Mysteries Among Us #4

It's that time again!  Time for us to explore some real life mysteries that keep us awake, make us wonder, or just plain inspire us.

Laura Ellen: I admit it. I am drawn to mysteries that involve the unknown, possible alien visitations, and conspiracy theories. The town of Roswell, New Mexico is notorious for all three and is therefore one of my favorite "mysteries among us". I even named my main character in BLIND SPOT Roswell - a fitting name for the daughter of a UFO chaser!

Roswell, New Mexico is the alleged site of an alien craft crash-landing in 1947. Witnesses even claim the body of an alien was found. But the government claimed it was simply a weather balloon.
Which was it? That has been a question asked by UFO and conspiracy-theory enthusiasts for decades. You be the judge. Here's the link to the account on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident

Kristen Kittscher: Though I'm not much one for zombies, werewolves, vampires and the like, the real-life zombie mystery of Clairvius Narcisse fascinates me. Narcisse was declared dead in 1962 after suffering a mysterious ailment that caused severe digestive disorder, breathing problems, and turned his lips blue. Yet in 1980 he returned to his family in L'Estere, Haiti perfectly alive. He recalled being buried alive, and even bore a scar from one of the coffin nails. Apparently, his paralysis from what later turned out to be tetradoxin (the fatal toxin contained in pufferfish) made him unable to speak or move during the ordeal. His body was immediately exhumed by a "bokor," (or "witch doctor") who kept him as a slave on a Haitian plantation, allegedly feeding him a hallucinogenic drug to keep him in a compliant state. How's that for a story? Researcher Wade Davis popularized it in the 1985 book, The Serpent and The Rainbow. Davis received a fair amount of criticism, and I'm not sure how much is true -- but it is a fascinating story nevertheless.

Diana Renn: Children, at any age, are mysterious to me. I've always been curious about how young people think and act. Writing for young people is maybe one way that I attempt to understand the mysteries of children and childhood. Now that I'm a parent, I find my young son the most fascinating mystery in my day-to-day life. Who is this evolving person? What thoughts take shape behind those deep brown eyes? Why does he fear spider webs but not spiders? What inspires his recurring dreams about caves and magic toyboxes? How did all these matchbox cars reappear in the middle of the floor when we just put them away -- three times? Why do we have five individual mittens but no pairs? How do you retrieve a rubber Superball from a heating vent? Life with a preschooler brings endless mysteries, mundane perhaps, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. This Thanksgiving I'm grateful for my son and all the small and large mysteries he brings into my life.

Talia Vance: There's a house in Santa Clara, California that has "mystery" right in its name.  The Winchester Mystery House is a sprawling home with 160 rooms.  But it's not its size that makes it so intriguing.  The house was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the widow of the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, Sarah Winchester.  A Boston medium told Sarah that she was being haunted by spirits of Native Americans and Civil War soldiers killed by Winchester rifles, and that these ghosts would kill her unless she moved west and built a house.  As long as the house was under construction, Sarah would be safe from the spirits.  With unlimited funds, Sarah moved to California and started building.  And building.  And building.  The house has stairs that go nowhere, secret passages and blocked off rooms.  What really drove Sarah Winchester to build this house?  What secrets are buried behind the walls?  What secret places are yet to be discovered there?