OCTOBER 8 1955 - SWELL, NEVADA: HOTEL PROPRIETOR, MILLARD ALTEMOSE, NOTIFIED LOCAL AUTHORITIES ON JUNE 3 1955 OF AN INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED TWO DAYS PRIOR(JUNE 1 1955), BEGINNING AT APPROXIMATELY 20:00 HOURS AT THE MAS SUENOS MOTEL, 5230 RODEO STREET.

THE INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO MR. ALTEMOSE BY MR. ALTEMOSE’S NOW-FORMER NIGHT CLERK, HAROLD CLEMONS, ALSO (FORMERLY) OF SWELL, NEVADA. ACCORDING TO MR. ALTEMOSE, MR. CLEMONS, AFTER REPORTING THE DETAILS OF THAT NIGHT’S INCIDENT, CONCLUDED THE PHONE CALL BY IMMEDIATELY ENDING HIS TERM OF EMPLOYMENT AT THE MAS SUENOS HOTEL, STATING, ‘NOT A CHANCE IN HELL I’M STAYING ANOTHER NIGHT IN THIS ROACH TRAP AFTER WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH. YOU COULDN’T FIND THE MONEY ENOUGH TO GET ME TO STAY, AND I’VE NEVER SKIPPED PAST A PENNY ON THE SIDEWALK WITHOUT PICKING IT UP.’

ACCORDING TO MR. CLEMONS, AND VERIFIED BY THE MOTEL’S LEDGER, SEVEN OF THE SIXTEEN ROOMS WERE OCCUPIED THAT EVENING. MR. CLEMONS WAS EXPECTING NO FURTHER GUESTS THAT EVENING AND ASSERTED THAT, EXCEPT FOR ONE GUEST’S NOISY CHILDREN, WHO, ‘COULD BE HEARD FROM HERE TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL’, THE SITUATION AT THE PREMISES THAT NIGHT WAS UNREMARKABLE.

CLEMONS STATED THAT, JUST AFTER THE SUNSET FOR THE EVENING, HE WITNESSED FROM HIS WEST-NORTHWEST FACING DESK A FLASH OF BLINDING WHITE LIGHT LASTING NO LESS THAN SIXTY SECONDS. THE BLAST WAS DESCRIBED AS, VISUALLY, NOT DISSIMILAR TO ATOMIC EXPLOSIONS AS PORTRAYED IN FILM. MR. CLEMONS IMMEDIATELY ROSE TO HIS FEET AND RAN OUT INTO THE PARKING LOT OF THE MAS SUENOS MOTEL, WHERE HE WAS JOINED BY TWO TO FOUR OF THE MOTEL’S GUESTS.

THOUGH THE SKY HAD RETURNED TO ITS NORMAL COLOR, A STIFLING SILENCE ENVELOPED THE ENTIRE AREA. DESPITE SEEING THEIR LIPS MOVE, MR. CLEMONS REPORTED BEING UNABLE TO HEAR A WORD THE MOTEL GUESTS WERE SHOUTING AT HIM. SIMILARLY, MR. CLEMONS COULD NOT HEAR HIS OWN VOICE OR HEARTBEAT.

CLEMONS ALSO REPORTED BEING UNABLE TO HEAR THE ‘SOUND OF A SINGLE CRICKET, THOUGH EVERY OTHER NIGHT THEY WERE NOISIER THAN A MULE DEER IN RUT.’ MR. CLEMONS WENT ON TO DESCRIBE THE SILENCE AS ‘ABSOLUTE’, ‘TOTAL’, AND ‘ENOUGH TO KNOCK THE WIND OUT OF YOUR CHEST. AND THEN SOME.’

AT THIS POINT, MR. CLEMONS RECALLED MOST OF THOSE GUESTS WHO HAD COME OUTSIDE WALKING UNSTEADILY BACK TOWARDS THEIR ROOMS BEFORE THE ‘OUTBREAK’ OF ANOTHER SERIES OF TWO TO THREE PULSES OF WHITE LIGHT. MR. CLEMONS SAID THAT, AT ONCE, HE FELT HIS HEARING RETURN AND THAT HE COULD ‘FEEL THE COLOR OF THE LIGHT IN HIS EARS’ SAYING THAT IT ‘FELT LIKE DEATH MUST SOUND’.

AT SOME POINT THEREAFTER, MR. CLEMONS LOST CONSCIOUSNESS. IT IS UNKNOWN FOR HOW LONG MR. CLEMONS WAS INCAPACITATED. WHEN HE REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS, MR. CLEMONS FOUND HIMSELF BACK NEAR HIS DESK, LAYING FLAT, FACE-FIRST ON THE FLOOR OF HIS OFFICE.

IN THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT, MR. CLEMONS RACED OUT OF HIS OFFICE TO THE ROOMS OF THE MOTEL TO CHECK ON HIS GUESTS. THE FIRST ROOM MR. CLEMONS REACHED, ROOM #3, HAD BEEN RENTED BY MR. & MRS. ANTHONY FIGUEREDO OF WEST HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK. MR. CLEMONS REPEATEDLY KNOCKED ON THE DOOR OF ROOM #3 AND IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS THE NIGHT CLERK.

WHEN HE FAILED TO RECEIVE ANY REPLY TO HIS INQUESTS, MR. CLEMONS USED THE FACILITY 'SKELETON KEY’ TO GAIN ACCESS TO ROOM #3. INSIDE, HE FOUND NO SIGN OF DISTRESS OR FORCED ENTRY. THE BELONGINGS OF THE GUESTS WERE UNDISTURBED. THE FIGERUDOS, HOWEVER, WERE NOT PRESENT. MR. CLEMONS ALSO REPORTED THAT THE FIGUERDO’S REGISTERED VEHICLE, A LIME-GREEN COLORED DESOTO POWERMASTER, MODEL YEAR 1953, WAS STILL IN ITS DESIGNATED LOCATION IN THE MOTEL’S PARKING LOT.

THE SAME SITUATION REPEATED ITSELF IN ROOMS #4, #6, #7, #11, #13 AND #16. SIMILARLY, NONE OF THE GUESTS’ CARS HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PREMISES. DESPITE EXTENSIVELY SEARCHING THE VICINITY OF THE MAS SUENOS MOTEL, MR. CLEMONS WAS NOT ABLE TO LOCATE ANY OF THE MOTEL’S GUESTS OR DISCOVER ANY INDICATION AS TO THEIR WHEREABOUTS.

ALTEMOSE HAS FAITHFULLY DECLARED THAT MR. CLEMONS WAS A RESPECTABLE, HONEST, AND FORTHRIGHT, IF UNFRIENDLY, EMPLOYEE WHO COULD BE TRUSTED.

SUBSEQUENT EFFORTS BY LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL AUTHORITIES HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO LOCATE MR. CLEMONS OR ANY OF THE GUESTS AS REGISTERED IN THE MOTEL LEDGER.

OUR COUNTERPARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HAVE CONFIRMED THAT NO RELEVANT TESTS OCCURRED THAT EVENING WITHIN A 150-MILE RADIUS OF THE MAS SUENOS MOTEL, NOR THAT ANY SUCH TEST COULD PRODUCE THE EFFECTS AS DESCRIBED BY MR. CLEMONS.

“Hillary, what’s today’s date again?” Sam asked with a little hesitance in his voice.

“June 1st.”

“Right. And what day did this incident happen back in ‘55?”

“Same date, Sam. Same date.”

Sam took a deep breath. It was something his doctor had recommended as a way of keeping his blood pressure down, especially as wasn’t willing to cut back on the red meat.

“And I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that we wound up here on the….68th anniversary of that night, is it Hillary?”

“We were already heading west, and you looked like you could use a good night’s sleep. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it’s our good luck.”

He didn’t have one of those cuffs handy, but Sam couldn’t imagine his blood pressure was any good right then. And it certainly wasn’t on its way to getting better, either.

“What do you say? Should we see if they have any rooms?”