As they drove down the steep bumpy hill they could they the African village below. It was a clear and grassy piece of land dotted with houses that were small one-story huts made of wood and some were paint pale colors. As they drove closer they could see farmlands spread out among the houses with various animals of cattle roaming about.
"This looks like a nice, peaceful village," said Elliot. "I don't see how anything could be wrong here."
"Let's ask the first person we see about it," said Keys.
They then parked the jeep at the bottom of the hill and entered into the village. They had only gone a short distance when they found a small boy of about eight years old. His skin was a very dark mahogany brown, almost totally black, and he was wearing only two thick leather flaps on in front of and behind of him. He had a bright red macaw with green tipped wings on his left shoulder. He seemed to be pulling some things out of the earth in front of his house.
They walked up to him and Keys spoke to him in the Xhosa language he had learned on the way here.
"Hello, we are visitors here from America. I am Keys and this is my stepson Elliot, and our friend E.T.. What is your name?"
The boy looked up at them and spoke, "My name is Thabo, and this is Siindiwe," he nodded at the macaw on his shoulder. "We're just harvesting our crops for this year."
"I see," said Key. "That's good. We heard you're having some trouble around here. Is it true?"
"Well..." said Thabo hesitantly. "All I know is a girl in the Zulu village who I like to play with, except hers and my parents won't let us."
"But why not?" asked Keys.
"They say it is because they think our land belongs to them and they are trying to get the government to give it back to them."
"But why do they want your land all to themselves?" asked Keys.
"I've heard they say it is because they used to live here until a war of a hundred years ago split them apart. They also have beliefs that are different from ours. I'm told we are watched over by the spirits of our ancestors and that they have a different set of beliefs about a god that lives in this Zion Christian Church as I heard it was called."
"Well, what is your opinion on these things?" asked Keys.
"I really don't have one," admitted the eight year old boy plainly. "I have no idea which set of beliefs is correct, just that they can't both be right."
E.T. shook his head regretfully as he murmured, "These humans all think they're so special, just because theirs is the only planet in their solar system that supports life."
"You see, our friend E.T. here is from another planet from ours that is far out in space, millions of light years away," explained Elliot, feeling a bit awkward at admitting this to such a stranger.
"You mean... he is... from beyond the sky?" asked Thabo with his eyes wide and round.
"Well, yeah. Sort of," said Elliot.
"Oh! I've always wanted to meet one of you!" Thabo exclaimed as he dropped down onto his knees and bowed in front of E.T.. "I'm sure everyone here would want to meet you also. Why don't you come with me now and meet my friend Mhlobo, the Shaman!"
"Sure, we'd love to," said Keys.
Then Thabo led them to a very small hut in a far corner of the village outside of which they found a little old man with paling dark and wrinkled skin and long bony hands and feet sitting in front of what looked like a large old-fashioned rusty kettle with smoke billowing out from it. As they approached he looked up but did not seem to directly at them.
"He is blind," Thabo explained. "He says he sees only with his heart because of it."
They stepped up to the elderly Shaman and Thabo spoke to him. "Greetings, Mhlobo. I bring you visitors from America. Keys, Elliot, and E.T.. E.T. is a man from beyond the sky! I was wondering if perhaps you could tell me why he came to us."
The old Shaman smiled thinly and closed his unseeing eyes as he nodded slowly. "Yes, of course I will," he said in a voice that sounded a lot like E.T.'s with a South African accent.
He then reached into a pouch that was sitting in his lap and poured what looked like colored dirt into the smoking kettle in front of him. Then the smoke in the kettle became much thicker and turned pink with a strong scent to it. Mhlobo then began waving his hands over it as he peered into it with his eyes still closed. He began speaking in a slow, chanting voice,
"I see he has come to prevent a great catastrophe where he lives. But that the true reason for his being here is to save us ourselves from our destruction which we are at our own hands of."
Then the smoke in the kettle faded from pink to white again and then began evaporating.
"Thank you, Mhlobo," said Thabo bowing to the Shaman.
"Excuse me, but what did he mean by we are the ones to prevent your destruction?" asked Keys.
"He means, like I said, that everyone here would like to meet your friend E.T. because he is from the sky, and as he is a greater being to us they will have to listen to him if he tells them to stop fighting over each other's land and beliefs."
"What a good idea! Why didn't I think of it?" said Elliot.
So then, Thabo, and Keys and Elliot went around the village and told the people in to come together in one place where E.T. who they referred to as 'the great being from beyond the sky' was, and they in turn told their neighbors the same, and so on, and so on, until they were all gathered together in the one spot where E.T. was.
E.T. stood before the throngs of South African people and addressed them in a deeply serious voice.
"I am the greater being from the sky you may have heard of."
"He is a god!" exclaimed someone in the crowd.
"No! He is a spirit sent from our ancestors!"
A squabble began to break out among them, and then E.T. silenced them by flashing his heart light to regain their full attention on him.
"I am neither a god, nor a spirit," he said plaintively. "I am but a being who comes from a different world from yours as there are many other worlds beyond the sky that you know of. My people and I want only to be friends with yours, no matter what they are like. And I was sent here to deliver to you this message of peace which I wish for you to share among yourselves and your neighbors known as the Zulu. This land is neither yours nor theirs, it is only that of the Earth's and can belong to no one other than itself."
The people listened and took in this speech in an awed silence, then they were silent for a few moments more, until one man stepped forward and said,
"We promise we will abide by your wish, oh wise one from beyond the sky."
Then the other people nodded and softly murmured their agreement. Then they all turned around and headed back to their homes.
Afterward, Thabo ran up to E.T. and gave him a big hug. "How can I ever thank you enough?" he said ecstatically.
"Well, Mhlobo did mention E.T. had come here for something to save his people also," Keys reminded him.
"And what is that?" asked Thabo.
"It's a plant that you use for healing remedies called Agapanthus," said Keys. "He needs it to cure his people of a virus that is spreading across his planet in an epidemic. Do you know where we can find such a plant?"
"Certainly," said Thabo brightly. "The medicine man has it in plenty. Come with me."
He then led them to another small hut that wasn't far from where they were and inside they found a little old man wearing many pieces of native South African jewelery and garments in a native laboratory. He seemed to recognize Thabo when they entered.
"Ah, Thabo. What can I do for you today, my young friend?"
"It's not for me. It's for my friends here," Thabo said. "They need one of your Agapanthus'."
"No problem," said the tribal doctor warmly. "I have them right here."
He then took out a large wicker basket from underneath his desk and inside it was filled with long-stemmed plants with tiny white and blue flowers on them that looked exactly like the picture in the encyclopedia.
E.T. eagerly selected a handful of them.
"My home will now be saved!" he said with immense relief. He turned to Keys and Elliot and said, "You are true friends."
Afterward, they stayed the night with Thabo and his family and had a dinner of what they called "umngqusho" which was made from dried, stamped corn and beans, milk, beef, and mutton.