I Want to Believe

 

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Sir Arthur Eddington

English astronomer (1882 - 1944)

 

Sometimes you think you have everything figured out. Sometimes you're wrong. I got a phone call out of the blue a few days ago. It was my mother and it went something like this:

 

Mom: "I was wondering if you ever watched that TV show 'The X-Files'".

 

Me, hestitantly: "Ummm, sure. Like a hundred years ago. It's been off the air awhile..."

 

Mom: " Well I thought you did and that's what I told your Aunt Gloria when she dropped off these X-Files things. She just wanted someone to have them who would appreciate them."

 

Me, confused: "Ummm, okay? Aunt Gloria?"

 

Mom: "Oh yes, she was a huge fan of 'The X-Files'. It was her favourite show, you know. She collected these X-Files things."

 

Me, still confused: "I had no idea... so she collected things?"

 

Mom, almost chirpy now: "Oh she did! She's just cleaning out her closets and she had these things and so I said you probably watched that show, so you'd appreciate them. I have them here for you. There's a shirt and some books and some dolls..."

 

Me, totally weirded out: "You mean figurines? The TV characters?"

 

Mom, still chirpy: "Oh sure, but they're dolls. I call them dolls."

 

Me, thinking about eBay: "Okay, well, I'll pick them next time I'm over..."

 

So my Aunt, in her late 60's, is an X-Files fan. She lives in the same town as I do and in all the years I've known her (like, all my life) we have never spoken of the X-Files. I have never heard her mention X-Files. Or aliens. Or ghosts. Or creatures in the sewers. I had no inkling that she was into sci-fi genre entertainment, let alone 'The X-Files'. I have never known her to watch much television, to be honest.

 

Truth be told, I did a little googling on the subject of X-Files figurines and had visions that maybe my Aunt's 'dolls' were the limited-edition 12" figurines that demand a few hundred dollars apiece by collector's (not that I would have sold them). But, of course, they aren't. Hers - now mine - are the more pedestrian 6" figurines that might go for $15 out on eBay.

 

Still, I'm mystified and impressed. The truth is out there, and often surprising.