Histories MysteriesThe Mystery Short Story Unit

October 2011

Your Task Choose an unsolved mystery to solve Solve the mystery in a short story The short story must be written in flashback

format The short story must be typed using Arial or

Times New Roman font The short story must include dialogue,

characterization, theme, and a valid solution to the mystery

Mystery Number One

The Philadelphia Experiment

The USS Eldridge ca. 1944

In 1943, the government conducted a test using domestic animals of the invisibility experiments being conducted at the University of Chicago. The animals were placed in metal cages on the USS Eldridge.

The ship became invisible but when it materialized many of the animals were missing or had radiation and other burn marks on them. Humans were not to be tested.

Yet on October 28, 1943, the USS Eldridge with a full crew aboard reportedly underwent the Philadelphia Experiment. The men did not know what was to happen. The generators were fired up. The switches were thrown. The ship disappeared and all seemed well.

The ship was gone from the harbor for about 4 hours, not just a few minutes before it reappeared in its original place.

There was a greenish haze on deck. Some of the sailors were on fire. Some seemed insane. All were sick. Some had heart attacks. Some were dead. Some were part of the super structure of the ship, buried in the deck or walls of the ship. Some reports said that men just seemed to disappear and were never seen again. The Navy denied everything and said the men were lost at sea.

Your job :Explain the mystery: Where had the ship gone for 4 hours?

Mystery Number Two

The Roanoke Colony

Sir Walter Raleigh’s Failure Roanoke Colony, founded

by Sir Walter Raleigh, was the first permanent settlement in America. The settlement is now known as "The Lost Colony," and the fate of the colonists is still unknown.

When new settlers finally arrived after three years, none of the original colony remained at the settlement, except for the old skeleton of one guy. There was no trace of the 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children, nor was there any sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort and "Cro" carved into a nearby tree.

All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, which meant their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White, the colony leader, had instructed them that if anything happened to them,

they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. As there was no cross, White took this to mean they had moved to "Croatoan Island" (now known as Hatteras Island), but he was unable to conduct a search.

A few years later, an even bigger mysterious phenomena occurred: Blue-eyed, pale-complexioned Indians began showing up nearby.

Your Job: Explain the mystery. What happened to the colonists? Alien abduction? Lost at sea? Killed or assimilated by Indians?

Mystery Number Three

The Crystal Skulls

Thirteen crystal skulls of apparently ancient origin have been found in parts of Mexico, Central America and South America. These skulls, found near the ancient ruins of Mayan and Aztec civilizations (with some evidence linking the skulls with past civilization in Peru) are a mystery.

Some of the skulls are believed to be between 5,000 and 36,000 years old. Many indigenous people speak of their remarkable magical and healing properties, but nobody really knows where they came from or what they were used for.

Old Bones

They seem to defy logic. There are countless

hypotheses that they are the legacy of some higher intelligence: maybe extraterrestrials or beings in Atlantis or Lemuria. Or perhaps even an Inner Earth society which lives at the hollow center of our planet, and there are thirteen "master skulls" which contain the history of these people.

Your Job: Explain the mystery. What is the origin of the crystal skulls? Were they left behind after the destruction

of a previous world, such as Atlantis? Are they simply ingenious modern fakes? Can they really enable us to see deeply into

the past and predict the future?

Elements of a Short Story http://www.flocabulary.com/fivethings/ Listen to and follow along with the song

about the five major elements of a story. A copy of this song has been given to you for your information.

As you listen to the song, complete the information handout.

FlashbackDefinition: When the present action stops and the reader is transported to action that occurred at an earlier time.

Examples:

Usually, a flashback involves interrupting the main narrative in order to relate an incident or series of events that happened earlier in the hero's life. For example, in Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (first published in 1940) the hero, Rubashov, spends hours in his prison cell thinking about his own past and reliving it, so to speak.

In the first Twilight, a flashback for Edward occurs when he tells the story of how he became a vampire, when he was dying of Spanish influenza.

Dialogue

Definition: a conversation between characters

Example:

Annina asked, “Monsieur Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Renault?”

“Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so,” Rick replied.(Joy Page and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, 1942)

Short Story Maps

Due: Friday, October 7, 2011 at the beginning of class.

Remember, this is a working rough draft, which means it can be subject to any changes that you see fit.