“A Meteorite or a Flying Saucer?”
Fortunately, I was not alone. A friend from Mexico had come to stay with me prior to my due date. We went to the veranda, too frightened to venture outside, but we saw nothing. She eventually stepped outside and said she saw a light, not a star, not a plane, but an undulating light in the sky. I remained on the veranda, fearful that radiation or unseen substances might harm my unborn child. When the unknowable noise stopped, it did so suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch.
After that, we could not sleep. We made a pot of tea, lit a small gas lamp, and discussed the strange encounter. We considered an extraterrestrial spacecraft, a secret experimental airplane being tested by the Australian government, and a meteorite.
We could think of no other logical explanation, except hallucination.
Could we have experienced a strange auditory hallucination? And, if so, why both of us? Neither one of us used drugs or alcohol, so it could not have been a drug-induced hallucination.
Then I temporarily relocated to Darwin until my son was born. My baby boy brought so much joy into my life that the harrowing experience of the unexplained noise drifted from my consciousness.
Unbeknown to me, our friends, the policeman and his wife were in route from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Roper River police station where they lived. They’d had car trouble and when they reached St. Vigeon’s, they decided to ask for a bed to spend the night. I’d never been so happy to extend the welcome mat as I was that night!
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Next installment: More Adventures at the Homestead
Visit me at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com I love hearing from readers. Ask a question, suggest an idea, or comment about this blog or a previous one. (All blogs are on my website.)
This series of My Life in the Outback is based on recollections of my life in Australia many years ago. My own photographs of Australia are not only limited, but they are also old 35mm film in dismal condition. To make the series more appealing to the reader, I supplement with photographs that are similar to the experiences and locations I’ve described. I’m often dependent on pictures from the public domain and Creative Commons.
Note: Names of a few people have been changed to protect their identity since this is not a memoir, but merely my recollections of Australia. The name of the cattle station where I lived was known as either St. Vidgeon’s or St. Vigeon. I use the first spelling in most cases, but on occasion, the second one comes in handy.
Photo credits:
All photographs are used in an editorial or educational manner.
Photos: “UFO?” by Kelly Hart on CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“F19x3dartist” by FolsomNatural on CC BY 2.0
“Flashing Lights” by somarj on CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
My Life in Australia – Installment 15 of this blog is brought to you by Tortuga Publishing, LLC