Taken - Karla Turner-pages

Page 52 of 148

Page 52 of 148
Taken - Karla Turner-pages

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52 and doubts you have, but we can give you proof.” “Who are you?” Beth persisted. “Why are you telling me this?” “Don’t be afraid,” the strange voice continued. “We can give you proof. We want to talk to you, so next Thursday go to the botanical garden. Be there at ten. We know you. Don’t worry about looking for us. Don’t tell anybody, and go there alone.” Everything about the call was suspicious - the use of a disguised voice, the disturbing references to Beth’s “experiences,” the insistence that she come by herself to the meeting - and she felt the call implied a threat. She told the investigator with whom she was working, but she didn’t want to go to the garden. Later, however, Beth changed her mind, so she picked up the investigator and went on to the appointed place. Although neither of them saw any suspicious humans or any alien presences, Beth said a communication about love, faith, friendship, and service was put into her mind there in the garden. On the drive back home, Beth felt dizzy and ill. Her body didn’t seem to “work right,” and her sense of time was very disoriented. According to the clock, she even gained time on the return trip, and for a while thereafter, day and night seemed to come and go very quickly. Even more disconcerting was the clear sensation of her hand passing through solid objects as she reached for them. But the bizarre perceptions eventually passed, and there were no further phone calls. In 1990, two years after the flashback of the underground facility with humans and aliens working together, more of Beth’s memories of this event surface in a dream. She saw herself stepping out of an aircraft with two “military men.” They were in a desert-like area, reminiscent of the American southwest, with buildings that “matched” the desert environment. A dark, grassy pool of water was near a large metal building that looked like a warehouse inside. An old-fashioned wooden door opened to reveal a very high-tech metal door, through which Beth was taken into a large room. There she saw four big tables and a number of people. Some of them looked to be military, some were clad like scientists, and others appeared to be “regular” people. A uniformed, red-headed man, one of the two who had brought her to the facility, seemed to be “in charge” of her. Two more men entered the room, wearing outfits Beth described as similar to astronaut's gear. They talked with Beth and the other people, although she didn’t remember what was said, and then someone shouted and the group started running toward the back of the large room. The red-haired man grabbed her, and then the flashback ended, but the next morning Beth found bruises in the exact spot where the man had gripped her arm. The memory felt real, but she had no idea when such a fantastic event might have occurred. Of course, mysterious things had been happening all along and continued to occur-sightings of UFOs and strange lights, episodes of unexplained time gaps, occasional appearances of patterned bruises and punctures on her body-and for most of these events Beth had no explanation or memory, either. It was clear that her conscious recollections about these things were merely the tip of the iceberg, and whatever lay beneath the surface had been deeply suppressed. Beth might have been able to tell herself that all these events weren't real, that she had imagined them, until an event occurred which proved that the weirdness wasn’t only in her mind. In 1992 during a visit to Miami, she and a friend were driving from his house to her daughter’s home one night, a trip of thirty to forty-five minutes on the turnpike. They