Chapter 2. The Big Black Book.

Leaning against his desk, Ralph skimmed through the thick book he had borrowed from his student. He almost didn't notice the tall man in a black suit peeking his head into his classroom.

"Hello! Ralph! Are you coming?" the tall man asked. "I only have a few more minutes left on my lunch break!"

Ralph barely looked up. His friend and partner, FBI Special Agent William Maxwell, was standing in the doorway. "What is it now, Bill?" he asked wearily.

"Oh!" Maxwell responded, in an oddly lyrical voice that contained more than a hint of sarcasm. "And I though that I was supposed to be the one... with the charm school diploma!"

Shaking his head free of the thoughts he was enveloped in, Ralph slammed the book shut and stuffed it back under his arm. Grabbing a disorderly pile of notes and papers in his hands, Ralph headed towards the door. Joining his partner, the two walked out of the doorway and made their way across campus.

"What's on your mind, Bill?"

"Nothing, Ralph. I'm just here to shake some of your students down for their milk money!" Bill shot an annoyed glance over to his younger partner. "Did you forget, kid? I need some vibes off of that shirt we picked up at the..."

Just then, as if a light bulb suddenly went on, the agent stopped dead in his tracks and looked at his young partner. "Kid, um, what's that big black book you've got there?"

With a slightly worried smile on his face, Ralph reopened the book, keeping track of his place with one finger. "Bill," he began, "this is it." He slapped the book with his hand. "This, my dear partner, is a book - an encyclopedia if you will - of alien abductions." He looked up at his partner, raised an eyebrow, and smiled.

"Ralph! Will you keep your voice down?" Bill looked at his young partner nervously, squinted his eyes, and made the universal "quiet" signal by raising a finger up to his pursed lips. This wasn't what he wanted to talk about with his partner during his lunch break. Certainly, this was not the kind of conversation he wanted to have in public.

"Will you just listen for a moment, Bill!" Lowering his voice, the younger man began to read from the book's pages. "This is what we have been looking for."

"What are you talking about, Ralph." Bill's expression was honestly confused. "I have been looking for some drug runners, out of Reno. I don't know what you've been looking for, but it can't be this!"

"Listen up, Bill. Here's an example. Betty and Barney Hill. New Hampshire. Abducted 1961. While traveling home, the couple was abducted. Although the couple had no recollection of the encounter, they lost 2 hours between their departure and arrival."

"Yeah, and I lost 2 hours watching the game last week," Maxwell added, skeptically, "along with 40 bucks. So what!" He checked his watch, rolled his eyes and sighed, clearly annoyed that his lunch break was almost over and his time was wasting away.

"Bill, come on." Ralph continued. "This is serious. Months later, while under hypnosis they recalled their abduction. Their car mysteriously stalled while driving on an isolated road. Sound familiar, Bill? Then the lights, the aliens..."

Bill chuckled nervously. Ralph continued. "They were approached by an alien space craft. They were brought onboard, were probed, examined, and studied. Finally, their memory of the event was wiped completely clean. Almost."

The agent looked around him, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken thus far."Yeah, so what? Ralph!" Maxwell fidgeted, as he straightened out his vest, coat, tie, and cuffs. Tough as nails, the agent still had a hard time coming to grips with their own encounters with the alien space ship in Palmdale.

"Bill, there are hundreds of these case studies written up in this book. Maybe thousands! And not just abductions. Sightings, the mythology, and the government's response." With that, Maxwell shot a harsh look at his partner.

"Government response?" Bill asked, drawing out each syllable slowly. Backing off, Ralph decided to take another approach.

"Bill, do you honestly think that we are the only ones ever to, well, you know... be contacted?"

"Well, of course not Ralph," Bill whispered, assured that they were out of voice range. "We know that, already. There was Jim Beck, for one. He had a suit, before us, remember? And who knows. Maybe there were some others. What's your point?"

"That's exactly my point, Bill." Ralph smiled, hoping he could teach at least one person something that day. "Maybe there were some others."

Bill stopped in his tracks, and pointed at the book the teacher held in his hands.

"Ralph, what your book there is saying..., well, is nuts!" Bill chuckled, nervously. "If even a fraction of those accounts are true," Bill continued "we're talking hundreds, no thousands of people coming into contact with little green guys! I mean, come on! That's MAJOR intergalactic phone bills here, Ralph! Not to mention the problems of keeping all this quiet. You know, out of the mainstream."

"Well, obviously it's not all that quiet. Look, I've got one book that tells all about it. Right here in my hands!" Ralph turned through some pages, and quickly looked up from a new page he found interesting. Although Bill was obviously uncomfortable with the entire topic of conversation, Ralph was unable to resist teasing his friend.

With a slightly mischievous look on his face, Ralph pointed at the new, black three pieced suit.

"You know, Bill, I never noticed you wearing that suit before... is it new?"

"Yeah, Carlisle and his damn dress code. It's costing me a fortune in clothes!"

"Tell me about it" Ralph added, thinking of the dozens of sports jackets lost in the back alleys and dumpsters of Los Angeles over the past year. The younger man continued flipping through the book, then stopped at an illustration of two tall, thin men, dressed all in black, with eyes shielded by dark sunglasses.

"Hey, Look here, Bill," Ralph said, pointing at the picture. "Men in Black."

Huh?" Bill asked, only half listening to his friend. Even though Bill grudgingly acknowledged the existence of aliens, he also knew that Ralph was more likely to buy into things that were outside the margins, or even extraordinary. And ever since Ralph tried to drag him into a search for missing sea monsters, Bill was really cautious of any of Ralph's explanations.

"It's right here, Bill. Men in Black are aliens living on earth. Their goal is to harass or threaten UFO witnesses into silence." Reading from the book, Ralph's tone changed, as he tried to be very serious about the whole matter. "Dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses, they pose as government agents. The arrive at the home of witnesses to alien sightings. Their goal is to destroy evidence of UFOs. They flash convincing looking badges, and claim to be investigating UFO sightings for the government. Unsuspecting witnesses hand over photos and all other types of evidence."

With a confused look on his face, the tall agent raised his eyebrows, glanced at his partner, and grabbed the book. "Lemme see that!"

"Um, Bill, could I see your badge again... up close..."

Once again made the butt of the joke, Bill shot an angry look at Ralph. "Very funny, kid. Well, it seems I have wasted another perfectly good lunch break here, talking with you about fairies and gobblins and the tooth fairy! Maybe later you could help old uncle Bill with this case, ok? You remember the one... here on Earth!"

"Bill, you're probably right." Ralph sighed. "Most of this stuff is probably, well, more fantasy than reality."

– continued –