My First Meeting with Rama 43"Charles, are you really interested?"
"Interested in what," I teased. "You'll have to be a little
more specific."
"What would your reaction be if one day you were
walking down the beach somewhere and suddenly you
see a flying saucer come down and people started
emerging from the saucer, walk up to you and engage
you in conversa tion?"
"I'd probably either go into shock immediately or start
running like hell."
"Why that type of reaction?"
"Scared. Fear of the unknown, like most people, I
guess."
"What if I were to tell you that on the first week of
July, 1968 , you spoke to an extraterrestrial?"
"How could you know something like that? That's
almost six years ago."
"Listen to me very carefully; I will make you recall.
You were in New York City on business. It was about 3
o'clock in the afternoon. You were standing at the
subway station on the corner of Hillside Avenue and
Parsons Boulevard, waiting to take an E or F train to go
to the Paramount Pictures building in Manhattan. You
spoke to a girl holding a sweater in 85 degree weather."
"Yes, I remember it very well," I said, no longer
amazed by her ability to discern these things. "She went
with me to the office and afterwards to Radio City Music
Hall. Later we dined together. And eventually she
almost ruined my life."
"I'm glad you remember, Chacho, because here comes
the punchline. Do you remember what happened after
you dropped the girl off?"
"Yes, I went to Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street to
pick up my car at a garage and then drove out to Long
Island.
"Aren't you forgetting something else that happened?"
"A hitchhiker thumbed a ride with me from Manhattan