Superbird

Good morning. Welcome to Radio News Today. Twenty years ago today Superbird crashed into a hill in the middle of a desert. Well, we all know that, don't we? We all read the news in the Daily Star that said five people died: Ford, Stone, Sands, Bridges and Mount. But now I can tell you the good news.

Only four people died! That's right! Mary Mount came back from the journey to that strange land on Superbird. She's sixty years old now. This morning they let me visit Mary Mount. This is the first time she has ever spoken about the journey and the crash in the desert. Here is a recording of our conversation: Hello Mary.

It's nice to meet you. How are you? I'm OK. I'm feeling a little old, but I'm happy to be here. It's nice to talk to somebody new. Today Mary, is July 4th, twenty years since the crash in the desert. Is it really? Twenty years ago today? I knew it was a special day today.

Would you tell us about that journey twenty years ago? Well, it's strange. I've been quiet all this time. Then they said I can speak to you. So, yes, I think I can remember.

What would you like to know?' > [Illustration — p-02.png L] Well, could you tell us about that night in the desert? What happened exactly? Ah, that night. Yes, I can remember that night. We were flying over this strange new place. We were taking photos of lights. First, there were lots of lights below us, lots of lights all together.

Cities of lights. Then there were no lights. Just dark. And then there was a very loud noise, thunder, and something hit Superbird very hard. What was it? I don't know what it was. We tried the radio. Nothing. Then the lights in the ship went out. There was another loud noise, more thunder, and then lightning in the sky.

Then it became very quiet. Superbird's engines just stopped. Is that when you crashed into a hill? Well, Bill Ford tried to land Superbird on the sand first. In the desert. There was soft sand everywhere. We landed on the sand. But then Superbird bounced just like a ball. Once, twice, three times. That's when we hit the hill.

And that's when all the men died? No. No. Not then. Not straightaway. Bill Ford and Steve Stone died when we hit the hill, yes. Alan Sands was hurt.

He couldn't move. But Sam Bridges and I were OK. I looked out of the window of Superbird, but I couldn't see anything. No lights; just darkness. Everything was black. Sam and I were afraid. We held hands. 'Let's go outside,' Sam said. 'Let's get away from the ship before they come.' Who was he talking about?

I didn't know. I couldn't see anybody outside. I said, "What about Alan?' Alan heard me and he said, "You must go. Now. Go now before they come.' Did you leave Alan Sands on Superbird? Yes. We had to choose. We gave Alan a drink and then we left him on the floor. We opened the door of Superbird and went outside.

We walked down the hill. Then we saw lights on the road coming towards us fast. There were lots of bright lights and a very loud noise. What were they? Cars and trucks. We could only see the lights. We stayed close to the ground. We were hoping the lights would go on past us.

But they stopped near the hill. Then there were lots of people and lots of noise, people shouting at each other. They put a light on Superbird. I could see Alan inside Superbird. He was looking out of the window. Did they see you? No. We were in the dark and they were all looking at Superbird.

Then somebody shouted and a lot of them ran up the hill. Some of them went inside Superbird. I could hear guns. They shot Alan. I could hear him shouting, screaming. He couldn't escape. They shot him three times; three shots. Then everything was quiet. What about you? Did you have guns? No. We had nothing.

We stayed near the ground in the sand and watched from the dark. Then they came out of Superbird. They were carrying bags. Three bags. Ford, Stone and Sands. Then some of the lights went away, along the road, taking the bags. But some of them stayed on the hill. They were watching Superbird. But they couldn't see us.

What happened next? We just stayed there in the dark, waiting. We were afraid and we held hands. We waited for a long time. Then more lights came from the dark with a lot more people and a lot more noise. They put Superbird on a truck and then they tried to drive it away into the dark. a ea eS —+ a » But Superbird was very heavy and the truck stopped in the sand lots of times.

At last they drove it away. It became very quiet again. There were still a few people and some lights but we couldn't hear any noise. Could you see the people? We were a long way away. But some of them were sitting under the lights and they looked very big, much bigger than us.

We were afraid but we decided to move towards the lights to look at the people. We soon got close to the people. What did they look like? Did they look like us? No. Not at all. They were very tall. They had brown hair all over their heads and they had something in the middle of their faces.

Like our noses but much bigger. And some had things over their eyes, things which came from their ears. Some had hair on their faces too. Did they wear clothes? Yes, they did, brown clothes. But not like ours. The clothes covered their bodies, they covered their arms, their legs and even the tops of their heads.

And they wore guns. But one of them was different. It had very long yellow hair right down its back. And it didn't have a gun. It was sitting. A very big brown-haired person was standing, talking to it. Could you understand what they were saying? I could hear them clearly. But the sounds were strange.

The words were not the same as ours. The brown-haired one was very loud. It was shouting.

The yellow-haired one was quieter, saying something like 'sir'. Over and over. Did they see you? Well, we stayed in the dark listening. Then there was a loud noise and the sky was full of light. The people saw us. They shot at us with their guns. We got up and ran back into the dark very fast.

They ran after us, shooting their guns. Now the sky was dark again and I ran up the hill. When I got to the top of the hill I stayed near the ground. Sam … Sam didn't run up the hill. He … he ran the other way, into the desert. They saw him …

He couldn't escape .. .They shot him. Are you OK? Yeah, yeah, I'll be OK. I am very sad when I think of Sam. I liked Sam very much. I still think of him all the time. Do you want to stop? We can talk again later. No, no, I'm all right now. Where was I?

You were telling me about Sam Bridges. Yes, that's right. They shot him four or five times. He fell down and they shot him again. They put their lights on his body and one of them said, "No blood'. Something like that. And the others all said something like, "Wow!" Did they find you? No.

They looked for me everywhere with their lights but they didn't come up the hill.

After a long time they went back to their cars and trucks and some of the cars drove away. Then I fell asleep. How long did you sleep? I don't know. But when I woke up the sky was not so dark. I could see a big red light in the sky, a long way away.

Then I moved along the ground on my hands and knees to the top of the hill and down the other side. Then I ran away from the red light. It became lighter and lighter and the sky changed from black to blue. I ran and ran and then I saw a house. When I got near the house I saw lots of small people.

They were all white, except one which was black; and they had four legs. They were eating something green in the sand. When they saw me they made strange noises and ran away towards the house. I ran too, towards the house. Why? Why didn't you run away from the house? I don't know. All I knew was that I wanted to run away from the light; I was afraid and tired and the house was dark.

But it got lighter and soon the sky was blue and there was a yellow sun in the sky. eR se Eager. SRR oeaceae r, te Sl Sore roe mee as

What happened when you got to the house? Oh well, when I got to the house I looked through an open window and I could see one of the big people. It was one of the people with yellow hair, like the one which was saying 'sir'. This one had no clothes on at all and it was sitting in water.

Its body was wet and very white. I could hear it singing through the open window. Did it see you? Not at first. But then another person, a person with four legs ran towards me. This one was brown and small; and it had long hair. It shouted very loudly in a strange voice. It wasn't friendly.

The person in the water looked up and saw me through the window. It screamed very loudly and I screamed very loudly too. The four-legged person ran away. Then we were silent. We didn't scream anymore. I smiled at the yellow-haired person and it smiled at me. Was it still in the water? Yes, it was.

But then it got out of the water, put on a white coat and it came outside the house to meet me. We looked at each other for a long time and then it touched my hand. Its hand was still wet but it was soft like Sam's hand the night before. We held hands and then it took me inside the house.

What happened in the house?

We went into a big room and sat down on chairs at a table. The four-legged person came back. The other one spoke to it quietly and it sat down near my feet and was Co hi Al pes re Did they speak to you? The four-legged one did but the yellow-haired one said nothing.

It just smiled and held my hand. Then the yellow- haired one gave me something to eat. It was brown and flat and it was inside something which was white. The yellow- haired one put something red from a bottle on top of the brown thing and then smiled at me again. It also gave me a drink, a sort of cold, brown drink.

I ate some of the food, drank some of the drink and tried to smile too. What did it taste like? I thought it might be dangerous to eat, but it was OK. What happened after you ate the food? The yellow-haired one took me into another room and put me into a bed. I lay down with my head on something white and soft.

It put its mouth on my face. Then it left the room and the smaller person jumped onto the bed and went to sleep with me. When I woke up the big one was standing by the bed smiling. It was wearing a long red thing but I could see its legs. It gave me a newspaper just like the Daily Star.

There were lots of words, which I couldn't understand, but there were also two photos. One photo was of Superbird on the hillside. The other one was of Sam and myself with the lightning behind us in the sky. The yellow-haired person pointed to the photo of me and then pointed to me. Again it smiled.

What did it do with the photo? It gave it to me. It cut the photo out of the newspaper and gave the photo to me. It put its finger on Sam in the photo and I started to cry. We both cried then and the four-legged one started to shout again. I've still got the photo.

Here it is, I've never shown it to anybody before. You are the first person to see it. It's not very clear now, the paper is yellow. But I can see it's very important to you. Take care of it. I will. It's my only photo of Sam. Were there other people in the house?

No, there was nobody else in the house. Just the two of them. There were many small people outside, the white people I saw before, but there were no other people in the house. For three days there were no other people in the house. But I did hear a car one night and voices came and then went away.

For three days I stayed in bed, often with the small one lying next to me, licking my hands and sometimes my face. Every night the yellow-haired person put its mouth on my face and then went away. Every morning when I woke up it was standing by my bed smiling. feo uae Wikia Sc esiaewe te he il 4 BN NG pe ' Ate Sal > are

What happened after the three days? When I woke up on the morning of the third day, the yellow-haired person was standing by my bed. It was smiling. It put its mouth on my face and then held my hand. I saw then that it had only five fingers on each hand. It pulled me gently out of the bed and took me into another room.

In this room there were four very big people with brown hair and brown clothes sitting on chairs. They all had guns but they smiled at me and I smiled back at them. They took me to a car and put me in the back seat " with the yellow-haired person. It held my hand while one 7 of the brown-haired people put something over my eyes so that I couldn't see.

Everything was dark again. I could hear the four-legged person shouting outside the car. Where did they take you? I don't know. When the car stopped somebody put their dl mouth on my face and got out of the car. Then the car moved again just a little way. When it stopped this time, somebody took my hand and pulled me gently out of the car.

We walked for about two hundred metres and then stopped. They took the thing off my eyes and I could see that I was in a room. It was a nice room — very big and colourful. There were three brown-haired people there. They smiled at me and then we all sat down at a table.

Did you have something to eat?

No, not this time. They showed me a photo of Superbird on the hill after the crash, and they gave me a pen. At first ] didn't know what they wanted me to do, so I just took the pen and smiled at the people. Then one of them started drawing Superbird with a pen on a piece of paper.

Suddenly I knew what to do. I drew a picture of Superbird as it wa: before the crash. Then they all smiled too. But, of course, I made mistakes in my drawing. I didn' draw the real Superbird. I drew ten windows not eigh windows and I drew only one door, not two doors. I als drew the wrong shape.

Did they know that you were making mistakes? Not at first. But then one of them stopped smiling. I took the drawing from me and looked at it carefully. Then i started shouting at me very loudly and it took out its gun. What did you do? Were you afraid? Very afraid. I threw the pen at the person with the gun and I ran out of the room. is Did they run after you?

No, they just shouted. Did they shoot at you? No, they didn't. I ran out of the room. I went through a big door and into a garden. There was nobody there. Just me and some trees. Nobody ran after you? No. I stopped and looked around. There was a high wall E around the garden and I saw a door at the end of the wall. ) The door was open, so I quickly walked towards it.

I went through the door and then saw the yellow-haired person standing on the road. It smiled at me, walked over to me, t held my hand and then took me back through the gate, t through the garden and back to the room. Why didn't you try to run away? I don't know. I think because it was my friend.

It was 1 always nice to me. The three brown-haired people were still sitting round the table. They just smiled at me when they saw me. They gave me the pen again and another piece of paper and they watched me as I drew. This time I drew a picture of the real Superbird. understand.

How long did you stay there? In the room? No, |mean on the planet Earth. A long time. Maybe nine months. I lived with the yellow-haired person. It told me its name was June and that it was a woman. She was very kind to me and we were good friends. She taught me their language.

It's called = English. And I taught some of them our language too.

So tell us, Mary, how did you get back here? How did you After we learnt to speak to each other the people from Earth told me they wanted to take me home. And I wanted to come home. But we had to re-build Superbird first. I helped them. Then I taught them how to fly it.

Late one night, June came to my room with the four- legged person (it was called a dog; its name was Shep) and a lot of brown-haired people, who were all men. She put her mouth on my face while someone took a photo. Then she started to cry. I asked her why she was crying, but she didn't speak.

She just turned round and left the room, still crying. I could hear Shep shouting as they put the thing over my eyes and took me to a car. Then they drove very fast and for a long way. When the car stopped they took the thing off my eyes and I could see Superbird.

When I got into Superbird I saw two brown-haired people wearing brown clothes. Their names were Jim and Steve and they told me that they were going to take me home. The three of us smiled and held hands as Superbird took off. I was sad when I thought of Sam. And of Ford Stone and Sands.

And I was sad when I thought of my friends in the house in the desert. But I was also very happy because I was going home. Something happened when you got back here, didn't it?

Yes. That's right … the journey back was fine. Then Jim and Steve told me to land Superbird in a desert at night. So I landed it in the middle of the Dark Desert. Jim and Steve were not very friendly. They didn't smile. They got out their guns and told me to get into the small Supercar which was near the back door of Superbird.

They opened that door and then got into the back seat of the it They told me to drive the car off Superbird and into the desert. Then they told me to drive towards the hills. It was very dark but with lightning in the sky; just like the night when we crashed on Earth nine months before.

They told me to drive without lights; so I drove very slowly. Were you afraid? Well, yes, I was. I thought about what they did to Sam Bridges and to Alan Sands. I knew they could be dangerous. I didn't want to hurt them. But I thought they were going to kill me. It was very easy in the dark to start the Hiss machine.

I just pressed the button under the radio. They didn't know about that. There was a small noise as the gas came out. They screamed for a short time and then they were dead. What about you? What about the gas? I was all right. The gas we used kills people but it doesn't hurt us.

But they made the new Superbird on Earth. Why didn't they know about the gas? They took the Supercar from the old Superbird. It was OK.

They just put it in the new Superbird. I didn't tell them about the gas. I don't really know why. It didn't seem to be important. What happened next? I put the car lights on and then I drove back to Superbird. I didn't know where I was exactly so I put all the lights on and waited for somebody to come.

Soon 4 plane landed and four soldiers ran towards me with guns. I stood in the light waving my arms and shouting my name. Somebody shot a gun but it missed me. Then somebody shouted, 'Don't shoot. It's Mary Mount. She' come back.' But why did they tell us you were dead? Where did you go?

The soldiers took me to a hospital and they asked me lots of questions. Every day for six months they asked me questions. They wanted to know all about the Earth people. They wanted to know what I told the Earth people. I told the soldiers everything, just like I'm telling you. I told them about the drawings of Superbird I did for the Earth people and how I helped them build Superbird again.

They became angry. They left me here all these years. I have been growing old in a small room with a soldier outside the door. And then today they opened the door and I walked out into the garden. And you were sitting there, smiling at me. Why? Why what? Why have they locked me in a room all these years?

And why have they let me out now? don't know. What do you think? I think they didn't want me to tell people about my visit to Earth. Maybe they didn't want me to talk about how Sam died or about the brown-haired people who came back with me on Superbird. But why? Maybe they want people here to feel friendly towards people on Earth.

Or maybe they didn't want me to talk about my friends on Earth because they want people here to feel angry towards people on Earth. I don't know… Ladies and gentlemen that's where the recording of my conversation with Mary Mount finished. A soldier who was watching 'us came over. He said his name was > [Illustration — p-11.png L] !

Captain Lake. He told me to turn my tape recorder off. We asked him why we had to turn it off. He said he could not tell us. But he did say that, in the next twenty-four hours, they were going to Earth again for the first time in twenty years. Captain Lake then asked Mary Mount to go to Earth with them because she speaks English and because of her experience on Earth. !

Mary said she was happy to return to Earth after such a long time. At this moment Mary Mount is with the other astronauts preparing to travel to Earth. There are five Superbirds going to Earth. She also told me she will be happy to speak to me on the radio when she returns from her second journey to Earth.

So, Mary Mount, if you are listening: have a safe journey and we look forward to talking to you when you return. One year later rh — i,

Good morning. Welcome to Radio News Today. We are here 'live' at the place where the Superbird spaceships are about to land. There is a big crowd here to meet Mary Mount, Captain Lake and the other astronauts. There are people in cars, people sitting on seats, people everywhere. The atmosphere is fantastic. There are hundreds of photographers here.

And all over the world people are watching on TV. And here on Radio News Today, soon after the Superbirds land, Mary Mount is coming to speak to us about her second journey to the planet Earth. Mary Mount left on Superbird 2 from here but is returning on a spaceship they built on Earth.

It is called Big Bird. Everyone here is waiting to see what Big Bird looks like. The news reports in The Daily Star say that there are human beings on the ship and everyone is very interested to see what Earth people look like too. And here they come now. And there is Big Bird.

Big Bird looks similar to Superbird, but much bigger. All the people are very excited. They are shouting and calling. But | the noise of Big Bird is much louder than the people shouting. It's just landing now, and any moment we'll be | able to see Mary Mount and the other astronauts come | out of Big Bird. > [Illustration — p-13.png L] The door is opening.

Everybody is shouting and cheering. And there is Mary Mount. And with her is an old man. They're holding hands. People are shouting and smiling and taking photographs. And here are some humans. Everyone is waving to them now. And here come the other members of the crew. Mary Mount is going back into the ship.

She's bringing out an animal. It's a dog, I think. They're all standing in front of the spaceship now, waving to the people, shouting 'hello', smiling. I can't see Captain Lake at this moment. Hundreds of photographers are taking photos for newspapers and magazines. And all over the world people are watching on TV. They are watching two people from different worlds holding hands.

It's a fantastic moment. All the astronauts are getting into cars now. And very soon we are going to speak to Mary Mount about her journey to Earth…

And, as we promised, here now is Mary Mount. Hello Mary? Hello. How are you? Fine. What about you? You must be tired after such a Yes, a little, but I'm fine. Can you tell us your story about the journey? Sure. What would you like to know? Well, we saw that Captain Lake was not with you.

Where is he? Is he all right? Well, Captain Lake is still on Earth. He's in prison. In prison? Yes, in prison. It's a long story… Well, we would all like to hear that story. Well … OK … It all started with the flight to Earth. There were five spaceships. On my spaceship there were seven people altogether.

There was Captain Lake and the other members, Hill, Forest, Woods, Home and Beach. How did you feel about going back to Earth? I didn't know what to feel. I was happy because I was going back to Earth where I had many friends. I was worried because of what happened twenty years ago with Jim and Steve.

Yes, I can understand. How long did the flight take? Seven days. I slept a lot. And I had a lot of dreams about Earth. In my dreams I saw my friend June singing in the bath. I could also see Sam in my dreams and lights in the sky and guns killing Sam …

I became good friends with Sylvia Beach. I also spent a lot of my time with the others on Superbird 2. I told them about life on Earth and I taught them some English. I taught them to say 'hello' and 'please' and 'thank you', and I taught them lots of words like 'beer', 'coke', 'dollar' and 'bed'.

What do they mean? What do these words mean? I'll teach you English if you like. OK. Then maybe I can go to Earth.

Yes, all right. One strange thing about the journey to Earth was that Captain Lake didn't speak to me the whole journey. He was very quiet. He never spoke to you? Well, yes … But only twice. The first time was on the last night. He asked me to tell him about the first crash in the desert again.

He wanted me to tell him about Alan Sands. He said he was a good friend of Alan's. He looked angry when I told him how Alan died. I was worried that he would not be friendly to the humans. Then, the next day, we looked out of the window and I saw that Superbird 2 was near the Earth.

Captain Lake talked to me again. He asked me to speak in English with the people from Earth. So while Superbird 2 flew round the Earth I spoke to the humans in English on the radio. The other four Superbird spaceships stayed away. What did you say? I said to the people on Earth: "This is Mary Mount.

I'm your friend. There are seven of us. We want to land. We want to be your friends. Can we land?' "Why have you come back?' the humans asked me. "Where are Jim and Steve? Are they with you?" 'No,' I said. "They are not with us. I can explain when we land. We want to make friends with the people on Earth.' The humans didn't want us to land at first.

"What about Jim and Steve?' the humans asked again. 'They're dead. I will explain everything when we land. I'm sorry they are dead. We want to be your friends.' "We want to be your friends too,' the humans said. We needed to land, so I said, "We want to land in the desert. Is it OK for us to land?' 'OK.

We'll meet you there. But please don't use any guns,' the humans said. "We won't,' I said, 'we promise.

Thank you.' Then what happened? Superbird 2 flew over the desert and I looked down on the night sky. This time there were no lights in the sky and no noise. Everything was black below us and everything was very quiet. Suddenly there was a very loud noise, the noise of guns. It was Captain Lake.

He was shooting at the Earth. Then the sky was full of lights. It was the guns of the humans. They were shooting back at us. What did you do? I started shouting at Captain Lake: "This is terrible. Don't shoot at the people on Earth. Stop!' Did he stop? No. Then there was a fire on Superbird 2.

I looked out of the window as Superbird 2 tried to land in the desert. I saw all the soldiers and the guns and people running away from where Superbird 2 was trying to land. And I screamed when we hit the ground and then crashed into a hill. 'It's just like twenty years ago,' I thought.

This time my leg hurt and my arm too. And then Superbird 2 was on fire. I remember I thought 'I must get out. I must get out…'

How did you get out? I don't know. When I woke up I saw I was in a bed and I heard people talking in another room. It was dark in the room and I couldn't see what was in there. Did you get out of bed? No. I couldn't get out of bed because of my leg.

I just shouted, "Hello! Where am I?' In the dark I could just see some people coming into the room. One of them put the light on. It was a man wearing a white coat. There was also a young woman who looked like June. She had yellow hair and long legs, just like June.

And then I heard a dog shouting. They call it 'barking'. A dog? In a hospital? Well, it wasn't a hospital. And I knew the dog. 'Shep!' I shouted. 'Shep, come here.' 'It's not Shep,' said the young woman. 'It's Judd, the son of Shep.' The dog came into the room and started barking at me.

'OK Judd. Be quiet! said the young woman. "This is Mary. She's our friend.' The dog stopped barking and was friendly, just like Shep was. Who was the woman? It was the woman you saw arrive in Big Bird today.

Her name is Sheila. She's June's daughter. She has the same colour hair, yellow, just like her mother's. And the same T=. vo a colour eyes. The first time I saw Sheila I thought it was | June. Sheila said that her mother died a few years ago. 'I'm very happy to meet you,' Sheila said to me.

My mother told me all about you. She talked about you all the time.' 'I'm happy too,' I said. But I was very sad about June… The man in the white coat was a doctor. He said to me: 'You're a very lucky woman, Mary. You're lucky to be alive. The spaceship was on fire when they pulled you out.

You | fie ae eee j "te i oR, Vi, I ia J fT Ase a | f' ro ra ee! i What happened to the others, to the other people on Superbird 2? Most of them died. Two of them were OK. Who were they? One of them was Sylvia Beach. She was the only woman.

I was very glad that Sylvia was still alive. You said it wasn't a hospital. Yes, I suddenly became very tired and everybody left me alone to go to sleep. When I woke up it was light and Judd was on my bed. Then I knew I was in the same room that I slept in twenty years ago.

I was back in the house in the desert where June and Shep used to live. I looked around the room. The pictures, the flowers and the bed were new. But it was the same old room and I was very happy to be back. Were you still hurt? My leg and arm still hurt, but I could walk.

I had a bath in the same bath where I first saw June, where I saw June singing. Then I got dressed and went into the kitchen. There were two soldiers sitting at the table. They were wearing the same brown clothes the soldiers wore twenty years before. Sheila was sitting with them too. "Good morning, Mary,' said one of the soldiers.

'How do you feel?' "Good morning,' I said. 'I'm OK.' 'Good,' said the soldier. 'My name is Major Jones. We want you to help us.' "To help you?' I asked. 'How? 'It's very important.

There are four Superbirds going round and round the Earth. We want you to talk to them. We want you to tell their captains to land the Superbirds : on Earth. We don't want to fight. We want to be friends.' { Was it true? Did they want to be friends? | I think so.

But I said to Major Jones, 'You shot your guns at Superbird 2 first!' { a ae Bee | <t we 'No, you shot at us first,' said Major Jones. 'Is that true?' I asked, 'Captain Lake shot at you first?" | "Yes, it's true," he said. 'We didn't want to shoot.' ! Why did Captain Lake shoot at them?

I think because he was still angry about what happened to his friend, Alan Sands, twenty years before. Or maybe he | was afraid they would shoot at Superbird 2. I Did you help Major Jones? | Yes, I talked to the captains of the other four Superbirds | and I told them that it was OK to land.

I told them that i the Earth people wanted to be our friends. | Did you tell the people on the other four Superbirds about what Captain Lake did, the people he killed, and about the crash. No, I didn't. Did they ask about the crash? Yes. They saw the crash on the television screens.

I told them we were OK. Why? I didn't want them to be afraid. I wanted them to land and to make friends with the Earth people. Did they land? Yes. In the afternoon the four Superbirds landed in the desert. I went with Sylvia Beach to meet the crews as they came out of their spaceships.

There were lots of soldiers there but no guns. The soldiers were smiling and friendly and they helped the crews to get into cars. They took them to a hospital in the desert to make sure they were OK. I went with them to the hospital so that they could look at my arm and leg and so that I could talk for the crews.

Did you stay in the hospital? No. I wanted to stay with Sheila and Judd. But every morning a soldier drove me to the hospital to see the doctor about my arm and my leg and to talk to the crews. Every afternoon they drove me back to Sheila's house. This happened for a week.

One afternoon when I came back to the house there was the soldier, Major Jones, sitting at the table drinking coffee with Sheila. What did he want? He said I had to go somewhere with him. He wanted me to answer some questions.