She became so steeped in history she almost forgot why she’d cracked the scrapbook open. Then she found the three articles she’d been looking for.
The first was from the Alpha-PrimeEarthly Gazette, a monthly circular from back home that listed stories about commerce between the colony on Earth and Alpha-Prime. The article was about an agent sent by the Royal Magistrate Guard Academy to a place called Superstition, Minnesota to investigate after a few stories filtered back to Alpha-Prime about people there whosupposedlycould read minds.
The agent was in Minnesota for a few weeks to search out and either prove or disprove any alien, especially any Alpha, mind-reading activity. The fledgling agent was female, not unusual for Alpha-Prime, but more so for Earth in that time period. The first article was short, simply announcing her assignment and a brief description of the agent, Constance Brickwood. It included a black-and-white photo of a shorter than average, rather willowy Alpha. Constance had a serious and rather hollow look for someone as young as she was. Dixie Lou remembered thinking when she clipped the article that the agent had the expression of someone who was haunted.
The second article was about the report she sent back to the powers in the Alpha-Prime Royal Magistrate Guard a month later. Constance was of the opinion that while there were a greater than average amount of psychic businesses and the town had been named to help generate even more interest in palmistry and the like, she could find no Alpha influence in the area. Her conclusion: Humans in pursuit of the paranormal were responsible and simply trying to make a living by entertaining other earthlings.
A couple of weeks later, a third, very short, article reported the tragic loss of Constance in an accident that claimed her life before she left Earth.
She had been interred in a small church cemetery in Superstition, Minnesota, as poor Constance had no remaining family left back on Alpha-Prime.
Dixie Lou always thought that to be unusual. Even now, she wondered why the authorities on Alpha-Prime hadn’t insisted on bringing Constance back home for interment. She looked through a few more of her scrapbooks, but didn’t see any other references to Constance Brickwood, Superstition or any Alpha aliens living there.
After sitting cross-legged for too long, Dixie Lou stood up, stretched and did several squats to get the blood back into her legs. She scooped up the scrapbook with the three Superstition stories inside. She carefully packed her other precious scrapbooks back in the old bargain sea trunk and went downstairs.
She’d look on the computer machine to find out any further information. The computer had all sorts of information available. It had almost everything. If you knew what you were looking for, anyway.
Before she made it to her den, there was a knock at the door.
She opened it to see her very best friend, Miss Penny. “What’s cookin’?” Dixie Lou asked her friend, like she always did.
Miss Penny cackled and answered, “Not my goose, at least not today.” Just likeshealways did.
Dixie Lou opened the door wide. “Come on in, Miss Penny. I’m on a mission. It’s a secret one, so keep it under your hat.”
“Ooh. Sounds exciting. Can I help you on this secret mission? You know I can be trusted not to gossip.”
“Course you can. I’d love some help. This might be our greatest adventure yet.”
“Where are we going?”
“Minnesota.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ve never been that way before. I’d love to go. How are we getting up there?”
Dixie Lou put a finger to her cheek. “I’m not quite sure yet. But we’ll think of something.”
“What do we do first?”
“I need to do a bit of research in the computer machine and then we’ll make our plans.”
“That sounds fine.”
Dixie Lou thought back to her chat with Valene at the Cosmos Café, remembering the wistful, unhappy look on her niece’s face because she couldn’t marry the man she loved. Dixie Lou didn’t know if this plan of hers would result in anything helpful, but it was worth a try, to her mind.
Once she and Miss Penny had prepared and eaten a little snack, they went into her small den and turned the computer on.
Her nephews had all taken turns helping her try to navigate the internet highway, but sweet Valene had been the most patient and the most helpful. She had written various instructions down so Dixie Lou could go back and follow them for whatever she needed to do.
She found the local online paper in Superstition, theSuperstition Examiner. The town was about seventy miles north of Duluth. After reading only a few things, Dixie Lou looked at Miss Penny and said, “Superstition, Minnesota is very suspicious.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Fifty years ago, an Alpha agent was sent to ensure there were no mind-reading Alpha aliens there. But even today they have quite a booming year-round business in the trade.”
Miss Penny shrugged. “Maybe they are human mind readers.”
“I don’t know about that. It sounds fishy to me,” Dixie Lou said, scrolling through the latest news articles for the area.
