The New Girl
September 1953

The Cold War was a scary time for America. The big, bad Soviets were the classic villains, with their missiles aimed at the US. It got so bad that folks started building bunkers under their homes, strong enough to withstand the end of the world.

At times, invasion seemed imminent, and the entire United States was within range of Soviet bombs. There was nowhere to hide from these monster rockets, except for one small spot in the very center of the United States. On that spot sat Middletown Middle. Scientists from all over the country, and indeed the world, had descended on the nuclear war-free zone that was the school. They converted what kids call “the tombs” into bright, state-of-the-art laboratories, and erected temporary structures for physicists, chemists, and astronomers, all while kids played in the classrooms above.

While their research was top-secret, having Nobel scientists in the building had its perks. For instance, they mentored science fair participants. The winner hard-boiled an egg in the earth’s upper atmosphere. The runner-up invented bubble wrap. Many of the scientists worked as teachers in the school. Even Einstein substituted for some science classes. This is how a large part of the 1950s went down at Middletown Middle. The greatest concentration of Ivy League thinkers outside New England was in this small, backward town in Kansas.

The school was a safe space for discovery, but it could not hide its racism and backward laws. When Nigerian astrophysicist Albert Oni started in the lab, he learned that while he could work at the school building, his daughter, Beatrice, could not attend the school because she was black. Kansas was not just in the center of the country; it was in the center of a major Supreme Court decision. If you haven’t talked about segregation in your class, this is an excellent time to bring it up. Segregation required students of color to attend a different school from white students.

Segregation didn’t fly for Dr. Oni; he was determined to send his daughter to Middletown Middle, which she could reach by walking. The nearest black school was half an hour away. Across the country, he had seen other black children get heckled and have food tossed in their direction by protestors, just for going to school. A photo of the brave girl, Ruby Bridges, hung in his daughter’s room in back in Philadelphia. 

He told his colleagues that his daughter would walk right down the street and into Middletown on her first day, and every day, just like any other third-grader. He had a plan, and with the help of his fellow big-brained buddies, they would make it happen.

When word leaked that Middletown Middle was ending segregation, things got ugly fast. Protesters showed up to school board meetings, and news trucks rolled into town to cover Beatrice’s first day of school. Fortunately, the younger kids at her school were mostly shielded from the racist rants.

Other than Mrs. Vendersteem, no one in the third-grade class knew today would be Beatrice’s first day. Minutes before the morning bell rang, the kids put their lunch boxes away and talked about their weekends. They didn’t have time to notice a new desk in the class, or the locker with Beatrice’s name stenciled above it. 

When just after 8 a.m. on that warm, September morning, bells from all five of the town’s churches sounded. Added to the ringing bells were tunes from ice cream trucks, police cars, and the tornado sirens. The lights in the school blinked on and off, and the sky grew dark.

“Is it a tornado?” a student yelled.

“It’s an eclipse!” a boy in the class cried out. A tremendous boom followed a quickly darkening sky.

Outside, the accumulated protestors waiting for Beatrice scattered, believing they had just been attacked. The sky brightened as if someone had turned on a light switch. The townsfolk all gasped as they watched a spacecraft momentarily float high above them before flying off unevenly. Moments later, the saucer-shaped ship crashed out of sight and a plume of smoke began billowing above the trees.

The angry men and women, the police, and Beatrice’s supporters all forgot what they were doing outside the school and left their positions to find the UFO. They didn’t notice Beatrice, the small, skinny girl in the bright red dress, wearing a smile, walk right past them with her father and into the school’s front door. While walking Beatrice to school, he squeezed her hand reassuringly despite his own hidden concerns. 

Entering the school, the first thing she saw was the big sign that read: YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

Inside the classrooms, part-time teachers abandoned their students to go back to being scientists. The third-grade class watched two dozen men and women exit the school in what looked like space suits and get onto a school bus.

Usually, the bus had “Middletown Middle” printed in black letters on the side, but now it said “D.A.R.N. – The Discrete Alien Research Network” in its place.

The bus spewed diesel smoke as it rushed down the road, past the confused, hapless protesters and the news crew whose whole mission had been sidetracked by alien visitors.

Mrs. Vandersteem’s class stood and watched out of the window in amazement. When the bus was out of sight, a substitute teacher returned the children to their seats, and that’s when they met Beatrice. She was darker-skinned than anyone in the school, with long dark hair. 

What many of the kids first noticed were her clothes. She hadn’t got her clothes at the Candles department store like everyone else. But her cheerful red dress complemented her warm smile, and confident stride as she entered the classroom.

“Are you an alien?” one girl asked.

The new girl responded with a giggle, unfazed, “No. I’m Beatrice.”

 “Why’s she dressed like that? Doesn’t she know this isn’t how we do things here,” A boy in the back of the class mutters.

The teacher quickly reprimands them. “Portis, we do not treat anyone that way! Beatrice’s dress quite beautiful.”

The kids reluctantly quiet down, letting Beatrice take her seat.

“Alright, class. Welcome, Beatrice,” the teacher said. “Good morning, Beatrice.”

“Good morning, Beatrice.” The class repeated.

The new girl’s vibrant energy and kind demeanor quickly won over the curiosity of her new classmates. They talked about their favorite games and hobbies. “I’m pretty good at pinball,” Beatrice said proudly, which wowed the kids since Middletown wouldn’t get its first pinball parlor for another five years.

It had taken an alien invasion to distract the town, but Beatrice Oni walked right down Main Street on her first day. However, the new girl was not forgotten. The city’s citizens were confused. Should they find out what was going on with the alien crash, or protest a young girl going to her second day of school.

There may have been fewer protesters on day two, but they were still there, along with the police, now accompanied by sightseers looking for an encounter with extraterrestrials. It was the last group that got what they came for. Interwoven in a parade of school buses delivering children to school was a flatbed truck. It carried a massive object, round in shape but covered with a tarp.

“A UFO,” a man shouted.

“Get a camera,” another yelled.

The people in the street started following the truck. The truck pulled up right in front of the school gym. The police held back the encroaching crowd.

While all eyes were on the back of the truck, no one saw Beatrice and her father walk right past them and into the school. Dr. Oni kissed his daughter, and they went their separate ways inside. Day two was a success.

Dr. Oni figured if they could get Beatrice through one more day unnoticed, then the protesting would likely end, and he had one more trick up his sleeve. That evening, his colleagues held a conference at the town hall to discuss the alien travelers. The room was filled shoulder to shoulder with residents. Many of the people who had also been protesting the end of segregation were present. The opening statement from Albert’s astronomy partner, Harold Nemoy, created a stir.

“Good evening and thank you for your attendance and attention to this extraordinary event. We are happy to usher in a critical moment in history. Today, we open our doors to new possibilities, with nothing to fear but hope for tomorrow. On September 12th, an alien craft crash-landed at the Harper’s farm off Old Bridge Road. We believe four or five lifeforms exited the crash vehicle before we arrived at the site.”

There was a murmur in the crowd. Someone shouted out, “What do they look like, these aliens?”

“Glad you asked, sir. They can mimic other lifeforms, such as a cow, but we believe they are mimicking humans. They could be anyone, possibly even someone in this room spying on us.”

The murmur grew loud until the crowd was nearly in a panic.

“We call on your wisdom as residents to observe and report. If you see anyone who is acting irrationally, irately, publicly angry, or acting in opposition to natural law, please be sure to stay as far away as possible, and contact D.A.R.N.”

“What does that mean?” a former protester called out. He was a sunburned man with a toothpick dangling from his mouth.

“This is a quiet community. Should you see anyone going above and beyond to cause a scene, to yell at other humans in a setting like this, is likely to be an alien life form. We ask you to peacefully detain the invader if possible or call the authorities.”

“That’s hogwash,” the sunburned man yelled out. “This is America. We’re free to yell in public.”

“Buford Tucker is an alien,” a man in the back shouted. That idea caught on quickly and everyone in the room started pointing fingers at Buford.

“I ain’t no alien!” The sunburned man put on his hat took his boy by the hand and marched from the building, “To hell with you.” 

This warning stirred up the locals. With everyone becoming paranoid that they would be mistaken for an alien, people were overly kind to everyone else. The idea of throwing vegetables at a child who just wanted to go to school seemed suddenly so foreign; they wondered if something had possessed them. The alien crash eventually moved from current news to rumors to tin-foil-hatted conspiracy theories.

Although Beatrice never had issues walking to her new school and made friends with many classmates, she faced more obstacles than anyone else. Still, she never lost her hopeful outlook for the future.