No Doubt About It

I recently had what I can only describe as a close encounter of the third kind with a being from another planet.
I was driving home from the town where I work as a medical receptionist to the village where I live about 5 miles away and I always have to take this winding back road that leads past acres of farmland and, in the middle of an open field, I saw what looked to me like a giant ladybird.
At first I thought it was some kind of art sculpture, you know, like the angel of the North, or perhaps part of some travelling carnival but then, parking my car by the side of the road and getting out, I crossed the road to have a better look and then, well, then I saw what I can only say was a plastic man repairing the outside of a ladybird shaped alien space craft, going over it with some kind of ray that took away a large hole in the ships hull as if the ray was mending it on a molecular level.
He must have sensed I was watching because then he turned round and, heading towards me reached into a holster at his side and drawing a pistol from it, fired something into me like a sort of dart.
At first, upon being struck with the dart I screamed and was terrified, but then he spoke to me in English.
"Please don't be afraid, human", he said, "I have only shot you with a translator dart. It will translate everything I say into your language and vice versa. My name is Wexall and I am an Artificial Organism".
"You're a robot?", I asked, amazed.
"No", said Wexall, "I am an organism made of inorganic substances. I have skin and vital internal organs and a brain just like you but they are made from plastic cells rather than organic ones".
I commented that he did have the appearance of a plastic doll.
He smiled, good humouredly but then he explained that he had only landed upon my planet to make repairs to his ship.
"You haven't come to visit us? Bring us some sort of message of wisdom?", I asked.
"No", said Wexall, "You see I was journeying to another galaxy entirely but then I had a problem with the cargo I was carrying".
"What kind of cargo?", I asked
"Well, its slightly embarassing really", he said, "I was transporting a replicating fuel source. It is a very precious commodity upon my planet; a primitive silicon based organism or rock creature that feeds and replicates but which we burn as fuel. Unfortunately, if not contained properly, the creature can be very dangerous and that is what happened to my ship; one of the rock creatures escaped and ran amok inside causing a lot of damage and forcing me to land".
But then I saw it. The strange rock creature he had described, like a large boulder with glowing eyes of crystal, rolling towards his ship and crashing into it.
Turning, he fired his strange pistol at it, but it was not a dart he fired this time; it looked like some kind of silver beam.
"Don't worry", he said to me, "This gun fires beams of solid magnetism. It will make the rock creature withdraw".
Then just as the space visitor said the living boulder rolled backwards away from his ship but then I saw it roll off across the field.
"I have to get it back on board my ship", he said, "If you'll excuse me".
"Well is there anything I can do to help?", I asked, thinking that I didn't really want a giant rock creature rolling around the British countryside.
"Hmm?", said the alien, thoughtfully, "Perhaps".
Then the alien showed me how to use his special magnetic gun. It didn't have a trigger like a normal gun, you had to fire it by thinking.
"If you think of a force field or a net, it will throw a force net over the rock creature so then I can levitate it back onto my ship", he said.
"Oh", I said, "Well I think I can do that but what are you going to do?".
"I'm going to be bait for the trap", said the alien, "You see the rock creature eats inorganic material and I am made from inorganic material. If I pretend to be dead, it may try to eat me".
"Oh thats very brave of you", I said.
"Its not brave", said the alien, smiling, "Because I trust you will do your part well".
But then the plastic man went and lay down, sprawling out in the middle of the field, pretending to be dead and when he did the living boulder came back, rolling towards him and I, raising the alien gun and aiming it at the rock creature waited trying to think of a net being thrown over it.
However, firing a mentally controlled magnogun is harder than it looks and at first all I could think was,
"I'm going to mess this up, I know it and that poor alien man or what ever he is is going to be killed" and when I said this, instead of a net coming out of the gun, all that came out was what looked like a holographic projection of myself holding the gun and looking terrified.
"Don't think about yourself", said the alien, "Just think of a net".
"Right", I said, "A net".
Fortunately then, taking aim again, this time I did manage to think of a net; a big fishing net being thrown over the rock creatures body and when I did, suddenly, a giant net of solid magnetism came out of the end of the gun and encircled the creature just in time to stop it rolling ontop of and eating the alien man.
"Thank goodness", said the man getting up off of the ground and hurrying towards me, "Now keep thinking of the net, don't stop thinking of it or it'll get free again".
Thankfully, I didn't have to keep thinking of it for long before the alien man, putting his hands upon the gun, skillfully took control of it with his mind and then, letting go of its handle I saw him use the gun to lift the rock creature up in its net and, a large door sliding open in its side, carry it on board his ship.
But then, when he had placed the rock creature back into some kind of forcefield container, he turned to me and said,
"Thank you very much. I really couldn't have managed that without you and now I can continue my journey".
"Oh", I said, sadly, "I hoped that you might stay and perhaps we could contact my government and you could talk to them. There are lot of people on Earth who have waited a long time to make contact with an alien".
"Don't worry", said the alien, placing a small metallic bracelet upon my wrist, "When I have finished my business with the rock creature I will return and use this bracelet to locate you".
But then the alien pilot got back into his ship and, as he waved to me, the ladybird shaped space craft rose up into the air, its ladybird shell opening up and becoming wings and then, tilting itself upwards to face the skies it shuddered for a moment and then disappeared as if flying off faster than the speed of light.
Sometimes, when I remember it, it seems like a dream and I wonder if I imagined it all but then I look at the bracelet he left me and I know, no doubt about it, one day, my space traveller will return.