This is the memory palace. I'm Nate Demet.

In Hodges, it slipped into that state where you can't quite tell dreams from reality.

She'd woken up early as always to make her husband breakfast and see him off to work.

Then she started in on the housework. It was small, the house, but there were always things to dust or

polish or wash or fold and put away. And while she worked, as always, she worried.

Her husband was a tree trimmer for the phone company. And she didn't like that he was up on

the ladder all day. Something could happen. Could touch a power line or slip with a saw or just fall.

Around noon, her mom popped by as she often did, so Anne made them both sandwiches.

But on this day, she was starting to feel kind of head-a-key and just not herself.

And so she lay down on the couch in the living room and closed her eyes.

And just as she had slipped into that state where you can't quite tell dreams from reality,

there was a tremendous noise.

She thought her whole house had exploded. She thought the Soviets were bombing

Silicaga, Alabama. But in reality, a meteor had come from space, pierced

Earth's atmosphere and then her roof and then careened off her radio and smashed into her hip.

She screamed as one would. In her confusion and her pain, it hurt so much.

Her hip was already purpling and swelling. She thought a neighbor kid had thrown a rock,

but that rock there on her living on floor was hot to the touch. And even though it was a little

smaller than a cantaloupe, it was too heavy for her to lift with one hand. And besides,

what kid throws a rock through your ceiling? People all over Talladega County heard the blast.

Saw a fireball in the sky, thought it was a plane crash or an alien invasion. It was 1954 and

there were always aliens invading in the movies in 1954. A policeman who was called to the scene

...