Once upon a time, not very long ago, there was a little girl who wanted very much to know someone from another planet.

Well, her parents were from right here on planet Earth. And the kids at school were from Earth. And so was everyone else she knew. She did have a friend named Kanan, who lived down the street, who was born in India. But India isn't on a different planet. It's just on a different continent.

One day, Anna talked to her uncle Ben about all this. He said that we didn't know of any beings on any other planets. But he also said that the universe was so vast that many people thought it likely there was someone to talk to out there.

Sam lived across the street, and his father had a telescope. Sometimes Sam's father would let her and Sam look through it. She liked gazing at far away stars and such. That was fun. But it didn't really help her find anyone on another planet to talk to.

One day she day-dreamed a lot about her desire to communicate with someone on another planet. She ended up staying up late watching a science fiction movie and fell asleep before it was over. Her parents carried her to bed, and that night she had a very strange dream.

She found herself in a garden, but it was different from any garden she had ever seen. The earth was a chalk white color and was mostly covered with reddish grass.

There were giant flowers which had indigo stems. The petals of each flower were many variations of some one color. One of her favorites had petals of many variations of purple.

There were little streams everywhere. The water was clear and as she expected water to be. But, in the water, there were greenish fish that seemed to roll on wheels. She thought that very odd.

Anna sat down on the reddish grass and wondered at this strange world. And then what looked like a giant teddy bear appeared from behind some flowers and sat down next to her. He didn't open his mouth, but she somehow understood him. (She thought of the bear as him, but she didn't know.) What he said was: "I heard you wanted to talk to someone from another planet. Well, here I am. What would you like to talk about?"

Anna replied in her thoughts: "Thank you for caring about my wish. What do you like best?"

The bear said: "I don't know about best, but I do very much like to swim in the water, play with the fish, and then eat flowers. And you, Anna, what do you like?"

Even though she had asked him almost the same question, she was uncertain at first. Then she found herself thinking: "I like to be with and talk with other people and beings. I like to get to know them." Then she thought, "I just realized I forgot to ask you your name. Please, please tell me your name -- mine is Anna."

"Certainly, Anna," said the teddy bear like creature, "my name is Luv -- and, unfortunately, I must now go.

Just then she woke up and realized it was morning and time to get up.

She smiled all day, and she thought: "I'll visit with Luv again."

THE END