Spooky stories: Are we alone?

 

By Laura Bohnert

Have you ever looked up at the sky and wondered what might be looking back down at you?  Have you ever, on a dark night, seen something in the sky that you couldn’t quite explain, only to realize it might be studying you just as closely?  People have been asking if we are alone in the universe for a long time, but what if we aren’t even alone in our own atmosphere?

On March 12, 2014, the town of Nanton, Alberta was asking the same questions.

Imagine it: it’s a dark and still night.  Almost midnight, but not quite.  Winter’s chill still lingers in the air like a curtain that has drawn a thick silence over all of nature.  You’re home, safe and sound in your living room—only suddenly it doesn’t feel so safe anymore.  A numbing uneasiness spreads itself over your chest.  You glance over at your daughter, but she is already looking at you, a concerned expression on her face, her cell phone still in her hand.  The TV flickers in the background as you turn to look out the window.  Where did the cows go?

You slide your boots on and are still getting into your jacket as you step out the door.  The field off to your left looks eerie under the hollow glow of the barn light.  There are no loitering cattle in sight.  Maybe they’ve wandered further down the field into the dark, but something doesn’t feel right.

“What is it?”  Your daughter’s voice is shaky, a near whisper as she moves closer to you.  You turn to reassure her, but that’s when you see them, too.  The lights in the sky that shouldn’t be there.

That’s what Sam Martine and her daughter, Baylie, saw that Sunday night in March.  At around 11pm, two bright lights appeared over their neighbour’s house, 5km west of Nanton.  One was as big as a large yard light, Martine reported, but it was very bright white, and the second was above it.  Both hovered there for close to five minutes before moving upward.  As Martine and her daughter went outside, the lights came silently toward them.

As the lights moved closer, you could see red and blue light, and then you could hear it, Martine reported.  The second light remained still as the first passed light over their house, then it, too, passed over, casting the house in a wide red and blue light as it moved to the northwest.

Martine and Baylie tried to photograph the strange lights, but neither of them could capture the image.  Martine reported that her camera wouldn’t work; she could photograph the sky, but when she pointed her camera at the lights, her flash would only make a strange buzzing sound.

When Baylie tried to use her phone, the screen would just go all green, Martine reported.

The next morning, when Martine went to check on her cattle, she found them standing on the northwest hill of her property.  They had all run straight through their fence.

This isn’t the first time the Nanton area has reported seeing strange lights in the sky.  Back in the 1970s, a number of UFO sightings were reported—along with a string of cattle mutilations throughout the area.