Activity

I’ve heard of the story of the green children. It’s a standard legend about visitors from Fairy land, because in folklore fairies always have either green skin or green hair or green eyes, and they live in an underground kingdom where there is no sun, which you reach by stepping through a magical portal which is there sometimes but not at other times.  I had never heard the variation about the teleportation experiment from another planet. That’s pretty good, and most appropriate that it appeared in a science fiction magazine.

It’s fun to make up speculative stories about travel to or from other dimensions. In the same vein there are also legends of mortals stepping through one of those hidden doorways never to be seen again.  I like the one about Oliver Larch, who supposedly disappeared after being sent to fetch water one winter evening. His family supposedly heard him calling for help, but when they rushed outside there was no sign of him. His footprints in the snow led halfway to the well and just vanished. These stories are fun, but it’s a good idea to keep in mind how much is fiction and how much is verifiable fact. In this case verifiable fact is virtually nil.