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<v Speaker 1>The flat Woods Monster its early September nineteen fifty two,

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<v Speaker 1>and in the quiet hills of West Virginia, the end

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<v Speaker 1>of summer has settled like a heavy quilt over the

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<v Speaker 1>Appalachian countryside. The days are warm, the night's crisp, and

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<v Speaker 1>for the most part, the rhythms of life here are simple.

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<v Speaker 1>School is back in session, harvest season is around the corner.

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<v Speaker 1>People keep to their routines. That is until one evening.

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<v Speaker 1>In the small town of Flatwoods, something cuts through the calm,

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<v Speaker 1>an object in the sky, streaking fast and low, trailing

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<v Speaker 1>light and fire behind it. What began as an unusual

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<v Speaker 1>flash in the heavens quickly turned into one of the

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<v Speaker 1>strangest encounters in UFO history. Not just a sighting of

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<v Speaker 1>lights or a report of something distant and hard to see,

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<v Speaker 1>but a face to face confrontation with a being that,

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<v Speaker 1>according to witnesses, stood taller than a man, wore something

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<v Speaker 1>like armor, and seemed to glide instead of walk. This

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't the kind of story that stayed locked in a

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<v Speaker 1>single home. It spread fast. It involved kids, neighbors, a mother,

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<v Speaker 1>a reporter, and eventually the United States military, and the

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<v Speaker 1>story hasn't faded If anything, it's grown more famous, more curious,

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<v Speaker 1>and more baffling as the years have passed. This is

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<v Speaker 1>Brief Encounters. I'm Nick, and tonight we're headed to Braxton County,

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<v Speaker 1>West Virginia to follow the trail of the so called

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<v Speaker 1>Phantom of Flatwoods, also known as the Flatwoods Monster. The

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<v Speaker 1>date was September twelfth, nineteen fifty two. Just after seven pm.

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<v Speaker 1>Two young brothers, Edward and Fred May, were playing outside

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<v Speaker 1>their home in the small community of Flatwoods. With them

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<v Speaker 1>was their friend Tommy Higher. Suddenly, the three boys saw

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<v Speaker 1>something bright streak across the sky, trailing what looked like

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<v Speaker 1>fire or glowing smoke behind it. It appeared to descend

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<v Speaker 1>behind a nearby hill, specifically near a property owned by

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<v Speaker 1>a local farmer named g. Bailey Fisher. The boys, like

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<v Speaker 1>any curious kids might, decided to check it out. They

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<v Speaker 1>ran home and told Kathleen May, the boy's mother, what

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<v Speaker 1>they'd seen. She didn't dismiss it as imagination. Instead, she

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<v Speaker 1>grabbed a flashlight and agreed to walk with them to investigate.

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<v Speaker 1>Along the way, they were joined by two more neighborhood kids,

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<v Speaker 1>plus a National Guardsman named Eugene Lemon, who happened to

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<v Speaker 1>be visiting. So now there were seven people walking up

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<v Speaker 1>that hillside. The sky had darkened, but they could still

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<v Speaker 1>see the glow near the top. The group made their

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<v Speaker 1>way toward it, climbing through brush and scattered trees, their

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<v Speaker 1>flashlights sweeping a head, and that's when the night turned

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<v Speaker 1>from strange to terrifying. As they neared the top of

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<v Speaker 1>the hill, the group reported seeing a pulsing red light

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<v Speaker 1>coming from the ground. A strange mist hung in the air,

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<v Speaker 1>and it sulfur like smell filled their noses. Some of

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<v Speaker 1>them began to cough. One person later described the mist

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<v Speaker 1>as irritating to the throat and eyes. Then they saw it.

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<v Speaker 1>Standing near the red light, partially obscured by the trees,

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<v Speaker 1>was a tall figure. According to later testimony, it was

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<v Speaker 1>at least ten feet tall. Its body appeared to be mechanical,

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<v Speaker 1>or at least covered in a kind of metallic casing.

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<v Speaker 1>The shape was vaguely humanoid, long arms, a round head,

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<v Speaker 1>glowing eyes, but it didn't move like a person. Some

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<v Speaker 1>said it hovered, others said it turned with an eerie,

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<v Speaker 1>unnatural Its head was shaped like an ace of spades

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<v Speaker 1>with what looked like a cowl or hood flaring out

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<v Speaker 1>from the sides. As the flashlight beam swept across the figure,

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<v Speaker 1>it let out a hissing noise. Lemons screamed and fell backward.

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<v Speaker 1>The others turned and ran, racing down the hill toward home.

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<v Speaker 1>The entire encounter had lasted just a few moments, but

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<v Speaker 1>those few moments would ripple through the community for years

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<v Speaker 1>to come. That night, the group was shaken. Several of

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<v Speaker 1>them were physically ill, reporting nausea, froat, irritation, and eye discomfort.

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<v Speaker 1>The next day, a local reporter named A. Lee Stewart

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<v Speaker 1>interviewed the witnesses and climbed the hill himself. He reported

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<v Speaker 1>seeing skid marks and disturbed grass where the group claimed

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<v Speaker 1>the object had landed or come to rest. Words spread quickly.

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<v Speaker 1>Within twenty four hours, national media had picked up the story.

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<v Speaker 1>Papers ran headlines like brackst monster seen by seven and

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<v Speaker 1>UFO Lands in West Virginia. The accounts were vivid, the

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<v Speaker 1>witnesses were credible, at least on paper. They were children

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<v Speaker 1>and adults, locals with no history of hoaxes or tall tales.

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<v Speaker 1>The US Air Force got involved. Investigators from Project Blue

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<v Speaker 1>Book arrived shortly after the story broke, hoping to collect

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<v Speaker 1>details and offer a rational explanation. What they found was

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<v Speaker 1>a town buzzing with confusion, fear, and excitement. The Air

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<v Speaker 1>Force didn't confirm the event as a UFO encounter. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>they downplayed the sighting, suggesting the bright object in the

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<v Speaker 1>sky had likely been a meteor. As for the creature,

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<v Speaker 1>they proposed that the group had seen an owl perched

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<v Speaker 1>in a tree, distorted by shadows, fog, and fear. According

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<v Speaker 1>to this theory, the spade shaped head was just the

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<v Speaker 1>shape of the owl's face, and its glowing eyes were

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<v Speaker 1>a reflection of the flashlight beam. It was a tidy explanation,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe a little too tidy. Let's go back to that

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<v Speaker 1>figure for a moment, the one that left such a

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<v Speaker 1>lasting impression on the witnesses. Multiple people described the creature

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<v Speaker 1>as tall, robotic, or armored, with an unusual head shape

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<v Speaker 1>and no visible legs. Its lower body seemed to be

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<v Speaker 1>a tapering shape like a skirt or column, possibly floating

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<v Speaker 1>or gliding. Some said its hands were clawlike. Others noticed

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<v Speaker 1>a face shaped like a lizard or a reptile, though

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<v Speaker 1>not everyone agreed. These are oddly specific details for an owl.

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<v Speaker 1>Misidentified in a moment of panic. The physical symptoms experienced

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<v Speaker 1>by the witnesses also raised eyebrows, the burning eyes, nausea,

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<v Speaker 1>and coffin were attributed to hysteria or exposure to natural irritants,

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<v Speaker 1>but some research which has suggested a chemical presence, possibly

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<v Speaker 1>linked to a malfunctioning piece of machinery or an exhaust

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<v Speaker 1>like substance from whatever had landed. To this day, no

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<v Speaker 1>one knows exactly what the group encountered, but the consistency

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<v Speaker 1>of their descriptions, their evident fear, and the physical effects

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<v Speaker 1>that followed give the story weight. It wasn't just one

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<v Speaker 1>person seeing a strained shape in the sky. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a small group, including an adult, reacting to something that

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<v Speaker 1>frightened all of them enough to flee. Over the years,

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<v Speaker 1>the Flatwoods Monster has become one of the most iconic

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<v Speaker 1>figures in uf O law. Its bizarre appearance and single

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<v Speaker 1>night fame earned it a permanent place in the Annals

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<v Speaker 1>of High Strangeness. Unlike Roswell or other sightings that involve

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<v Speaker 1>wreckage or radar data, this was a close encounter of

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<v Speaker 1>the third kind, a direct sighting of an unknown being.

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<v Speaker 1>Skeptics still argue that mass, hysteria, fear, and misinterpretation explain everything.

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<v Speaker 1>A meteor falls and owl spooks a group of people

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<v Speaker 1>already on edge, the mind fills in the rest. It's

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<v Speaker 1>a clean, rational theory, but others aren't so sure. The

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<v Speaker 1>sharp rise in UFO sightings during the early nineteen fifties,

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<v Speaker 1>combined with the physical symptoms and shared witness accounts in Flatwoods,

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<v Speaker 1>point to a more mysterious origin. Could it have been

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<v Speaker 1>a probe, a drone, a biologically clad being, something unconnected

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<v Speaker 1>to weather, balloons and wildlife. No one has answered that definitively,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's part of what makes this case so lasting.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not easily dismissed, and it's never been repeated. The

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<v Speaker 1>Flatwood's monster was seen once in a moment of surprise,

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<v Speaker 1>and then never again. There are a few theories that

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<v Speaker 1>go beyond the standard explanations. One suggests the being was

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<v Speaker 1>not extraterrestrial but extra dimensional, a brief manifestation from somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>parallel to our own reality, only able to hold form

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<v Speaker 1>for a short time. Another theory posits that the creature

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<v Speaker 1>was mechanical in nature, possibly a scout or survey device

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<v Speaker 1>Center Earth. Its odd appearance and behavior fit more with

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<v Speaker 1>a program machine than an organic entity. There are even

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<v Speaker 1>suggestions that the encounter was a test, whether psychological, environmental,

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<v Speaker 1>or something more elusive, That the location, time, and witnesses

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<v Speaker 1>were part of something orchestrated beyond our comprehension. These ideas

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<v Speaker 1>are speculative, they don't rely on evidence so much as possibility,

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<v Speaker 1>but they reflect the curiosity that still clings to this case.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not just the appearance of the creature that lingers.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the way it acted, the way it affected people,

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<v Speaker 1>and the way it vanished, leaving only questions behind What

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<v Speaker 1>happened in Flatwoods that September night, Immetea streaked through the

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<v Speaker 1>sky and seven people went to investigate. That much is certain.

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<v Speaker 1>What they found is up for debate. Some saw an

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<v Speaker 1>owl in a tree, others saw a being from another world.

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<v Speaker 1>The truth may lie somewhere in between or just beyond reach.

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<v Speaker 1>The Flatwoods Monster is one of those encounters that defies resolution.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not about what was proven, it's about what was felt.

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<v Speaker 1>It's about standing on a dark hillside, looking into the

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<v Speaker 1>shadows and seeing something that doesn't fit into any category

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<v Speaker 1>we know. And maybe that's the real power of stories

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<v Speaker 1>like this, they remind us that the world still has edges,

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<v Speaker 1>that not everything fits neatly into the boxes we try

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<v Speaker 1>to put it in that once in a while, a

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<v Speaker 1>flash of light can tear across the sky and nothing

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<v Speaker 1>is ever quite the same again. Next time on Brief Encounters,

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<v Speaker 1>we traveled to Texas in nineteen fifty seven, where dozens

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<v Speaker 1>of drivers reported their engines dying in unison as glowing

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<v Speaker 1>orbs danced across the dark sky. Some said they were surrounded,

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<v Speaker 1>others said they were followed, but all of them were

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<v Speaker 1>changed by what they saw. That's the level and sightings

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<v Speaker 1>coming up in episode twenty six