Your True Tales
April 2006 – Page 19

Mystery Explosion
by Christy

My parents, being Navajos, have experienced many strange occurrences in their lifetimes, but none struck them so odd as "the explosion." This happened in December 1987, three months before I was born. My mom and dad were on winter vacation. One snowy night the two were watching movies late at night, and finally decided to take a break from the TV to get a few snacks. My parents went to the kitchen/dining room, which faces out to the western mountains. (Tohatchi is surrounded by hills and the Chuska Mountains, a relatively nice place on the Navajo reservation, and somewhat ordinary. The nearest town is 27 miles away, and there was hardly any commotion in those days, although it had been a community for a couple of decades. Except for the barking of the neighborhood dogs, there was nothing that could possibly ruin the peace and quiet.)

While my parents were getting the food ready, they noticed a light from outside the window illuminating the inside of the house. They went to check, and saw a bright light shining from behind the mountains toward them, like when someone shines a flashlight at you. My dad stood frozen behind the wall next to the window, and my mom, concerned about me, unborn, hurried behind the wall that separates the dining room from the living room. They stood in silence, and they both peeked out at the light. Suddenly, it grew bigger and illuminated the entire place; it was literally daylight! The whole room was brightly lit, and my dad describes the snow outside as "blindingly white."

You might be saying, "What kind of explosion was THAT?" Well, immediately after that, the house was hit by a powerful shockwave, though my mom doesn't remember any sounds, my dad recalls a noise like that of a sonic boom. After that happened, the light faded and everything was dark again. My mom and dad looked at each other, stunned, and in disbelief at what just occurred. What DID occur? What WAS that?! The neighborhood was dead silent. After the initial shock wore off, they went back to watching movies, maybe to try and calm any lingering fear.

This event of an explosion might seem ordinary to most people, but hear what I have to say next. If the explosion occurred behind the mountains, how is it possible that there was a shockwave powerful enough to rattle the house? And why was it never reported in the news? My parents asked everyone in the neighborhood about it, but nobody was awake that night, it seemed. They asked my grandma, who lives directly next door to us, but she didn't experience any of it. My dad visited his relatives, who live in the Chuska mountains, about the incident, AND THEY DID NOT SEE A GLIMPSE OF IT, although they allegedly live in the direction that the explosion happened. It was as if they were the only two on the face of the earth that saw it happen, and to this day, they still haven't found out, and we still haven't found anybody who witnessed it.

Although I've read on this website that some explosions occur in Russia, this is one where nobody knew what happened; there were no "side-effects" of any kind, and there were a significant number of people living in the mountains and the surrounding area. If there is anyone out there who experienced the exact same thing, then post your story. I'm simply looking to solve these mysteries of my parents' past.

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