Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

you?" Brian asked."Yes, I did," Deidre answered, pleased at his familiarity with her interest."Do you remember the conference, Malcolm?" Brian followed. "Were you stillworking on your Ph.D. when it was held?""Yeah. The thing really caused a stink on campus. Some professors andadministrators didn't think it was the kind of thing the Institute should be involved with.""What did you think?" Deidre wondered aloud."Not much. Seemed kind of weird to me. I just assumed it was about debunkingthe whole thing. You make it sound like it was serious. ""It was. An account of the conference was published after-ward, along with aseries of interviews with the keynote speakers and some abductees. Have either of youdone any reading on the subject?""A little bit, actually," Brian answered. "I read a chapter or two out of JohnMack's book.""Really! Dr. Mack is a wonderful man, and a courageous one. He's taken a gooddeal of professional criticism for his work." "Who's John Mack?" asked Malcolm."A psychiatry prof at Harvard," answered Brian. "He's treated a hundred or sopeople who claim to have been abducted by aliens. He wrote a best-selling book on thesubject based on some of that casework. Needless to say, his research has raisedeyebrows in Harvard Yard. I suppose that's why you wanted to go to Harvard—to studyunder him.""Absolutely. He told me that my rejection was due in part to the university'sefforts to punish him for his views.""And taking away grad students is a good way to censure him, no doubt," notedBrian."You got it.""I take it then that you have an interest in this kind of thing," Deidre surmised."Just in passing," Brian replied. "I only branched over to Mack's book because ofmy interest in UFOs.""I suspected as much, what with your catch on Mark's work on cattle mutilations.""Oh, here we go," moaned Malcolm."Take it easy, Malcolm," he chuckled, "I haven't had any alien contact. It's justthat I've been interested in that topic ever since junior high. I've probably read ten orfifteen books on the subject.""You guys just don't seem like the type who'd be interested in this . . . stuff," saidMalcolm, "especially you, Deidre.""Deidrewhat happened to Dee? You're a little disappointedin me, huh?" Malcolm shrugged."I'll tell you what got me interested," she retorted, accepting the challenge. "If youas a black man were married to a white woman before the Civil Rights movement, say in1961, how much effo r t do you think you'd put into vaulting your marriage into the publiceye?""Are you serious? NoneI'd just be happy to be left alone, thank you.""Exactly.""Exactly what? What does that have to do with all this weird alien crap?""The first alien abduction case to be tho r oughly studied was the 1961 case ofBetty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who lived in New Hampshire. It was also the70