I don't know the whole story about how RDU Airport's original Terminal 2 got gone, and I'd like to keep it that way.

It's been missing for years, kind of like distinguished pilot Amelia Earhart.

But unlike Earhart, the terminal will make a triumphal return today, unveiling to all its 26-chain store splendor.

The event is absolutely free. (If only the flights could be, as well ...)

Years from now we'll all forget it was even missing. Yes, "missing," not "absorbed into Terminal 1" like the (airport) authorities want you to believe.

Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, but a little mystery is never a bad thing. It gets us wondering, sleuthing around, learning something new.

Freaky stuff happens all the time in the Bermuda Triangle, so why not in our own Research Triangle? A Tobacco Road with no tobacco. An ice hockey team named after a tropical storm. A numerically challenged airport. This is the stuff of legends, folks.

Every time I've driven to RDU, I've thought about the mythical Twilight Terminal. I suppose many of you have, too. Now that it's there, we won't, and that's a shame.

There is, however, one way to keep the mystery and the terminal: let's call it "Terminal 4."

Sure, we'll know the story, but visitors to the enigmatic Triangle will be none the wiser. They'll put fingers to chins and tap you on the shoulder and ask, "What about 2?"

And perhaps, if we market this just right, they'll end up buying "Twisted Triangle" souvenirs and T-shirts.