“I don’t remember if they were blue. May have been. I just remember all the lights. And it simply hovered there. It was saucer-shaped, just like in the movies. That’s when I knew I could never tell anyone. I couldn’t believe it myself. What would my family in England say if they knew? Elspeth Hornby was seeing flying saucers. I pulled the car over. I was terrified, but, well, I don’t know what else I was, enthralled, I guess, enchanted. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. The world was suddenly as it was when I was a child and believed in fairies in the dell and such. What could it be doing here? In British Columbia? I said nothing about it to my granddaughter, who was in the backseat and didn’t seem to notice. I said, ‘Grandma just needs to get out and check the tires.’ I didn’t want to alarm her. And who knew if the aliens or whatever was in there were friendly. I got out and just stared up at it. I didn’t know what else to do. And then it sped away in the blink of an eye. I’ve never seen anything move so fast in my life.”

“Yes!” said Sina. “Yes!”

“Did you call the Canadian Space Institute?” I asked.

“No. As I said, I’ve never told anyone. And no one else has ever mentioned seeing such a thing to me. I’ve carried it in here.” She pointed to her head, then her heart, then her head again. There seemed to be some confusion with Mrs. Hornby about where she was carrying it. “All these years.”

Well, we stood there the way people do when gathered after a disaster, as if not knowing quite what to say about it, but being united by it all the same.

Then Miss Macy spoke. “I was a Brownie leader, you know. Am a Brownie leader.”

We looked at her but said nothing. It was just like Miss Macy to start spouting non sequiturs at such a moment.

“I need to take the girls hiking and camping.” Miss Macy went on as if we hadn’t just heard the most extraordinary story. “Would you mind it if I took them on your property, Sina? It’s so big, you see, and there must be so many promising places. And we could go for little practice hikes before camping to make sure the wee things are up to it. As you know, I walk there often myself, but I want to see how far my little troop can go.”

“Uh, all right,” said Sina and then jerked her shoulders straight as she came out of the spell.

“Yes, I must be off,” said Mrs. Hornby and picked up her mail and trotted out, leaving us with dozens of unanswered and probably unthought-of questions.