Once upon the nighttime, a boy named Hugh awoke in his big bed. The blankets covered him with their dark warmth, and all the world was quiet.

Then somewhere beyond the shadows of the wall, there whispered a voice. It said his name slowly, "Hugh. Huuuuu. Huuuuu."

Hugh opened his eyes a little. Again the voice softly sang, "Huuuuu. Huuuuu."

When a gentle wind blew open the curtains of his window, the child saw a blue glow shining into his room. He pushed away the bed's heavy quilt and sat up, wondering whether it was the wind that was making the sound.

As Hugh sat up from his bed and walked toward the window, the light seemed to become brighter. It was as blue as his eyes, and it made the window look clear like no window he had seen before.

He looked outside. There was blue star. It was shining from the horizon where the dark night sky touched the ocean.

From his window, Hugh looked down the hillside, past the woods, beyond the field, to this strange blue light. Again he heard his name, "Huuuuu." The sound came from the horizon, as though the star itself called him.

He put on his new white pants and a light shirt, and climbed out his window.

Hugh laughed with excitement about the star he saw and the sounds he heard.

He walked carefully in the darkness, and wished he had wings to fly above the stones and trees, to the star he saw shining. Its light helped him to find the path that led to the sea.

As he walked slowly past the gates of his home, he heard the sound again. It said his name slowly, "Huuuuu." The sound seemed like an echo from his own voice. And then he said his name -- and his voiced seemed like an echo of the sound, all singing, "Huuuuu."

The blue starlight reflected from the tree leaves and made everything look blue somehow. And Hugh noticed that everything was shining some of the light to him. His eyes were blue, and so was the earth.

He sat on a fallen tree that was lying on the ground, and he leaned against the small tree that was growing from the old one's stump.

Above his head, he heard something.

The sound was like a flute, if flutes could sing. And it sang his name, "Huuuuu." He looked into the tree, and saw a bird raising its beak to the night wind. From its white throat, in the blue light, came the sound of the child's name.

He gazed, and the bird sang on. Then it stopped and looked at Hugh. And it flew away into the blue darkness toward the star over the sea.

From somewhere beyond the bird's flight, the sound of "Huuuuu" continued.

Hugh stood up and again started to walk down the path, through the forest.

Because of the starlight, everything was blue and shades of blue. Tree limbs were turquoise. Indigo was the color of fallen leaves. Purple stones lay in the path where Hugh walked. As he went out of the forest and into the meadow, every flower was violet.

He listened. From the flowers, he thought he heard the sound of bees, but he saw none. He listened more closely. Behind the buzzing sound, he heard a soft "Huuuuu," as though there were two voices singing together in harmony.

The buzz was soon lost in the sound of a heavy wind, although there was hardly enough wind to rustle the grass that swept by his legs as he walked.

He continued toward the beach, where the blue light seemed to dance across the waves. Each wave sparkled for a moment and vanished, as another appeared -- and vanished. He saw the blue star shining clearly on the horizon.

Hugh wondered how one star could be so bright -- bright enough to make him forget all the others in the sky. He looked up at them, and they glimmered dimly, as though it was just his thoughts of them that made them real. They faded away completely as he looked back at the blue star, at the light that seemed to call his name.

As he walked, he heard the sound, "Huuuuu," in the deep tone of thunder, although no clouds were in the sky. It was not thunder; it was a loud sound of the sea's waves, for Hugh had reached the water's edge. He stood like a statue cast in blue light.

Waves from the horizon splashed onto the beach, as though they wanted to touch the child, to carry him gently to the sea, then return him again.

Above the ocean's thundering sound, he heard the call of his name, "Huuuuu."

His blue eyes gazed deeply into the blue star, and the brilliance suddenly brightened into full daylight. He stood alone beneath a blue sky, before a blue sea. He looked for the star that had seemed to color the entire world -- as though it actually had created this day of the world.

Hugh listened for his name, and he wished to say it. When he drew in his breath to speak, before he did speak, the air itself seemed to say, "Huuuuu." And the sound echoed from the sky and the sea and the hillside where he had left his home.

Then the child, with all the song in his heart, sang sweetly and as loud as he could, "Huuuuu."

The sound of his voice sailed across the water on a hundred sparkles, and returned to him in a thousand more.

It rose into the air, and rained down onto him in blue shades of rainbows. It rushed across the sand, and raced back on singing wings.

And all the light and all the sweet sounds of this world were created just for Hugh.