IT WAS A BEASTLY HOT JULY a long time ago and the sound of laughter came drifting across the cornfield on the little bit of breeze that was in the air. It was coming from Moonface Wellington and his friends. It was Moonface's thirteenth birthday and his parents had thrown him a party. And everyone was having the time of their lives, as they usually do whenever Moonface was around.

They were playing hopscotch, rounders, hide-and-seek, Jacks. Some children were even playing doctor under the watchful eye of the older folk from a distance.

Everybody loved this little boy named Moonface. His real name was Maurice, but he had the roundest face and the biggest and brightest eyes this side of the mountain. Just like a full moon. So affectionately they called him Moonface.

Now the following year just before his fourteenth birthday Moonface started to get sick. But no one really took it on, because he was a strong boy and he always bounced back in a couple of days. But this sickness didn't seem to want to leave him this time. They tried every remedy in the book, but nothing appeared to work. They took him to the local doctor, even that seemed futile.

Then one morning like magic he got up and was as well as well can be. The sickness had disappeared just like that, and he was back with his friends doing all the things he loved to do.

But about a month later, bam, the sickness returned. This time it came back with a vengeance. He got weak, he started to lose weight, his eyes dimmed. Some days he couldn't even move. He just wasn't the old Moonface everybody knew.

Eventually they brought in a specialist who discovered he had a fatal disease that there was no cure for. It was a disease that was spreading throughout the world at a rapid pace, and somehow Moonface contracted it. Well, when people heard Moonface had this illness, everybody immediately became magicians and slowly started to disappear. His best friends stopped coming out to his farm to play because their parents wouldn't allow them.

Then curiosity got the cat. They all wanted to know how he got the disease. His parents said, "It's not important how he got it. The fact remains he has it and we have to deal with it." His parents told them over and over it's not an easy disease to catch. You cannot get it from touching, or from a glass, or from caring and showing some love.

His mother told them all the ways the illness is spread. Gave them all the material necessary for educating. But that wasn't enough.

The people of the town wanted Moonface out of the school, out of the playground, out of the gym, out of the pool. They picketed. They stopped buying corn from Moonface's father. Their faces changed. Moonface couldn't understand it. People that he loved and played with all his life, all of a sudden, didn't want to be around him.

Then strange little things began to happen. One day the family went into town to do some shopping and when they came out of the store the tires from their car were slashed.

One night they were coming home from a little night drive and as they were approaching their farm they saw a red sky. It was the toolshed. Someone had set it alight. Thank God it wasn't close to the house and the wind wasn't high that night.

The three of them just stood there and watched. They didn't even make an effort to put out the fire. They just sat on the porch and watched the shed go up in smoke.

"The human race is a strange race," the mother said.

And they calmly went inside and had a cup of cocoa. Moonface became weaker and lonelier as the months went by. His parents didn't know what to do. It was the saddest farmhouse this side of the mountain.

Then one night Moonface was lying in his bed, and the way he had positioned his bed, he could see right through the window all the way up to the moon and the stars. And you could tell the moon was keeping him company that night because the beams were shining right back onto his face, lighting up the room. That became one of his favourite pastimes. Painting pictures with the stars.

Then all of a sudden that night there was a quick darkness that flashed across the moon. He jumped up and ran to the window. And what he saw was a ball of light speeding toward the earth. It looked like a million candles rolled into one. And it just kept falling and falling until it disappeared behind the little hill across from the cornfield. Well, right away Moonface got excitedly curious. He quickly bundled up himself, put on his hat, and out the house he crept trying his level best not to wake his parents. And across the field he trotted like a tired little pony,

When he got to the top of the hill he thought he was going to faint. It was the most energy he had used all week. His head started to spin. He had to sit down. Slowly he reached for the ground, and as his bottom touched the grass he noticed a figure coming up the other side of the hill toward him, shining a light. It was a strange-looking light, filled with bright magnificent colours, similar to a rainbow. As the figure got closer and closer to him, Moonface noticed that it was just a little boy the same size as him, and the beautiful light was coming not from a flashlight but from the palm of his hand.

Well, Moonface was so surprised to see a little boy coming up the hill with light beaming from the palm of his hand that he didn't have time to get frightened. And in the blinking of an eye, the little boy gently lifted his hand and shone the light right into Moonface's eyes, and the next thing Moonface knew they were both sitting on top of the hill chatting and laughing, and he never remembered anything about the light shining from the boy's hand. It was quite extraordinary. It was as if they had been friends from the day they were born.

Moonface asked him what he was doing out in the fields at this time of the night, and if he had seen a ball of fire falling from the sky. The little boy said he didn't see the ball of fire, and that he was a new neighbour. They sat on that hill and the little boy asked about a thousand questions and Moonface answered about a thousand and one. Time just seemed to stand still for a little while.

They planned to meet the next day at the same spot. The following morning after breakfast he was back on the hill. His parents couldn't understand the sudden strength Moonface had gotten. This went on for about two weeks. Every time he came back from playing with his new friend on the hill, he would comeback stronger and happier than when he left.

Then one day he brought the little boy home to meet his parents. The parents were happy because the change in Moonface was because of his new friend. But they found it quite strange that every time they asked him where he lived, he would casually lift his fingers to the heaven and say, "Out there." So the parents thought that that was just some modern-day young people's slang for "Don't ask me my personal business." And so the case was closed.

Then one day Moonface and his friend decided to go into the town. Something Moonface had stopped doing since the day his father's car tires were slashed. Moonface was having a great time showing his friend around the sights. Then all of a sudden, he noticed people were staring at them. He heard a familiar voice say, "He must have the same disease as little Moonface. That's why they are friends." Moonface's heart just sank. Because he had never told his friend that he was sick. And sweat started to form above his lips. His friend noticed the change and asked, "What's the matter?" Moonface looked at him and, with all the honesty in his heart, said, "Once I used to have many friends. You see, I'm going to die. I have an illness that there is no cure for as yet. And I was afraid if I told you..." And before he could finish saying what he had to say, the little boy put his hand up, smiled and said, "I know you are ill." Then he put his arm around Moonface's shoulder and they kept on walking through the town.

After they strolled in silence for a little while, Moonface asked, "How did you know?"

"Come to the hill tonight around midnight," the little boy said, "and I will tell you."

That night when Moonface got to the top of the hill, there his friend was waiting. His friend took him down the other side of the hill and they headed through a wooded area until they came to a clearing.

Then the little boy looked at Moonface and said, "Remember that night you saw the ball of fire?"

"Yes," Moonface said.

"Well that was my ship. I'm from out there."

"I knew it," Moonface shouted. "I knew it."

"I knew you knew it," said the little boy. And they started to laugh.

"You can't see it, but it's over there, hovering above the clearing." And all of a sudden the rainbow beam started to shine from the palm of the little boy's hand, and he aimed the beam toward the space above the clearing, and very slowly, very slowly, a ship started to appear, flooded with beautiful blue lights.

Then at the top of the ship a huge door began to open, as if it had all the time in the world. And like magic, a silver-green ramp just floated out of the ship and came to rest upon the ground. All by itself.

The little boy stepped onto the ramp and he said, "I must go back to my home now. Come with me." And immediately Moonface started to remember the wonderful times he used to have before people became scared of him. The time he used to swim in the streams, fish with his friends, play tag, or simply pick the corn in the field. Moonface stepped onto the ramp and started to follow his friend. Then his friend stopped and without turning he said, "But you know one thing?"

"What's that?" Moonface asked.

And very slowly his friend turned and looked at him and said, "We will never comeback this way again you know. If you come with me, you will never be able to return to earth. Because when I leave this galaxy I cannot return. I came here by accident."

And Moonface just kept walking toward him. It was as if he didn't understand or hear what his friend had said. Then all of a sudden Moonface stopped, and tears began to form in his eyes, and he turned and started to head back down the ramp.

"Come with me," the little boy said.

"Where I'm going no one will scorn you. Where I'm going there's a cure for what ails you."

Moonface stopped, turned around and their eyes met. "No. I can't," he said.

"Why?" asked the little boy.

"Because I have to give them a chance."

"But they don't love you because you are sick, different."

"I know," said Moonface.

"But one day they will. One day they will come to understand. And they won't be frightened anymore. And I also believe we will find a cure."

And his friend looked at him and smiled and said, "Ah, my little earthling, you do have faith in the human race. I'm glad you are the one I met."

And all of a sudden the ramp started to float up to the sky, and slowly descended to the ship. And just before it disappeared,

Moonface shouted out, "Stop!" And the ramp stopped. Moonface ran closer to the ship. The lights powdering his face with a blue tint.

"What is your name?" he shouted.

"We never exchanged names."

"Where I am from they call me Moonface," said his friend.

"That's my name tool" screamed Moonface with laughter.

"I know," said the little boy.

And the ramp continued down into the ship and the door closed. With a sudden spark the ship just shot up into the sky like a million candles rolled into one. Moonface stood there for the longest while just looking up into the starry darkness. And with a smile on his face he calmly turned and went back to his home.