Aliens Among Us
These colorful envelopes are loaded with information about UFO sightings around the world, doctors who specialize in removing implants allegedly placed by aliens in people’s sinus cavities, and superintelligent children. Pat has provided me with books on understanding the trauma experienced by those contacted by aliens, books about psychic pets, Native American shamans, the mysterious and fatal power of crystal skulls–even books about aliens who live among us.
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Despite all this correspondence, Pat remains a mystery. I’ve never been to her house, and she seems to prefer it that way, electing to take public transportation home rather than accept a ride. She’s never revealed the specifics of any personal encounters she may have had with aliens, but she does acknowledge having experienced phenomena associated with alien contact. Watches stop dead on her wrist. Computers crash with inordinate frequency. Batteries are rapidly drained. Streetlamps go out in succession when she walks down the street.
Early on Pat mailed me a copy of a research paper she’d written for a class at Northwestern University. The paper referred to several UFO sightings in Lemont in 1988. I decided to check it out.
Hal Holbrecht, athletic director at Lemont High School and a part-time policeman, was in the squad car with Tom Hess. At 10:30 PM they had witnessed a beaming object quickly approach, then shoot off at an odd angle. Later, Holbrecht coped admirably with teasing from friends and colleagues who fashioned a UFO from a couple of Styrofoam plates. The momento still hangs near his desk at the high school.
Pat sat quietly for most of the lecture, taking copious notes in a spiral notebook. UFO sightings have greatly increased in the last 50 years, Fawcett said. That’s why, he reasoned, we should all be prepared. He explained that any communication with extraterrestrials would be “probably as important an event as the birth of a religious leader or Columbus landing in the Americas.” Whoever represents the human race should be prepared, keeping a cool head and making an effort to communicate.
A woman who had just joined the group spoke in Strieber’s defense. “Then why does Whitley have an implant in his head?”
