Tamsin and the Travellers' Stone
I never gave a second thought to the stone that sat on Tamsin’s bedside locker other than she might be using it as a paperweight. It was about 3½ inches in diameter and a 3/4 inch in thickness. One day out of curiosity I asked where the stone originated from. Tamsin said her father discovered the stone in an antique shop when passing through New Mexico near a place called Roswell. He had concluded an official visit to America in his capacity as a minister of the Northern Ireland Government and was sightseeing around America before returning home.
The shop owner could not confirm the origin of the stone or its purpose, or even if it had a purpose. The gentleman who found the stone in the desert said he thought it might have been a native American relic. One must question how such a ‘relic’ could be made by a native American who lacked the technology to carve such an intricate, delicate pattern of an astrological design into extremely hard stone. I understood they were hunter-gatherers and rode horses across, well whatever it was they rode across.
Tamsin said her father pointed out that if one were to hold a magnet very close to one end of the stone it would move the orientation of the stone in one direction and holding the magnet at the opposite end of the stone would move the stone in the opposite direction, which was strange as her father said the stone after tests showed no magnetic properties at all, and had no magnets buried inside. That was the end of the matter or so I thought.
It was about a year or so later scientist Professor Stanton, the leading scientist from the Deep Space Tracking Station at Downton Heath, was giving a science lecture to the sixth form girls on NASA’s decision to retire the space shuttle and refine a new form of propulsion for the latest generation of deep space vehicles.
During the lecture, Jessica put her hand up and called out “Sir, Sir”.
“Yes, who am I speaking to?” acknowledged the Professor who appeared unconcerned about the interruption.
“Jessica Wyndham sir. Why is it that questioning the possibility of other intelligent civilizations and extraterrestrial visitors to earth is never discussed on television science and space programmes, yet we know they are here. They have been seen and have been visiting for a long time so why are they never spoken about by the media?”
“Miss Wyndham, that is the first time I have been asked that question and I might add it is an extremely difficult question to answer. You must understand one must be extremely careful answering such a question as it can put a scientist at odds with his peers, which then leads on to the subject of conspiracy theories and they could find themselves ostracised”.
Tamsin, sitting in the back row and not realizing Miss Pringle was sitting immediately behind her, moved her head close to Phaedra’s and giggled “does that mean they will be unable to have children?”
Miss Pringle leaned forward and whispered to Tamsin “one more comment like that Miss Lacey and you will find yourself waiting outside Miss Sefton’s office”.
Jessica continued “does that mean we are not being told the truth?’
“There you go, Miss Wyndham. If I were to say yes, the story will make the front page of the newspapers tomorrow. The headlines will scream a ‘space scientist commented during a science lecture to the students at Denham Hall Ladies College that the public is not being told the truth. Other intelligent life DOES exist’ and with it goes my reputation in the science community”.
We were not going to get the truth from Professor Stanton. Mr Crisis assured us there were many civilizations in various stages of evolution like ours among the trillions of galaxies in the universe. That was good enough for us. Professor Stanton’s reputation was safe. We knew the answers.
Mr Crisis, our science teacher, could have answered any of these questions as he was one of these travellers that the scientist was hedging his bets and avoiding like the plague to give his honest opinion on. I have explained about Mr Crisis in previous stories.
Very briefly, Mr Crisis applied for the vacant position of science teacher when Miss Cribb resigned to get married. Whether it was revealed during his interview that he was a visitor to this planet I cannot say as I was not at the interview. This was a surprise he later confided to the girls on securing the science teacher’s position.
Jessica said she thinks Miss Sefton may have taken pity on him thinking he was homeless and offered him the caretaker’s empty accommodation, not realizing he had just arrived here and had no opportunity to find his own accommodation. I really couldn’t say.
This lecture would have been right up Tamsin’s alley. She is always seeking the truth. I remember when we were in the junior school during lights out in the dorm she once asked why are people so afraid to ask such questions like who was the first person to actually pluck up enough courage to eat a chicken’s egg knowing full well where it came from.
I shiver just thinking about it. She said, “for heaven’s sake, it is not as if one is asking delicate questions on private and personal bodily functions that discretion dictates that one does not discuss”.
She was in full flight; she questioned “why do dogs chase their tails when badgers don’t, and do squirrels dream? Furthermore, I have no idea why these questions and others are never discussed openly on science and natural history shows without fear, ridicule, controversy, and threats to one’s life”.
I really had no answer.
Now back to Tamsin’s stone. The stone her father bought in a shop near Roswell he assumed was not the original one but a copy of the original that was being sold to tourists as being proof of alien visitation.
What was very strange was the carving on the stone was the same as a crop circle discovered in the UK, a continent away. Now that is quite a coincidence in anyone’s books.
Charlotte said “It seems we are not ready to be told the truth. To believe that we are the only intelligent species living on trillions of planets that circle trillions of suns is ludicrous”.
I suggested to Tamsin the stone she possessed might be the original stone that was brought here by one of these travellers which he…or her dropped and might possess properties we are yet to discover.
Charlotte weighed in saying “Yes and one night when you are in bed asleep Tamsin you just might find on awakening a seven-foot-tall creature with a long tail, scaly skin, pointy teeth and huge eyes looking to retrieve his or her personal belongings a foot from your head”.
It might have been a coincidence but after that remark, the stone never again saw the light of day and was moved to the bottom of Tamsin’s locker.
Gentle readers, you can trust me on this one. You are not being told the truth. You can rest assured this crop circle in Chiseldon, Wiltshire which is a quarter of a mile long, and like many others, was not created in a farmer’s field by a couple of inebriates ‘Smudger’ Smiff and ‘Chalky’ White using just a couple of fence palings and a length of rope and constructed during the hours of darkness, after being poured out of the Red Stag at closing time, purely for the purpose of ‘aving a bit ‘a fun and to annoy the hell out of the farmer.
The shop owner could not confirm the origin of the stone or its purpose, or even if it had a purpose. The gentleman who found the stone in the desert said he thought it might have been a native American relic. One must question how such a ‘relic’ could be made by a native American who lacked the technology to carve such an intricate, delicate pattern of an astrological design into extremely hard stone. I understood they were hunter-gatherers and rode horses across, well whatever it was they rode across.
Tamsin said her father pointed out that if one were to hold a magnet very close to one end of the stone it would move the orientation of the stone in one direction and holding the magnet at the opposite end of the stone would move the stone in the opposite direction, which was strange as her father said the stone after tests showed no magnetic properties at all, and had no magnets buried inside. That was the end of the matter or so I thought.
It was about a year or so later scientist Professor Stanton, the leading scientist from the Deep Space Tracking Station at Downton Heath, was giving a science lecture to the sixth form girls on NASA’s decision to retire the space shuttle and refine a new form of propulsion for the latest generation of deep space vehicles.
During the lecture, Jessica put her hand up and called out “Sir, Sir”.
“Yes, who am I speaking to?” acknowledged the Professor who appeared unconcerned about the interruption.
“Jessica Wyndham sir. Why is it that questioning the possibility of other intelligent civilizations and extraterrestrial visitors to earth is never discussed on television science and space programmes, yet we know they are here. They have been seen and have been visiting for a long time so why are they never spoken about by the media?”
“Miss Wyndham, that is the first time I have been asked that question and I might add it is an extremely difficult question to answer. You must understand one must be extremely careful answering such a question as it can put a scientist at odds with his peers, which then leads on to the subject of conspiracy theories and they could find themselves ostracised”.
Tamsin, sitting in the back row and not realizing Miss Pringle was sitting immediately behind her, moved her head close to Phaedra’s and giggled “does that mean they will be unable to have children?”
Miss Pringle leaned forward and whispered to Tamsin “one more comment like that Miss Lacey and you will find yourself waiting outside Miss Sefton’s office”.
Jessica continued “does that mean we are not being told the truth?’
“There you go, Miss Wyndham. If I were to say yes, the story will make the front page of the newspapers tomorrow. The headlines will scream a ‘space scientist commented during a science lecture to the students at Denham Hall Ladies College that the public is not being told the truth. Other intelligent life DOES exist’ and with it goes my reputation in the science community”.
We were not going to get the truth from Professor Stanton. Mr Crisis assured us there were many civilizations in various stages of evolution like ours among the trillions of galaxies in the universe. That was good enough for us. Professor Stanton’s reputation was safe. We knew the answers.
Mr Crisis, our science teacher, could have answered any of these questions as he was one of these travellers that the scientist was hedging his bets and avoiding like the plague to give his honest opinion on. I have explained about Mr Crisis in previous stories.
Very briefly, Mr Crisis applied for the vacant position of science teacher when Miss Cribb resigned to get married. Whether it was revealed during his interview that he was a visitor to this planet I cannot say as I was not at the interview. This was a surprise he later confided to the girls on securing the science teacher’s position.
Jessica said she thinks Miss Sefton may have taken pity on him thinking he was homeless and offered him the caretaker’s empty accommodation, not realizing he had just arrived here and had no opportunity to find his own accommodation. I really couldn’t say.
This lecture would have been right up Tamsin’s alley. She is always seeking the truth. I remember when we were in the junior school during lights out in the dorm she once asked why are people so afraid to ask such questions like who was the first person to actually pluck up enough courage to eat a chicken’s egg knowing full well where it came from.
I shiver just thinking about it. She said, “for heaven’s sake, it is not as if one is asking delicate questions on private and personal bodily functions that discretion dictates that one does not discuss”.
She was in full flight; she questioned “why do dogs chase their tails when badgers don’t, and do squirrels dream? Furthermore, I have no idea why these questions and others are never discussed openly on science and natural history shows without fear, ridicule, controversy, and threats to one’s life”.
I really had no answer.
Now back to Tamsin’s stone. The stone her father bought in a shop near Roswell he assumed was not the original one but a copy of the original that was being sold to tourists as being proof of alien visitation.
What was very strange was the carving on the stone was the same as a crop circle discovered in the UK, a continent away. Now that is quite a coincidence in anyone’s books.
Charlotte said “It seems we are not ready to be told the truth. To believe that we are the only intelligent species living on trillions of planets that circle trillions of suns is ludicrous”.
I suggested to Tamsin the stone she possessed might be the original stone that was brought here by one of these travellers which he…or her dropped and might possess properties we are yet to discover.
Charlotte weighed in saying “Yes and one night when you are in bed asleep Tamsin you just might find on awakening a seven-foot-tall creature with a long tail, scaly skin, pointy teeth and huge eyes looking to retrieve his or her personal belongings a foot from your head”.
It might have been a coincidence but after that remark, the stone never again saw the light of day and was moved to the bottom of Tamsin’s locker.
continued below pix
Crop Circle at Chiseldon, Wiltshire U.K, August 2,1996
Gentle readers, you can trust me on this one. You are not being told the truth. You can rest assured this crop circle in Chiseldon, Wiltshire which is a quarter of a mile long, and like many others, was not created in a farmer’s field by a couple of inebriates ‘Smudger’ Smiff and ‘Chalky’ White using just a couple of fence palings and a length of rope and constructed during the hours of darkness, after being poured out of the Red Stag at closing time, purely for the purpose of ‘aving a bit ‘a fun and to annoy the hell out of the farmer.
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