SECTION SIX
Entry #0041: The Mysterious Lady
01-08-2009
For winter, it's been very pleasant and sunny today, but still chilly. Here's what happened earlier today.
I donned my buckskin jacket, got in my Chevy Blazer, and headed down to
the Mulvern Market to buy groceries. There in the aisles, I saw a
woman I've never seen here before. Probably a few years younger than me,
with long auburn hair and sky blue eyes, and she wore kaki pants, a
blue and green Western cut blouse, and tan, leather cowboy boots. While
I was in the produce section pretending to check out cantaloupes, she
was on the other side of the produce table checking out plums. She
looked up for a split-second and smiled at me. Then I was rudely
interrupted when a pimple-faced, teenage clerk asked if I needed help. I
turned and abruptly said “No thanks." He frowned and walked off, and
when I turned toward the new lady in town, she had left and turned down
one of the aisles.
I hesitated too long, letting that old treacherous timidity get the
better of me, but then like a fool I searched down a few aisles to find
her. I'm not sure where she went, but I took my groceries, paid for
them at the checkout counter, and left the store.
Outside in the parking lot as I put my bags of groceries on the back
seat, I looked around. There were ten or twelve other cars here. Then I
saw a tan SUV pull out and take off toward the street, and I'm pretty
sure it was the woman with long auburn hair. Her tan Ford Bronco drove
out into Mulvern Avenue and took off westbound. I had a notion to
follow her, but then that would label me a stalker.
I shrugged, jumped in my Blazer and took off. I distantly followed her,
since there were only two other cars on the main boulevard. There's
never any traffic in Mulvern; not enough people live here. Mulvern Ave
is technically also Highway 18, which she kept on, and drove down
toward the old Rocket Station at the edge of town, but didn't stop for
gas, which told me she was possibly a local - or she had fueled up
earlier.
I kept on the old Highway as it meandered along, as she continued along
this route into the west through the low buttes and foothills, until
she reached Sky High Road, an old crumbling road that was half paved and
half dirt, in dire need of repaving. Out here in the desert boonies,
street maintenance was practically nonexistent -- a work crew would
have to be hired from Victorville for major repairs. Anyway, as she
turned southbound up the road, I drove straight, not turning, just in
case she figured I was following her. I drove a mile, turned around and
headed back for Mulvern. If I kept going, I would be driving through
the Mascovi Dry Lake, then on to a formidable place called Dead Man's
Point, a place that was essentially scads of giant boulders in a pile.
My brother Greg and I used to go here when we were teenagers, and
sometimes Leo and I would play here too. Such wondrous times, those.
I stopped waxing nostalgic, and began pondering what the hell the deal
was with this lady. Since she turned up Sky High Road, and not driving
straight out of town (which would mean she was just a traveler passing
through) that meant either one of two things; she was now living in one
of the houses up that street or she was staying at the Sky High Ranch
Guest Home. I'm betting that last guess was it. So who is she and why
is she here? Is she visiting relatives or friends or what?
Then I had a creepy thought. Since this lady is new in town, is it
possible she worked for my adversaries? Sending a woman to find me
would totally through me off, naturally. That puts me in quite a
predicament, the proverbial rock and hard place. If I see her again in
town, do I stay away from her, or approach her, asking a few innocent
questions, hmmm, like, "Are you new in town?" That's dumb. How about,
"So, staying at the Guest Ranch on Sky High Road?" Now that's real
stupid, giving away the fact that I was following her. I shrugged and
decided to forget it for now. But this just gives me one more thing to
do here in the high desert. Like mull over what the hell to do about
this new lady in town.
And the main question on my mind now is, is she friend or foe?
Entry #0042: Get out much?
01-11-2009
The other day I called up Calvin and told him about the mysterious
lady, that she was new in town, and that I wanted to find out who she
is. He said I need to get out more often. He thinks I'm obsessed and
lonely. Duh!
So, Calvin already has a girlfriend, he doesn't know the meaning of the
word “lonely." Especially when you're holed up in a bomb shelter,
hiding from sinister goons, only to get out now and then to breathe the
outside desert air.
I stupidly told him I wondered if she was actually an agent of my
unknown adversaries. He laughed and said I was acting too paranoid,
that I should go ahead and find her, see where it leads. He said I
might get lucky. He was right, naturally. I hadn't been with a woman in
many years. After seven years of marriage, then dumped on my ass, then
playing the silly dating game with no real luck, getting burned time
and time again, I wearily chose a life of loneliness. Yeah, it was time
to stop being the celibate monk hiding out underground as if the end of
the world was near, if not already here. Having a female friend would
be an ideal distraction from my usual paranoia-driven melodramas.
Except that made it sound like such a distraction was a secondary
matter. Alright, if I meet her, it will NOT be a distraction -- it will
be a major event on my To Do List. Alright?
Problem is, without turning into a stalker, how do I find her so I can actually meet her? Hmmmm... Yeah, it's been a while.
Entry #0043: Ghost Encounters of the Weird Kind
01-14-2009
I've been here in the Valley for several months now, since last summer,
and have gotten to know some of the people around the Valley,
particularly in the Mulvern community, but also points beyond. Some
individuals have had some fascinating paranormal experiences or
encounters, and I've been doing interviews with my micro-recorder in
hand. Some of these people I contacted by phone if they live too far
away, since I've been getting hot tips from others, or even from
Nightlight - if I can trust him. Once I gather all this information,
I'll post them online in Zones Unknown perhaps. Of course I still have
tapes of older interviews from when I lived in Sioux Falls, so I'll
have to organize these too and get them ready to publish online as
well. They'll be called “Strange Interviews from Zones Unknown."
The last time I interviewed a fellow here in the desert, he told me a
fascinating -- yet highly questionable -- story about a ghost ship,
that is, an apparition of a UFO that hovered above his house, and he saw
three ghostly aliens beam down from it. Then they abducted his soul
but left his body lying limp on the ground. Yeah right. He didn't know
what they did to his soul, because he claims they erased his memory and
returned his soul to his body and then his body to his bed. I think
he just had a freaky nightmare -- or he just made the whole story up. I
asked him how he could even tell me this story if the aliens erased his
memory. He stammered at first, then said weakly, that a few weeks
later he had what he thought was a bad dream, but it was actually his
ghostly alien abduction memory returning to him. Yeah, uh-huh...
A few days later I met him at the Kountry Kitchen and he added more
details to his fantastic story. He told me that he suspected the ghost
aliens had turned his soul into a killing machine, unbeknownst to him,
because he had been hearing about certain murders that took place in
various towns across the Valley. He claimed his soul would astrally
leave his body and go assassinate certain people according to alien
instructions via telepathy. Yeah right! I read various newspapers from
the different desert towns, the online versions of course, including
the Mulvern Daily Press, partly in case I find anything suspicious that
may be connected to my own situation. But in the last month I haven't
seen any articles about murders, just one auto accident that led to
somebody's death. I even read the obituaries, which was sparse; mostly
elderly people had died, old age you know, but nothing out of the
ordinary popped up. So in any of these publications I saw nothing
relating to the dramatic, bloody point-blank gun-to-the-head executions
he described. So the last time I interviewed him, as he went on about
the aliens in his head and his bloody murderous rampage, I dramatically
clicked off my micro-recorder and told the guy he should write
science-fiction horror stories. I left the guy disgruntled.
So you see, I have to be careful, because there are a lot of fruitcakes
out there that want to be interviewed, telling me their wildly
incredible yarns. As if my own account here isn't wildly incredible
enough!
Entry #0044: UFO Conspiracies and Cover-ups
01-18-2009
Back in Sioux Falls, on a freelance basis I was submitting articles to The UFO Conspiracy Reader --
and then something strange happened. My own subscription of this
magazine ended without notice. That happened last May of '08. Every
month for five years I had received my copy in the mail -- then they
stopped.
Evidently the magazine ceased publication -- cold. I tried calling their
number, but only got a recording stating that it was no longer in
service -- with no forwarding number. I even went to the magazine's
web site -- and it had been pulled! Completely deleted! Did the
government do it? Or some other covert faction or agency? Perhaps the
MIB? Who? Did the questionable magazine contain one too many articles
that came too close to revealing some truth? Perhaps some of my own
articles? Were the other writers being threatened or harassed like I
have been?
Whatever unknown agencies or faction of the government was trying to
conceal the truth, they were - and still are -- doing a pretty good job
of it. In spite of the fact a large percentage of people already
believe in UFOs and alien visitation, or claim to be alien abduction
victims, nothing has been clearly proven thus far. Mainly because the
government suppresses anything related to Ufology, or it kills the
evidence so we can't see it. Of course, the government can't do
anything about our beliefs in UFOs and ETs, but I don't think they will
ever allow us the actual evidence. I've asked before in Zones Unknown,
what exactly are they hiding and what do they have to fear? Aggressive
aliens? Alien invasion? Or that the aliens are probably really ugly and
it would turn our stomachs? Certain UFO researchers, like Stanton
Freidman, claims there's a lot of evidence out there, if we know where
to look, except the clever government is usually one step ahead of us to
conceal it.
Yes, it's true that according to the Freedom of Information Act,
certain bits and pieces of information is released to us, mostly decades
old crap that has become obsolete, or it's usually filtered
information or even disinformation, I believe. The government may
claim to be releasing once classified intelligence to us, but my gut
instincts tell me they still hang on to the really juicy stuff. Their
plan is to always cover their tracks, and to create conspiracies and
cover-ups upon cover-ups. The truth is out there, and the government
doesn't want us to know exactly what it is.
Many accounts also relay that Men in Black are out silencing alien
abductees and UFO witnesses, or anyone involving themselves in UFO and
ET matters. So the mysterious Silencers are out to get us!
That oddly dovetails into my own situation. Were my UFO related
articles ruffling someone's feathers? Is it the Men in Black who are
pursuing me? I can't be sure who these mysterious dark strangers are.
But I'm afraid I may find out soon enough.
Entry #0045: The Mysterious Lady, Part 2
01-20-2009
I haven't seen that mysterious lady in the last several days when
I went down to town. I hope I run into her soon. Hey, I'm a lonely guy.
Yeah, I was married for several years, got divorced, setting myself
free to join the Lonely Guys Club.
But then the next time I went down to the Market and asked Bob the
owner about her, he just said he had never seen her before, and thought
she was just passing through. I told him I suspected she was staying
up at the Guest Home. He asked me why I was interested. I just shrugged
and said never mind, then left.
I even asked one of the waitresses at the Kountry Kitchen. She said
she'd come in here once or twice. Alright, she's still in town, didn't
leave yet. I suppose I better stop obsessing about it. Or her, rather.
I have a tendency to be shy around women. I have no problem having a
conversation with them. I can always come up with fascinating topics.
First base is always easy, its second and third base, and home plate
that's hard -- whatever the hell all that crap really signifies, I'm
not really sure anymore.
Entry #0046: Past Paranormal Phenomena
01-23-2009
I'm gonna do some flashing back again. Back in old Sioux Falls, I used
to take my micro-recorder and drive around town, looking for weird and
freaky phenomena, or following strange leads. Often I didn't find
anything. But sometimes I did. Sometimes I brought my camcorder for
interviews, but a lot of people didn't want their faces seen; they
wanted to remain anonymous, so I made more use of my micro-recorder.
There were a couple of UFO sightings, but no evidence. One guy was
obviously drunk who told me a glowing disk stopped at his house, took
his wife, and zoomed away. I followed up later, and found out his wife
had just run out on him, sick and tired of her alcoholic husband.
Sheesh!
There have been a few reports of haunted houses. One lady, whom I know
real well, told me of her account where she went to the Pettigrew
Museum, which was just an old three-story mansion that dated back to
the 1800s. She claimed that she “saw dead people," or ghosts in various
parts of the house. Whether they were actual apparitions or just
imprints is not clear. Imprints are essentially psychic recordings of
past events or individuals discovered in particular haunted locations.
Quite often, extreme emotions will cause these imprints, perhaps a
fight or a murder. And sometimes a continually repetitive act will
create an imprint. Perhaps if an individual always walks up a particular
staircase coming home, or always sings in a shower, these would cause a
groove in the psychic plane, and create an imprint that somebody might
see, especially someone who is psychically sensitive. At least that's
one theory how it can work.
I myself have seen strange things at the corner of my eye, or beings
that may or may not really be there. Or a couple times I saw a flashing
blue ball of light-energy zipping through the air, or zigzagging, right
in front of me -- and then disappearing. I'm serious! I don't know
what it was, and I don't take hallucinogenics, or any such drugs, nor
do I consume a lot of alcohol - just once in a great while. In case
you're wondering.
Anyway, I have several of these micro-cassettes in a shoebox on my
bookshelf right here in Area 57, which contain interviews of many
people, some from here in the high desert and some from Sioux Falls,
and I still have to sort through them all and create articles from
them. Talk about getting behind. Plus I usually don't set deadline for
myself, probably because I prefer the idea of a lifeline instead. Ha
ha…
While I've been here in the high desert, I have found a few people
who have claimed to witness weird things, as I've mentioned before. So
between Sioux Falls and here, I have quite a collection of strange
interviews to put online someday, for the Zones Unknown blog. Soon, if
all goes well.
Article: The Eerie Case of the Haunted Museum
Entry #0047: The Mysterious Lady, Part 3
01-26-2009
I saw her again, at the Kountry Kitchen. I came in to have breakfast
this morning and there she was sitting alone at a table. Coincidence? I
doubt it. Obviously it was meant to be.... Yeah right... Or it was a
weird synchronicity phenomenon.
Alright. I was thinking, “What idiotic thing am I going to say or do this
time?" But my timing was unfortunate, just as I sat down and started
looking at the menu, she had gotten up, done with her meal, and walked
over to the cash register to pay. I looked up shyly from the menu, she
happened to see me and smiled briefly, then had to refocus on the
inquiring cashier as she gave him the money. She turned and looked at
some touristy display case with American Indian nick-knacks within, or
pretended to. Then she looked over toward me again, smiled again,
rather shyly, then she turned and walked out the door.
Damn! I let her slip away again! It would be foolish for me to follow
her out, wouldn't it? Maybe so, maybe not. I told myself to be the fool
and just do it! Do it now!
I felt paralyzed. I looked out the window. She got into her tan Ford
Bronco, revved it up, left the parking lot and trundled down the road. I
should have followed her out, even to say something stupid like, “Fancy
meeting you here!" But it was too late. I shook my head and sighed.
No, I'm not the out-going type. I'm too introverted. I'm a member of
the invertebrates, particularly the spineless jellyfish species. Or
maybe I just have Shy Stupid Idiot Syndrome. Sad, but horribly true.
Obviously I've been keeping myself isolated too long now. I don't get
out much, you know. But I'd better start getting myself out of that
wretched hole in the ground I call Area 57, and get out and about more
often. Especially if I'm ever gonna talk to this mysterious lady. I
don't even know what her name is.
Entry #0048: Reminiscing a Past Romance
01-28-2009
Thinking about this mysterious lady reminds me of the time when I met a
different mysterious lady named Robyn, many years ago, when I lived in
San Jose, Ca. This strange encounter developed into a very unusual
esoteric and paranormal adventure. There was the experience of déjà vu
between us, the delving into the possibility of past lives we may have
lived together, and even psychic investigation into this strange
phenomenon. This all more or less revolved around a very weird mystical
group that both of us attended, with a very eccentric cult leader to
boot.
So I'm wondering if anything peculiar or even paranormal will develop
if, or when, I actually meet this mysterious lady here in the Valley. I
have no idea what might unfold when this happens, and I'm determined
to meet her and talk with her, someday soon. I'm sure it'll be much
different than my extraordinarily strange experiences with the other
lady named Robyn.
As a matter of fact, you'll find my account of this true-to-life mystical romance in Zones Unknown. (see link below)
In the meantime, I must contemplate, if not obsess over, how I'm going
to meet this mysterious lady of the high desert. It requires that I get
out more often. Out of Area 57 and into action!
Article: Romancing the Philosopher's Stone
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