Summary
” “Flying saucers were a mystery in the sixties;
Illustration: Jacey
Holding her lunch box, Lili scanned the noon break area at the Exotic Destinations travel show. The middle-aged travel agents chattering among themselves ignored her, but a tall Black woman with snow-white hair waved.
Recognizing her from the session on tourism on the Extraterrestrial Highway, Lili walked over to ask, “May I join you?”
“Certainly,” the woman said. “My name’s Bettye, with an e at the end. I noticed you at the Extraterrestrial Highway session.”
“I’m Lili, with two l’s, two i’s and no y at all, and I saw you there. What did you think of their space alien experience?” She sat down to unpack her lunch.
“It’s changed tremendously since I was young,” Bettye said. “My parents just hoped to see a flying saucer on a long trip across the southwestern desert. Now they have cheesy roadside attractions with animated space aliens waving outside the door.”
Intrigued, Lili asked “What was it like back then?”
“Flying saucers were a mystery in the sixties; everybody wanted to see one. Papa was an Air Force mechanic, and pilots told him they had seen saucers. The Byrds sung about hitching a ride on a saucer. Papa always looked for saucers.”
“Do your stories help sell tours?” Lili asked.
“It helps sell tours on Route 66.”
“I wish I had travel stories, but my parents were too poor to take vacations after they immigrated from Hong Kong.”
Bettye grinned. “Oh, we loved telling those stories about looking for flying saucers, but we had to be careful we didn’t scare anyone.”
“Oh …” Lili said, trying to lead her on.
Bettye sipped her iced tea and sat back. “I saw my first saucer when we were driving through the desert. Papa drove at night because our old station wagon didn’t have air conditioning. The Moon was bright so we could see the foothills and the cacti. I fell asleep, but woke when Papa stopped. He and Mama whispered and pointed at a moonlit saucer parked a little ways away. A hatch opened and two aliens got out and walked towards us. Mama said we better go, but the car wouldn’t start. The aliens wore pale green suits and carried metal boxes that looked like old telephones. I waved, and they waved back.”
“Were you scared?”
“A little,” Bettye said. “Then the boxes started talking English voices like we heard on the radio. Mama hushed me when I giggled.”
“What did they say?”
“They asked us to fly them over the mountains and tell them about the scenery. Papa laughed and said our car couldn’t fly. They said theirs could, and Mama got them to pay us to guide them. Mama was scared because she had never flown, but Papa and I had a great flight. After we landed, the aliens asked if we would guide other aliens on trips.”
“Did you?”
“Oh yes. Papa took me along and we had a great time guiding the alien tours. They were very friendly and what they paid let me go to college.”
“That was a very successful business,” Lili said. “How long did it last?”
Bettye nodded. “Several years, until a saucer flew too close to an Air Force base. A pilot at the base jumped into a fighter and flew towards us. Papa told the aliens to fly away because the fighter might shoot us down, but their speaking boxes said ‘no civilized beings would do that’.”
“What happened?”
“The fighter shot a missile at us. Then one alien pointed something at the missile and it vanished. The other alien pointed a box at the plane and made it move with what he called a force field. He made it land on the road. The pilot opened the door and ran away while we watched the alien melt the plane.”
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-03107-x
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