CLAIRE FROM CALIFORNIA (voicemail):
Hello, this is Claire from.... let’s just say Southern California. I was listening to the podcast and I heard you mention The Blue Mesa Hotel. Now even though this doesn’t necessarily help with the search for Buddha Kline, I thought I should still call in and share my Blue Mesa story. This happened to me back in the summer of 1993 and let me just say first that I’m not a geologist or any kind of expert. I guess what you might call me is a Rock Enthusiast. I like to collect crystals, gems, and really just any unique rock. And when I say I like crystals I don’t mean I use them in any supernatural healing sense. I just like how they look. I used to put gravel in pockets as a kid. Its just always kinda been my thing. So, I’m visiting New Mexico, staying at the Blue Mesa, and I’ve decided that I’m going to go out and explore the local terrain. On my hike I found this really... strange rock. One I’d never seen before.
Again, I’m not a rock expert or anything, but I’ve seen a lot of rocks in my life and this one was completely new to me. At first I thought it was a big chunk of gold. But yeah right. No way I’m getting that lucky. When I got closer I saw that it was more yellow than gold. And instead of a typical rock shape it looked like a stack of intersecting cubes. On one side was a single perfect cube. About four inches on each side. I ran my finger along its edges. Sharp corners. Right angles. It was a perfect geometric shape that had somehow been crafted by the earth itself.... Or perhaps... something else. Being the rock junkie I am, I pocketed it and started making my way back to The Blue Mesa. I was too excited. I couldn’t wait to find out what it was... The overly ambitious and optimistic voice in the back of my mind was asking me if maybe I had discovered something new to the world. I made it back to my room. It was the Ghost Companion room if you’re wondering. Don’t judge me. I was going through something at the time and thought, hey, girls gotta get her cuddle on somehow. If its gotta be with a ghost its gotta be with a ghost.
So anyways, I really loved the bathtubs they have at The Blue Mesa. Huge fancy old things. I was soaking and daydreaming. I dipped my head under the water, and I remember thinking that I might have sunburned my scalp. It felt... Really really tender. I leaned up out of the water. Wiped the hair from my face.... And then I noticed a clump of hair was still twisted between my fingers after I pulled my hand away. Then I saw the strands of blonde floating all around me. I ran my fingers through my hair again and came away with another handful. Then another. And another, until I ran my fingers over my now bald head. I find it really impossible to describe the terror I felt.
I went back through everything and everyone I’d encountered that day until I remembered the interesting looking rock I’d found. The one made from perfect cubes. I saw it sitting on the table across the room. I just knew that had to be what happened. I picked up some radioactive crap and poisoned myself. What a Claire way to go out, my friends would probably say. By the time I made it to the hospital all of it was gone. My eyebrows. Eyelashes. Every single hair on my body had fallen out. Come to Find Out, though, I had an undiagnosed auto-immune disease. Alopecia. It was common on my father’s side of the family, but he left when I was young and I never knew any of them. The radioactive extraterrestrial rock? It was just a piece of Pyrite. Turns out there are a bunch of Pyrite mines in the area and it's pretty common all over the world. So apparently I didn’t know as much about rocks as I thought I did. It was a crazy couple of hours for sure. I’ll never forget it. The Blue Mesa Hotel, the place where all my hair fell out. Thanks for listening to my call.
