The Passage

they could squelch it. Was in the Washington Post,

front page, in 1983.

But Danny is still missing the point.

Damn! But I don’t understand why mob violence will

ensue. I mean, so this thing passes. Why would

civilizations crash?

Isaac points to the extent of devastation that accompanies a pole shift.

It doesn’t just pass. Take a look at mountain

building, fresh mountains like the Rockies or the

Himalayas. If all we’re having is a few quakes now and

then, what would drive those mountains thousands of

feet in the air? What force would overcome the

resistance?

Isaac glances sideways at Danny, gauging his skepticism to be slight. Like

most young people, he is loath to let go of his idealism, not believing the

government would lie to the people. Isaac is familiar with this resistance

and these arguments, and takes them in stride. Danny says,

Uh, well quakes drop buildings, and ..

Isaac quickly interrupts,

That’s from the shaking.

Isaac is pondering a mountain building scene, where flat rock snaps and starts

to angle upward at a 45 degree angle, climbing over foothills nearby, climbing

up into the sky to the height of a Mt Everest. He says,

I’m talking about picking up a mountain and driving it

up, up, thousands of feet. Whole mountain ranges, up.

And look at the issue of Ice Ages and wandering poles!

We just don’t get it, we don’t get it! You know the

last Ice Age had ice over France, 11,000 years ago or

so, but at the same time the grasslands of Siberia

were warm and lush! Now, what did the Sun do there,

blink on for Siberia, and off for France?

Isaac pulls his line in and slings it back out again, both men quiet for a

moment. He says,

It's going to be a pretty rough ride, son.

15

Isaac is envisioning a mammoth is standing in grasslands, snow and howling

winds descending. The mammoth is backing away from the direction of the winds,

trunk high as though trying to defend itself, eyes crazed with fear at the

maelstrom descending. The end of the trunk has grass with buttercups in it, as

though this were a sudden event, mid-munch for the mammoth.

Mammoths were found flash frozen in Siberia, been

frozen like that for thousands of years, with

buttercups in their stomach. Buttercups, where there

isn't a blade of grass for hundreds of miles, now.

The Earth turned under them, son, and moved them to a

polar zone. They weren't the only species to go

extinct for no obvious reason. They've been dozens.

Playing the role of protester, Danny is still trying to lay out arguments.

Danny’s eyes are shifting from side to side as he rapidly searches for

rational explanations. Danny is chewing his lower lip slightly but is clearly

running out of arguments. Finally, he says, weakly.

Well, the ice formed over France because, uh, um ..

Isaac keeps up the pressure.

Makes no sense! Potsdam University documented that the

axis of the world shifted, pulling Germany South,

during the Jewish Exodus. The crust moved. The crust

moved! Pull that back and you’ve got Greenland over

where the N Pole is now. Got it? The crust moves, and

during that last Ice Age, France was the N Pole,

that’s why it was frozen! We don’t have wandering

poles, we’ve got a wandering crust.

Isaac flips his line out into the river again, easing back against the tree

trunk, knowing the argument has been won. Danny, now almost relaxed as he

realizes he has lost the argument, is giving in, but is reluctant to admit

defeat to someone in his father's generation. He says,

Is that why the weather's gone nuts and the compasses

don't ever seem to work right anymore?

Isaac is still not done laying out his evidence, and has no intention of

laying off.

And then there's the tidal waves, whale bones found on

hills 400-500 feet above sea level in Ontario. In

Sicily there's bone piles in the rock crevices that

include just about every animal in Europe and Africa,

all broken into bits as though the waves carried them

there and smashed them into bits against the rocks.

Danny protests. Surely there is another explanation for tidal waves in our

past.

16

So maybe a meteor fell, like what killed the

dinosaurs, fell in the ocean and caused a giant tidal

wave.

But Isaac has more.

Chief Mountain in Montana took an 8 mile trip over the

plains, and the Alps have moved hundreds of miles

overland. We're talking about slabs of rock thousand

of feet thick. What force is moving those mountains?

Danny tries proferring the standard explanation for massive geological changes

in the Earth's past.

Oh, that happened millions of years ago.

But as with all the other protestations, Isaac has the trump card.

Niagra Falls is running in a channel that's less than

4,000 years old, son, and several lakes on the West

Coast have existed for only about 3,500 years. Sound

familiar? Scientists have known for some time that

the ocean level dropped 20 feet world wide,

simultaneously, guess when - 3,000-4,000 years ago.

Finally, Danny submits.

Holy cow! This is big! Why wouldn’t they let this out?

They warn people about floods, about hurricanes, stock

up for the storm, and all. How is this any different?

Having reached the end of the game, the contest between generations put aside,

Isaac admits his own weakness, shows his softer side to Danny, as the argument

is dropped and has become a discussion. He says,

Put yourself in the shoes of the people in charge,

Danny, and look at the list of your worries. One,

there’s no way after the crust moves and all the

cities are dust to house and feed the citizens. So