Sky People (33 page)

In this chapter you will meet Evelyn. She spoke about the night a UFO visited her home and abducted her brother
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I fell in love with the city of Merida during my travels in Mexico. Several times I met with realtors searching for the perfect house. It was on one of those trips that a realtor, who questioned me about my work, told me about Evelyn. After a brief phone call, I arranged to meet her. We met at the Casa de Piedra, a restaurant frequented by Americans and Canadians. The daughter of an American expatriate and a Mestizo, we struck up a conversation about her life in Mexico. Evelyn was a tall, slender blonde with skin the color of copper. Her hair fell upon her exposed bare shoulders, making her appear like a college girl on spring break.
Evelyn’s mother died when she was a child. She and her sister had been raised by their father. He never remarried.

“How did your mother come to live in Mexico?” I asked.

“She came to Mexico to see the ruins in 1980 and fell in love with my father. She said he was so handsome and charming, she couldn’t resist him. At the time, he lived with his parents on a hacienda about thirty kilometers (nearly 19 miles) from Merida. When he met my mother, he took her home to meet his parents, and she never left. They were married a few weeks later. Unfortunately, when I was nine, she was diagnosed with cancer. She went to Miami and spent several months going through operations and chemotherapy. They told her she was in remission. Once she returned home, she never went back for checkups. She died when I was fourteen; Gabriella, my younger sister, was twelve.”

“I’m so sorry. It is never easy to lose a mother.”

“True. I had a brother, Adan,” she said. “But he disappeared one night. Gabriella and I saw him the night he was taken. He never returned. That was really difficult for me.”

“What do you mean, he was taken?” I asked.

“Before we talk about my brother, I want to talk about something else. Sarah told me you were interested in UFOs. I don’t know if anyone else talked with you, but UFOs frequent this area.”

“I have heard the same thing from others.”

“Although UFOs are frequently reported in the cities, it is rare that the events that occur outside the cities are reported. Yet the local people know.”

“That can be a blessing.”

“True. We don’t need UFO hunters here,” she laughed, “although they might be good for the economy.” She paused for a moment as the waitress appeared at our table and offered to refresh our coffee cups. “I haven’t told anyone this story except my father, and he told me never to repeat it.”

“Please, tell me about Adan.”

“He was sixteen the night they took him. Almost a man.”

“Who took him?”

“I’m not sure. I woke in the middle of the night and woke up Gabriella. I saw three balls of light in the backyard. On the way out of the house, we woke up Adan, and he followed us. We stood on the porch and watched them for several minutes.” She paused and sipped her coffee, added sugar to it, and stirred.

“You said you saw lights.”

“Yes. By that time they had become these tall beings. Not quite human, but human-looking. Adan said he was going to touch them. I called to him and told him not to go. He didn’t listen. Suddenly, we saw a big flash of light. That is the last thing either of us remembered. We fell asleep on the porch. My father woke us in the morning.”

“Did you tell your father what happened?”

“Not at first. We looked for Adan. We called him. Went to his room, but he wasn’t there. All day we waited. My father looked for him; we all looked for him. By evening, all the neighbors were looking for him, but he never came home. He was never found.”

“When did you tell your father about the lights?” I asked.

“Gabriella and I told him that night. We were afraid he would be angry, but instead he scoffed at the idea that a UFO abducted him.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“My father believes that he wandered off into the jungle. Perhaps he was hurt and suffered from amnesia. Perhaps he was kidnapped, but no one ever asked for a reward. If he were kidnapped, he is probably dead. I prefer to believe the aliens took him. I know they took him. Papa still believes he will return.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“I think aliens took him. There was a light, a blue light. It lit up the whole yard. It came from above the trees. I saw the silhouette of a UFO over the trees.”

“Did you describe what you saw to your father?” I asked.

“I told him, but he told me never to repeat such nonsense. He said I was dreaming, but I wasn’t. I know what happened that
night. Those balls of light were aliens. They coaxed him into the backyard and took him. When it happened, I thought they would return him, but it has been nine years and he is still gone. My father looks for him every day.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“At first I blamed myself. If I had let him sleep, he would not have been on the veranda that night, but I did and he is gone. Some days I look for him, too. I think I’ll wake up, and everything will be normal. But it isn’t. My father has not been the same since that day. He took my mother’s death very hard, but we knew it was coming, but Adan’s disappearance was not expected.”

“Can you describe the silhouette you saw that night?” I asked.

“I could make out a circular shadow. It cast a blue light upon the ground. There were three balls of light that came out of it. They materialized into human-like figures. That is what I remember. Gabriella remembers the blue light and the balls of light, but nothing else. I know what I saw. My brother was abducted.”

“Have you seen UFOs since that night?” I asked.

“All of the time. They come and playfully zip above the trees. I have not seen the balls of light since that time. Just the spacecraft. Sometimes I wonder if Adan is there with them, checking on Dad and me. I tell myself he is, but that his job in his other world is so important, he has no time to stop in and tell us he is all right. It would help if he would do that. I believe someday he will return. I hope so. Then Dad could find some peace.”

“Perhaps someday he will,” I replied.

“Perhaps. It is something I hold on to.”

I
met Evelyn in 2004. She has since married and is the mother of a young daughter. She and her husband have taken over the management of the orange orchard and live at the hacienda with her ailing father. We remain in contact via e-mail, and I have visited her several times. On one occasion, she and her husband came to Montana and spent a week with me. She has never wavered in her belief that someday her brother will return
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I
n 1843, explorer John L. Stephens wrote
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan,
an account of his second trip through the Maya world. He related that upon his arrival at Uxmal, he met a local Maya man who was seated under a portal at the base of the Pyramid of the Magician. The man told him the legend associated with the Pyramid. He said that it had been foretold that when a certain gong was sounded, the town of Uxmal would fall to a boy “not born of woman.” One day, a dwarf boy, who had been raised from an egg by a witch, sounded the gong, which struck fear into the ruler, who responded by ordering the boy to be executed. When the day of execution arrived, the ruler promised that the boy’s life would be saved if he could build a giant pyramid in a single night. The boy achieved the task, and eventually, after completing several tasks, he became the new ruler of Uxmal. The elders say that he was assisted by sky beings who used huge flying machines to move stones
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The Pyramid of the Magician, the result of the dwarf’s overnight building project, is the first structure a visitor encounters entering the ceremonial area of Uxmal. There are some stories that suggest that the dwarf who became the king encouraged the aluxes, or little people, to inhabit Uxmal. Augustus Le Plongeon, a British-American photographer and archaeologist, believed that a tiny race of people inhabited Uxmal. Although his theory was never accepted by the scholars of his time, he was adamant about his belief and pointed to the hundreds of tiny rooms inside the pyramid as proof of his theory
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In Mexico and Guatemala, the Maya tell stories about a tiny race of people, known as the aluxes. They are described as being small, only about knee-high, and resembling miniature, traditionally dressed Maya people. In this chapter you will hear an account of a Maya woman who encountered aluxes. She associated the little people with a UFO she had seen earlier in the evening
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Her name was Maria. She described herself as a Yucatec Maya. A woman in her late thirties, she had a round face and wide smile, which revealed front teeth capped with gold. She wore the traditional huipil, a tunic-like, white embroidered dress worn by the women in the Yucatan. She explained that the embroidered designs around the top of her dress and at the hem represented the cosmos, the gods, and their helpers, and that when a Maya woman wears the huipil she becomes the center of this symbolically represented universe. Marriage at fourteen ended her formal education, although she admitted that one of her favorite pastimes was reading and taking English classes when they are offered by traveling tourist in need of money. As a mother of six girls, she dreamed that her girls would become schoolteachers and would be able to teach their students traditional stories of the Maya while preparing them for modern society.

“My girls know the traditional stories. Their favorite stories are about the aluxes, the little people,” she said. “But there are different kinds of little people. There are the aluxes of the ancestors and there are aluxes that are strange and different from the little people known to the Maya.”

“Can you explain?”

“The Maya aluxes are tiny people; maybe they come to my knees. These new aluxes are taller.” She held her hand slightly above her waist. I estimated the creatures she had seen were closer to two-and-a-half to three feet tall.

“Where did you see them?” I asked.

“I was looking for wood. It is difficult to find wood today. I have to walk long distances. I saw them in a clump of trees.”

“How many?

“There were six. They were standing around this round ball of light.”

“Can you describe the light?”

“It was bluish-white. Very bright. They linked arms and stood very still. Like small monuments.”

“Do you have any idea what they were doing?”

“They just stood there and for a while I watched, but then I got afraid. I worried they might discover me and I slipped away. When I was out of sight, I ran to the main highway. A neighbor came along and gave me a ride in his truck.”

“Why did you become afraid?” I asked.

“Earlier in the evening, I saw a metal object in the sky. It was very fast and fleeting. I told myself it was just a plane and ignored it. As I stood there, watching these six little men, who were not aluxes, I thought perhaps they belonged to that object. Then, I got afraid.”

“Did you see the UFO again?”

“As I said, as I got back to the highway, I met my neighbor. He stopped and I climbed into the back of his truck. I was trembling and cold, and yet it was warm outside, even in the nighttime.”

“And the UFO?”

“We were driving along, and that is when I saw it again. It came out of the trees where I had been standing. It came over the truck and hovered there. I was so frightened.”

“Did the driver see it?”

“Yes. He pulled to the side of the highway. I was screaming for him to drive and get home, but he ignored me. He climbed into the back of the truck and waved at the craft. I was sure they were going to do something to us.”

“But they didn’t,” I said.

“No. They flew upward and then they were gone.”

“Have you seen them since that time?”

“No. But I know they were not the aluxes of the Maya. The real aluxes are smaller and dress like the old Maya. These little men did not dress like Maya. They wore glowing uniforms. They
stood around the glowing light. I thought for a moment they were praying. I can tell you that their heads were too big for their bodies. That seemed strange to me.”

“Can you describe the spacecraft?”

“Only that it was round and big and metal. There was a strange smell and when they flew over us, I felt a mist. The next day I was sick and stayed in bed. For a long time, I was weak. I am stronger now. I have to be strong for my husband and girls. I have to work.”

“Did you have a rash?”

“Only trouble breathing and a weakness in my bones. I think these aluxes were aliens. I don’t know why they are here or what they are doing, but I tell my girls to stay away from shaded areas. It is a dangerous world we live in today.”

I
have seen Maria several times since our initial meeting. She is a waitress at one of my favorite hotels in the Yucatan. When she sees me enter the restaurant, she immediately comes to my table so that we can visit. Although she has not seen any more small aliens, she continues to believe that the little men she saw in the forests were not aluxes
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O
n their second expedition to the Yucatan in 1841, Stephens and Catherwood explored the area around Uxmal and discovered the remains of several other ancient cities, including Kabah, Sayil, and Labna. They published an illustrated description of Sayil in their 1843 book
, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan.
They referred to the site as “Zayi.”

During my first visit to the sites, I stayed at the Mayaland Lodge of Uxmal and used it as a base for my travels around the Yucatan. Sayil lies south of Uxmal. One afternoon I visited the ancient site. I met an artist who lived near Sayil. As we discussed his artwork and the intricate, wooden carving of the sarcophagus of Pakal I purchased, we talked about UFOs. He told me a story about an event that happened to him as a child
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In this chapter you will read Jorge’s story
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“In those days, we had a good life. We had some land, chickens, and pigs. My father had honey bees. We grew corn and peppers. We had fruit trees in the backyard. We had no electricity, no cell phones, cars, or running water. But we were happy. We knew nothing of radio, television, or airplanes. We knew nothing of UFOs. We knew nothing of things that flew through the air.” Jorge paused and lit a cigarette. He took his time, blowing smoke into the hot, humid air before continuing. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, and a wide-brimmed straw hat to protect him from the relentless sun. Sisal sandals protected his feet. A small, sinewy man with skin the color of cinnamon, his arms were muscular,
obviously from carving the hardwoods. He asked his wife to take over the sales counter as he led me to the back of the open-air tent and to shade.