Speaker 1: It had just gone nine o'clock in the evening of
Speaker 1: fourteenth September nineteen ninety four when Cynthia heard the explosion.
Speaker 1: Startled from her paperwork. She turned to the window and
Speaker 1: hurriedly scanned the horizon for any sign of an attack.
Speaker 1: Though it had been over fourteen years since Zimbabwean independence,
Speaker 1: the years hadn't been easy, mired in the social and
Speaker 1: political upheaval one might expect of a post colonial nation
Speaker 1: grappling with the complications of the past. The affluent and
Speaker 1: leafy suburb of Mount Pleasant where Cynthia lived, was an
Speaker 1: exclusive district of North Harari, Zimbabwe's capital, and home to
Speaker 1: some of the city's wealthiest residents, including a number of
Speaker 1: dignitaries and government officials. That the former Ethiopian dictator Harley
Speaker 1: Mariam men Gistu lived nearby was as good a reason
Speaker 1: as any to suspect, as Cynthia did, that what had
Speaker 1: just rattled her window panes was a bomb. Unable to
Speaker 1: see anything from her desk, Cynthia made her way out
Speaker 1: to the garden. There she was joined by her friend
Speaker 1: and granddaughter, who'd also heard the bang. As they scanned
Speaker 1: the dusk sky together for evidence. Of an explosion. They
Speaker 1: were surprised to see no thick plumes of smoke or
Speaker 1: flashing emergency lights, and instead of sirens, they heard only
Speaker 1: the gentle trickling of water through the filter system of
Speaker 1: Cynthia's swimming pool. If anything, it was all a little
Speaker 1: too quiet. Even the neighborhood dogs seemed unnaturally stilled. Ever,
Speaker 1: eager to get to the bottom of things, the curious
Speaker 1: Cynthia beckoned the others to join her in her car.
Speaker 1: Moments later, the three of them sped off in search
Speaker 1: of the source of the explosion. As they trolled the
Speaker 1: neighborhood for any sign of damage. Back in Cynthia's home,
Speaker 1: her telephone began to ring. You're listening to Unexplained and
Speaker 1: I'm Richard McLean Smith. Cynthia Hind was born in South
Speaker 1: Africa in the nineteen twenties. At some point she moved
Speaker 1: to northern England, where she lived for a number of
Speaker 1: years with her husband and two children, before moving to
Speaker 1: the Mashonaland region of Southeast Africa, where she helped run
Speaker 1: her father's furniture business. Cynthia's true passion, however, was writing,
Speaker 1: and what fascinated her more than anything else was the paranormal.
Speaker 1: Although primarily a writer of short stories for radio and magazines,
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, Cynthia secured an interview with apparent
Speaker 1: alien abductee Elizabeth Clara. She'd been hooked on the UFO
Speaker 1: phenomenon ever since. In nineteen fifty six, Elizabeth Clara alleged
Speaker 1: that she'd been having an affair with an astrophysicist named Akon,
Speaker 1: who traveled to Earth from a distant planet known as Meton.
Speaker 1: Cynthia was dubious of Clara's story, but also fascinated as
Speaker 1: to why she would make up such an extraordinary claim
Speaker 1: if it wasn't true. Cynthia's resultant article was eventually published
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine in Fate, a popular American magazine
Speaker 1: specializing in the possibility of the paranormal. Her life would
Speaker 1: never be the same again with us. In weeks, Cynthia
Speaker 1: found herself inundated with letters from countless others desperate to
Speaker 1: share their various supposed UFO experiences from around the continent.
Speaker 1: Representatives of a newly established American organization known as the
Speaker 1: Mutual UFO Network or MOUFON, were also quick to get
Speaker 1: in touch. MOUFON originating from an earlier group known as
Speaker 1: the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization was established to bring a
Speaker 1: measured scientific approach to the investigation of UFOs. They wrote
Speaker 1: to Cynthia asking if she'd like to conduct research on
Speaker 1: their behalf excited at the prospect of developing a relationship
Speaker 1: with someone operating from the African continent, but Cynthia was reluctant.
Speaker 1: She was only really interested in the personal angle behind
Speaker 1: the phenomena, rather than the phenomena itself. Being at the
Speaker 1: start of her career, she was also wary of the
Speaker 1: inevitable ridicule and stigma that might be attached to her
Speaker 1: if she associated with a group like the Mutual UFO Network.
Speaker 1: In the end, Cynthia reasoned that simply presenting personal accounts
Speaker 1: or supposed UFO experiences was not the same as saying
Speaker 1: she believed in them herself, and as far as she
Speaker 1: was concerned, it was all relevant to understanding the UFO phenomena,
Speaker 1: whether the origins were unearthly or not. Cynthia accepted MUFON's
Speaker 1: invitation to write for them in nineteen seventy four, after
Speaker 1: which she was appointed an official field researcher for the
Speaker 1: next few years, she investigated all manner of alleged UFO
Speaker 1: sightings from across Africa. In July nineteen seventy eight eight,
Speaker 1: Cynthia traveled to Dayton, Ohio to attend her first MUFON conference.
Speaker 1: She was utterly spellbound by the speakers in attendants giant
Speaker 1: names in ufology such as j. Allen Heineck, the US
Speaker 1: Air Force's own UFO investigator, and Major Donald Keiho, a
Speaker 1: leader in the field, to name a few. She felt
Speaker 1: at home among the other members of MOUFON, whom she
Speaker 1: was pleased to discover were not at all like the
Speaker 1: deluded crack pots she'd first imagined. Many were learned individuals
Speaker 1: with distinguished academic records in physics, psychiatry, geology, and medicine.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty one, Cynthia returned to the conference to
Speaker 1: present her own paper on African encounters, where she rubbed
Speaker 1: shoulders with the likes of retired nuclear physicist turned euthologist
Speaker 1: Stanton Friedman. Friedman is thought to be the first civilian
Speaker 1: to document the site of the infamous Roswell incident, an
Speaker 1: alleged cover up of an alien spacecraft that supposedly crash
Speaker 1: landed in nineteen forty seven in Roswell, New Mexico. By
Speaker 1: the time she published her first book, UFOs African Encounters
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, Cynthia had become somewhat of an
Speaker 1: authority on the subject and was regularly invited on TV
Speaker 1: and radio to talk about her research. It was this
Speaker 1: reputation that explained the incessant phone calls that hadn't stopped
Speaker 1: since Cynthia left the house that strange September night in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. On returning home, she picked up the
Speaker 1: first of many calls that night, as various friends and
Speaker 1: acquaintances rang her up, eager to share their stories of
Speaker 1: that evening's peculiar events. It hadn't been a boy, at
Speaker 1: least not one exploding on the ground, but rather something
Speaker 1: unusual that had taken place high above the land. Strange lights,
Speaker 1: they kept saying, streaking across the sky in a parade
Speaker 1: of color and sparkle, like a giant Roman candle shooting
Speaker 1: out across the heavens. Cynthia worked tirelessly, scribbling down each
Speaker 1: report as it came in, but could barely keep up. Eventually,
Speaker 1: she called the editor of the local herald paper with
Speaker 1: whom she had a good relationship, to see if they'd
Speaker 1: heard anything too. As Cynthia expected, they had also been
Speaker 1: inundated by calls from as far away as Johannesburg attesting
Speaker 1: to the strange lights. Her enthusiasm, however, was soon dampened
Speaker 1: after learning that their origins had already been determined. As
Speaker 1: the editor explained, it was simply a meteorite shower, extraordinary
Speaker 1: and beautiful in its own right, no doubt, but not
Speaker 1: what Cynthia had been hoping for. Yet, as the cause
Speaker 1: continued late into the night, Cynthia couldn't escape the feeling
Speaker 1: that perhaps not all was as it seemed. One person
Speaker 1: Cynthia spoke to on that September evening was Vivian Pasco,
Speaker 1: a teacher living in Bulaweyo, over five hours drive west
Speaker 1: of Ferrari. Vivian recounted how at precisely eight point fifty four,
Speaker 1: she stepped out of her cottage for some fresh air
Speaker 1: when she caught sight of something moving in the clouds above.
Speaker 1: Looking northwards, she watched for over a minute as what
Speaker 1: she described as flashing, shimmering and smeary lights moved low
Speaker 1: across the sky, heading south towards some nearby hills. Then
Speaker 1: there was the report from a mister Alexander, a specialist
Speaker 1: in aircraft fire prevention, who along with a friend, spotted
Speaker 1: what they assumed to be an aeroplane in distress with
Speaker 1: flames shooting off the wing, describing a quote cluster of
Speaker 1: small white lights extending across the fuselage from one wing
Speaker 1: to another. They watched as the apparent craft, similar in
Speaker 1: size to a seven four seven jumbo jet, moved silently
Speaker 1: from north to south at a low altitude, barely twenty
Speaker 1: meters above the tree tops. Intriguingly, as it moved, said Alexander,
Speaker 1: it kept a level flight path. Cynthia thought this a
Speaker 1: little strange for a meteor shower. Even more strange, however,
Speaker 1: was that the main object, according to Alexander, appeared to
Speaker 1: be metallic in nature. Many sightings came in from the
Speaker 1: shores of Lake Cariba, a popular tourist destination in the
Speaker 1: northwest of Zimbabwe. Alexander Law, who was staying at the
Speaker 1: lakeside Cutty Sark Hotel, first saw it as a white
Speaker 1: light growing on the horizon. Soon after he realized it
Speaker 1: was in fact moving with what he counted to be
Speaker 1: fourteen other lights flashing around it. Looking closer, he was
Speaker 1: able to make out a dark center in the primary object,
Speaker 1: as well as a long orange tail that streamed behind it.
Speaker 1: Similar accounts flooded in from the region, with many reporting
Speaker 1: that the objects had been observed changing direction. Cynthia worked
Speaker 1: hard to make a recD cord of the sightings, but
Speaker 1: with most media outlets happy to accept the meteorite explanation,
Speaker 1: the event seemed destined to become little more than a
Speaker 1: forgotten celestial quirk. That was until something completely unexpected came
Speaker 1: to light. Children pour into the playground in a blur
Speaker 1: of khaki shorts, sky blue dresses, and bright red jumpers,
Speaker 1: spilling out into the acres of scrub with wild abandon
Speaker 1: before finally coalescing into more orderly groups. Some whiz around
Speaker 1: chasing balls or play on the seesaw and climbing frames,
Speaker 1: while others are content to just huddle together under the
Speaker 1: shade of the big eucalyptus tree. It's a beautiful late
Speaker 1: winter day without a cloud in the sky. Allison, a
Speaker 1: physiotherapist volunteering in the school talk shop outside, can't help
Speaker 1: but smile as she watches the children shriek and giggle
Speaker 1: about in the bright morning sun. There's a little more
Speaker 1: crackle than usual in the air that morning, owing to
Speaker 1: the fact that the teachers are still gathered inside for
Speaker 1: an early term staff meeting, giving the pupils free reign
Speaker 1: of the field. It had been left to Allison, whose
Speaker 1: ten year old daughter Fifi attends the school, to single
Speaker 1: handedly supervise the two hundred and fifty odd children. Built
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one, aerial school was constructed on the
Speaker 1: site of an old farm roughly twenty miles east of
Speaker 1: Ferrari in the town of Ruwa, a small rural community
Speaker 1: that also serves as a municipal hub for the many
Speaker 1: surrounding homesteads. As a fee paying facility, its pupils, aged
Speaker 1: six to thirteen, come from the wealthier parts of Zimbabwean society.
Speaker 1: They constitute a broad mix of ethnicities and a belly
Speaker 1: and Kranger, among other tribes to first and second generation
Speaker 1: European immigrants. The playground is divided into an area for
Speaker 1: swings and climbing frames used mostly by the younger children,
Speaker 1: and a two acre stretch of dirt and grass. Thick
Speaker 1: scrubland and a line of tall gum trees form a
Speaker 1: natural border at the end of the dirt flat. Beyond
Speaker 1: that runs a dry creek and vast swathes of savannah,
Speaker 1: which merges with a series of low rolling hills sloping
Speaker 1: gently at the horizon. Children from these parts no better
Speaker 1: than to disappear beyond such natural boundaries. After all, there's
Speaker 1: no telling what creatures might be lurking in the tall grass,
Speaker 1: waiting either to pounce with teeth and claw, or to
Speaker 1: defend themselves with deadly venom at the slightest hint of
Speaker 1: a threat. Eleven year old Salma is making her way
Speaker 1: towards her friend Emma at the back of the playground
Speaker 1: when she becomes aware of a loud, buzzing noise. A
Speaker 1: row of wooden utility poles and power cables run under
Speaker 1: the trees at the eastern edge of the playground and
Speaker 1: stretch off into the distant plains. The sound seems to
Speaker 1: be coming from there. Sama signals to Emma to join her,
Speaker 1: and the pair head over to investigate. As they draw
Speaker 1: closer to the trees, the buzzing intensifies when suddenly, a
Speaker 1: flash of light flares up from somewhere in the distance.
Speaker 1: What was that, asks Selma, as the pair turn to
Speaker 1: see where the light had come from. Look, says Emma,
Speaker 1: pointing to the far end of the playground. Salma and
Speaker 1: Emma watch with amusement as a small group of children
Speaker 1: gather by the trees at the edge of the playing field.
Speaker 1: It was as if someone had just called them over.
Speaker 1: Salma and Emma keep watching as more children join them,
Speaker 1: running across to them from all ends of the playground.
Speaker 1: Come on, says Emma, excitedly, grabbing Selma by the hand.
Speaker 1: At the tuck shop, supervisor Alison has just noticed how
Speaker 1: quiet it's become when twelve year old Luke comes tearing
Speaker 1: up to the hut, Come quickly. Allison listens patiently as
Speaker 1: Luke struggles to get his word out, something about a
Speaker 1: tiny man in a black, shiny suit with large eyes
Speaker 1: and a silver lace tied around his forehead. Alison, suspecting
Speaker 1: it might be a trick to lure her away from
Speaker 1: the sweets, has no intention of falling for it, But
Speaker 1: as Luke continues to babble, she becomes aware of the
Speaker 1: faint sound of crying. When she looks up, there are
Speaker 1: more children heading towards her. Some are wide eyed with alarm,
Speaker 1: while others are inconsolable with tears. All arrive with the
Speaker 1: exact same story that some kind of object landed in
Speaker 1: the trees at the back of the playground and two
Speaker 1: little beings with strange eyes wearing silver and black suits
Speaker 1: got out of it. Suddenly concerned by the obvious distress
Speaker 1: of the children, Alison looks around for her daughter, Fifi.
Speaker 1: She finally spots her, running towards the tuck shop. Why
Speaker 1: is everyone crying, Alison asks, because of the glowing white
Speaker 1: thing that landed, says Fifi. Allison stares at her daughter
Speaker 1: and finds no trace of mischief in her eyes. Inside
Speaker 1: the school, Headmaster Colin Mackie is just wrapping up the
Speaker 1: meeting when an urgent banging is heard on the staff
Speaker 1: room door. He opens it to find a pupil in
Speaker 1: an agitated state. A ship has landed in the playground,
Speaker 1: he says. Mister Mackie chuckles at the boy, telling him
Speaker 1: to go back outside and at the meeting will be
Speaker 1: over soon, before closing the door. Ten minutes later, the
Speaker 1: teachers emerge into the playground, chatting amiably as they walk
Speaker 1: into the light. Then, one by one, each of them
Speaker 1: falls completely silent. There before them. Instead of children laughing
Speaker 1: and playing as they'd expected, they see instead twenty or
Speaker 1: so pupils huddled together with tears streaming down their faces,
Speaker 1: while other classmates try to console them. Most of the
Speaker 1: others stand around in small groups, deep in conversation. Some
Speaker 1: are still wandering about in a strange days. Allison is
Speaker 1: comforting some of the children when mister Mackie approaches her.
Speaker 1: What on Earth's been going on? He asks, But before
Speaker 1: Alison can explain, the children drown her out, speaking rapidly
Speaker 1: over each other as they try to articulate exactly what
Speaker 1: they've apparently seen. Some say they saw it land, others
Speaker 1: that it was already there when the arrived. They speak
Speaker 1: of how it glinted in the trees and its oddly
Speaker 1: circular shape, but most of all, they just want to
Speaker 1: talk about the two beings that came out of it,
Speaker 1: and their peculiarly large eyes that seemed to wrap around
Speaker 1: their whole face. The teachers can only look to each
Speaker 1: other with complete disbelief. Despite its skepticism, head teacher mister
Speaker 1: Mackie is eager to get to the bottom of it
Speaker 1: all and asks anyone claiming to have seen something to
Speaker 1: follow him into the school hall. With over sixty children
Speaker 1: gathered inside, mister Mackie and two other teachers asked them
Speaker 1: to spread out with paper and pens and draw exactly
Speaker 1: what they saw. For the next thirty minutes, the children
Speaker 1: sit in concentrated silence, sketching and coloring, while the teachers
Speaker 1: talk among themselves, relieved to have finally calm the children down.
Speaker 1: Little attention is given to the array of bizarre saucer
Speaker 1: like shapes and stick figures now appearing simultaneously on pieces
Speaker 1: of paper throughout the hall. After thirty minutes, the children
Speaker 1: hand in their work. The teachers look down at the
Speaker 1: peculiar drawings as they receive them, more amused than anything else.
Speaker 1: As each new drawing comes in, they asked the child,
Speaker 1: was it not a helicopter you saw? Are you sure
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a farm hand from the next door homestead?
Speaker 1: And when each child insists that it wasn't, the teachers
Speaker 1: invariably reply, you've been watching too much TV, or they
Speaker 1: tell them that it was just their imagination and that
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as aliens from outer space. When
Speaker 1: the bell rings for class, the teachers gather up the
Speaker 1: last of the drawings and tell the children to try
Speaker 1: and forget about whatever it was they think they saw.
Speaker 1: But eleven year old Salma knows exactly what she's seen.
Speaker 1: Like many of the kids, her family don't even own
Speaker 1: a TV, and though some of her classmates talked about
Speaker 1: aliens and UFOs, she had never heard those terms before today.
Speaker 1: By the time she makes it home from school, she
Speaker 1: feels she's done nothing but speak about the event all afternoon,
Speaker 1: yet not one of the grown ups has heard a
Speaker 1: word she's been saying. So when her mother asks her
Speaker 1: what's up when she sits down for dinner, Salma is
Speaker 1: reluctant to talk. You won't believe me if I tell you,
Speaker 1: she says, as she pushes her food around the plate.
Speaker 1: None of my teachers do, but her mother perseveres, and
Speaker 1: finally Salma relents. Sama takes a deep breath and then begins.
Speaker 1: She tells her mother first about the flash of light
Speaker 1: and about how when it happened, she and her friend
Speaker 1: Emma had the feeling that time had squished, as if
Speaker 1: it were no longer a part of her thoughts. Sama
Speaker 1: also tells her mother about how when she and Emma
Speaker 1: had reached the crowd of kids gathered at the back
Speaker 1: of the playground. That's when they saw it, a large,
Speaker 1: silverish object on the ground by the trees. She didn't
Speaker 1: know what it was, but it seemed mechanical, like it
Speaker 1: might move away at any moment. Only it didn't look
Speaker 1: to be made from any material that she'd seen before.
Speaker 1: But what she was most transfixed by was the creature
Speaker 1: that stood in the long grass barely five yards away.
Speaker 1: It looked human like, she said, but no taller than
Speaker 1: a child, and its whole body was covered in a
Speaker 1: shiny black suit like a scuba diver. And its face
Speaker 1: she couldn't take her eyes off. Its face, a blank,
Speaker 1: smooth space like the surface of a porcelain jug, although
Speaker 1: it seemed to have no eyes, nose, or mouth. When
Speaker 1: she looked at it, she had the very distinct feeling
Speaker 1: that it was looking directly at her, as if it
Speaker 1: was trying to understand her. She said, it felt like
Speaker 1: it knew me, she tells her mother. What's more, it
Speaker 1: kept jumping back and forth from one place to another, only,
Speaker 1: as she explains, she never saw it actually move, almost
Speaker 1: as though it was only moving whenever she blinked. Were
Speaker 1: you afraid? Her mother asks. Salma looks up suddenly from
Speaker 1: her plate. You believe me, she says hopefully. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is you saw, but yes, I believe you.
Speaker 1: Salma's mouth burst into a wide grin. No, I wasn't afraid.
Speaker 1: That evening. Throughout the homes of the other sixty odd
Speaker 1: children who also claimed to have seen the extraordinary incident,
Speaker 1: the same conversation took place, despite their teacher's advice to
Speaker 1: forget about it. Like Salma, many other children also felt
Speaker 1: the apparent being had been studying them. Those who were
Speaker 1: left afraid by the whole ordeal endure a sleepless night.
Speaker 1: They stare out of their bedroom windows, terrified at the
Speaker 1: thought of the small, black suited creatures returning to steal
Speaker 1: them from their beds. Those two, afraid to even tell
Speaker 1: their parents are left to suffer their nightmares alone in
Speaker 1: the dark. Others stay up all night, their young minds
Speaker 1: whirring as they try helplessly to piece together what they've seen.
Speaker 1: Perhaps the teachers were right, they think, maybe it really
Speaker 1: was just their imaginations playing tricks on them. That evening,
Speaker 1: back home, in his living room, head teacher mister Mackie
Speaker 1: sifts through the drawings properly for the first time, becoming
Speaker 1: more and more troubled the more of them he sees.
Speaker 1: One after the other, he sees the same set of
Speaker 1: images drawn by each of the children, pictures of some
Speaker 1: kind of craft on the ground and humanoid figures with wide,
Speaker 1: bulbous eyes stretching high around the face. You've been listening
Speaker 1: to Unexplained Season seven, episode seventeen, What Lies in the
Speaker 1: Long Grass Part one, The second and final part, will
Speaker 1: be released next Friday, March eighth. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained as an Avy Club
Speaker 1: Productions podcast created by Richard mc lean Smith. All other
Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook,
Speaker 1: with stories never before featured on the show, is now
Speaker 1: available to buy world wide. You can purchase from Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, water Stones and other books stores. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can find out more at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained
Speaker 1: Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash, Unexplained Podcast.
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