Oddities of Mother Nature, of outer space, and of mankind. Our world can be a strange
place, but are we stretching the truth to exaggerate that fact or are we delivering
only cold hard facts? It's time for you to decide between Fact.. or Fiction.
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales we
once thought fantastical now implanted as truth. To decipher verity from the imagined,
you must break from the ordinary and consider a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality? Can you decide what's fact
or fiction? Our first tale tonight is one that even we
would consider an odd. One revolving around a main highway and a very interesting problem
for drivers that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Story # 1: Slippery When Wet
It was an issue that even the Rhode Island Department of Transportation wasn't sure how
it'd address. US 44 was one of the more heavily traveled roads of the state, running 26 miles
right into Putnam, Connecticut. At first, DoT officials thought it could ignore the
issue and it would resolve itself, but as it persisted over the span of several days,
there was no avoiding it any longer. So, on an otherwise quiet Thursday morning,
a DoT employee issued the alert: "US 44... Slippery Road." It was odd considering, even
in the rain, the DoT never warned of the slippery conditions, but after a brief statement, somehow
read in the most stoic of tones, the public knew what had befallen their part of the world:
caterpillars. Thousands of them migrating from one side of the road to the other for
reasons nobody really seemed to know or truly understand.
It was an unpleasant couple of days, especially when the rains fell. The squashed little bodies
of the fuzzy creatures stained the road yellow. As they rotted, the late Spring rains picked
up the stench from their corpses and filtered the unpleasant order through the air. Worst
of all, US 44 was a hazard as the rains came. The tiny dead bodies that littered the road
became like ice, causing cars to swerve and skid along a road that, before then, was a
pleasant drive. There was no fixing it, just enduring, and
endure the village of Glocester did. When locals grew concerned as to whether or not
it was going to be a permanent issue, the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and
Forestry was sure to chime in and provide some comfort. It would take a few weeks, but
eventually the migrating caterpillars, who were simply looking for food, would eventually
vanish. Despite the hazardous roadway, incidents remained
at a minimal and once the Great Caterpillar Infestation of 2016 cleared up in a little
under a month after it started, the ordeal became a story among the locals. Much like
how some regions have the Blizzard of whatever year, the people of Glocester have the Caterpillar
Infestation of 2016. Tiny squished bodies turning a roadway into
an ice skating rink... do you think this was something we came up with? Or did a small
town really suffer at the hands of a caterpillar invasion? Vote now and consider the possibilities
for a moment, but not too long because we have another story to share.
Nadeem Johiya wanted nothing more than for his shift at the always-dead Route 7 convenience
store to end, but this slow night would eventually get interesting when a customer he'd never
seen before stopped in with a strange story to tell.
Story # 2: From Out of This World The clock refused to move and Nadeem's patience
was slowly fading. He never understood how Route 7's only business for miles was able
to stay open, especially since, during most of his shifts, he was left entertaining himself
while catering to the very rare customer. On that too-typical Tuesday evening, as the
sun dipped beneath the horizon, Nadeem got the excitement he was looking for - though
it left him more confused and uneasy than entertained.
When the rugged man first walked through the door, Nadeem thought nothing of his appearance
or his presence. It wasn't unusual for truckers to stop in looking for a quick snack or resupply
their gallon of coffee, but the strange part was when this man stood at the entrance, glancing
around the store. At first, he paid no mind to the store clerk but eventually spoke to
him, though his eyes still surveyed the small space.
"Are you the master of this abode?" Nadeem hesitated before shrugging his shoulders
nervously. Something about the man's voice unsettled him. All he could muster was a quick
"I'm sorry?" "This structure. Is it yours?"
Nadeem again answered with hesitation. "No. I just work here."
The man grumbled before finally looking in Nadeem's direction, cautiously walking his
way toward him. "A message for your master. This land is not safe. They will come."
Nadeem didn't know what to say. When the stranger just stared at him, standing awkwardly close,
all he could think to blurt out was, "What?" The odd man pointed to the sky, his eyes never
leaving Nadeem's. "They're coming. To harvest. To feed."
The young clerk wanted nothing more than to grab his phone and call the police, but he
considered how long it would take for a patrol to show up. He'd be dead by then, the victim
of some rambling old fool who thinks he has a message from the universe beyond.
"Oh, okay..." There was a pause before the man slammed his
hand on the counter, startling the clerk. "Tell your master. A warning." He slid his
dirty fingernails across the counter, "Tell him."
Without another word, the man stepped away from the counter, let off a succession of
loud clicks, and slinked his way out of the store. Nadeem didn't want to follow him, but
when he was through the door and back outside, he rushed to the door and locked it. When
he peered through the large windows of the door, he found the parking lot empty. No sign
of the strange man, no car, nothing. Nadeem rushed back to the counter to grab
his phone, but when he went to dial 911, the battery had died. He noticed the object on
the counter, that shining piece of metal, seemed to be vibrating. It twitched every
second, sliding its way across the counter. The closer it seemed to move to Nadeem, the
more he felt himself grow weary and lightheaded. And then blackness hit him.
He didn't know when it happened or how, but when Nadeem's eyes opened again, he found
himself on the floor of the backroom office. In a panic he rushed to the front and found
everything was as he left it - save for his phone and the metallic object. The battery
had come to life and the unusual device had vanished.
Not wanting to chance anything and assuming he had been secretly drugged, Nadeem called
the authorities. As he expected, nobody believed his story - especially when security footage
showed nothing but a conscious Nadeem walking into the backroom and lying down on the floor
after reacting to the nothing that was in the store.
Nadeem soon found employment closer to a populated area and rarely mentions the incident to anyone,
fearing he will start to make a name for himself. The crazy kid that was visited by the alien.
Was Nadeem really visited by an otherworldly visitor? Did his imagination get the best
of him that boring night? Or are we leading you down a path of deception and lies? While
you ponder that over, we'll move on to our third and final story of tonight, one about
an incredible escape that may even surpass any feat accomplished by Harry Houdini.
Story # 3: The Incredible Escape of Madeline Shaw
Nineteenth-century Virginia was no place for an African American woman, but it wasn't like
Madeline Shaw had much of a choice in being there. Her decisions weren't hers to make
as her masters, as they were called, oversaw her daily duties and how she lived.
In the early 1800s, she was born into slavery, her life already doomed to an existence of
servitude. She knew her parents well, but as much as they tried to shield her from the
horrors around her, there wasn't anything they could do to prevent the inevitable. At
15-years-old, after years of being taught how to work and sew and cook, Madeline was
forced to work and follow in the footsteps of her parents.
Over time, she married another slave, Samuel Brown and bore three children, but the glimpse
of happiness she shared with them was taken away when the family was separated. After
losing her family for a second time, Madeline swore to be a slave no longer - and so she
made connections. Henry Smith was a free black man, someone
that Madeline could trust with her life - and so she did. The white shoemaker, Theodore
McKim, she trusted less, even though he had been sympathetic to the slaves for as long
as she could remember. Behind the scenes, the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society worked
to escort Madeline. It was this network of people that helped Madeline escape to her
freedom. To get out of work the day of her escape,
she knew she'd have to be severely injured, so using sulfuric acid she burned her hand
to the bone. A small price to pay for freedom. Via the Adams Express Company, Madeline had
herself packed into a crate and mailed to a free state. So many things could have gone
wrong while they planned and executed her escape, but it worked. In a box just barely
big enough to fit her small frame, Madeline crossed state lines until she was safe in
Pennsylvania. Madeline's incredible plan ultimately worked.
She became a free woman, an abolitionist speaker, and lived until she was in her 80s, an impressive
feat for the time period. So many things seem to go against logic with
this story, but does that mean the escape of Madeline Shaw is absolutely false? We know
you're dying to know, so we'll get on with the reveal.
Are you ready to find out if you can decipher between fact or fiction? Let’s look back
at tonight's three stories and find out which were born from reality and which were fabrications
of the imagination. For our first story, we experienced a caterpillar
infestation that sounds more like a B-horror movie than reality, but do you think it happened?
If so, then maybe you remember the Blue Hill, Maine incident of the same nature. A story
broke in early June 2018 about hazardous road conditions in the small Maine town caused
by wandering forest tent caterpillars. Residents dealt with a slippery Route 15 caused by the
squashed bugs. Our second story follows Nadeem Johiya, a
young man caught up in a strange encounter in the middle of nowhere. Did the poor store
clerk suffer a strange blackout after a stranger's visit, or do you think we've thrown this one
together ourselves? If you think the latter, then you're quite intuitive. While crazy stories
like this pop up in sleepy towns, this one was a creation of our own imaginations.
Finally, we have the incredible escape of Madeline Shaw. It almost reads like a movie
plot, but this is actually the real tale of Henry Box Brown. Much like Shaw, Brown was
born into slavery and when he had his own family, they were taken from him and sent
to a different slave owner. With the help of James C. A. Smith, the free black man,
and Samuel A. Smith, the shoemaker, Brown escaped Virginia into Pennsylvania in the
safety of a crate. How well did you do in tonight's video? Did
you look past the deception of our world and define the oft-blurred line that struggles
to separate lies from the truth? Let us all know in the comment section below and should
you find the urge to test your perceptions again, be sure to subscribe and join us next
time when we ask you to decide what's fact... or fiction.