grabbed his night robe and hurried down the stairs. Once in the living room where he found Keys already hurrying towards the kitchen having felt the commotion going on outside also. Together they rushed to the back door in the kitchen and opening it they saw before them none other than E.T. himself. E.T.'s heart light began glowing in warm recognition of his two closest Earthling friends.
"E.T.! Welcome back!" exclaimed Elliot ecstatically. "I'm so glad to see you again!" He embraced E.T.
"I'm also glad to see you again sooner rather than later," added Keys with a smile.
E.T. smiled sweetly as he returned Elliot's embrace and laid his head against his neck and shoulder. "E.T. is glad to see you again, too." Then as he gently released him and Elliot from their embrace he looked at them with a most serious expression. "I have come to you because I need your help most urgently."
"You do?" said Elliot. "What is your problem?"
"It is not about me really," said E.T. gravely. "It is about my home, my planet, the Green Planet. It has somehow contracted a virus that is starting to effect many of my race there."
"You mean to say there is an epidemic going on at your home planet?" asked Keys with concern.
E.T. nodded. "Exactly. My fellows have sent me here to Earth to get the only known cure for it."
"And do you know what it is?" asked Elliot.
"Botanicus, he is our chief elder, says it is a special kind of plant that grows only on Earth. It is called Agapanthus. Do you know of it?"
"We may be able to find out more about it if we look it up in my encyclopedia on plants," said Keys.
"Then let us do so," said E.T..
Then they went inside where Keys found the encyclopedia in question in one of the bookshelves in his study. He opened it and looked through it for a short while before he landed on the name of the plant E.T. had mentioned.
"Here it is," he said. "It says here Aganpanthus is a special plant that grows a special blue or white flower that is found only in South Africa. People in South Africa known as the Xhosa consider it to be a magical and medicinal plant. They use it to treat heart disease, chest pains, tightness, paralysis, coughs and colds, and the plants leaves also help to bring fevers down."
E.T.'s eyes lit up with hope. "Those are all of the symptoms of the epidemic among the race of my planet. Now I must go to South Africa and retrieve the Agapanthus. How far is this destination from here?"
Keys then took hold of a large world globe from his desk and found the location of it. "We are right here," he said as he pointed to their exact location in California, "And South Africa is... over here." He turned the globe and traced with his finger the distance to South Africa.
Then E.T.'s eyes suddenly became downcast as he said, "Alas, the distance is too far for my spaceship to go on the weak amount of fuel it has. You see, the ones of my home who tend to the plants that make the fuel for our spaceships have all gotten the epidemic virus and can't tend to those special plants and so these plants are starting to die. I have only enough fuel to get me back home safely, and can't make an extra trip to such a far away place. Perhaps my home is destined to perish."
Two enormous tears formed in E.T.'s great blue eyes and began to slowly stream down his face. Keys at once took a handkerchief from the pocket of his robe and dried E.T.'s tears before they went down his neck.
"There's no need to cry," said Elliot. "We can take you to South Africa to get the plant ourselves."
E.T.'s face lit up again. "You can? Have you the mode of transportation to get there?"
"Well, not right here, per se," said Keys with a chuckle. "But we can get there on an airplane by going to the airport after purchasing tickets."
"What is an airplane?" asked E.T. curiously.
"It is kind of like your spaceship... except it's long and thin with wings, and it only flies to places here on Earth," explained Elliot.
"How long will it take to get to our destination on it?" asked E.T.
"Probably no longer than six hours," replied Keys. "And I'll call first thing tomorrow morning for tickets to the very next flight to South Africa."
"There's still one problem left," said Elliot. "We'll be able to get tickets alright, but what about E.T.? He is after all an alien, and not a certified citizen here."
"Well, I'm sure there is some way to bring him along safely," said Keys thoughtfully.