all fronts palpable. As a young man, he is running into the reality of life in
the grown up world, and not liking what he is finding. How dare the truth be
buried, a cover-up occur in front of his eyes!
Daisy would just as soon put it aside, as she has other things on her mind.
All that stuff gets my stomach in a knot. There’s
nothing you can do about it, so forget it, honey.
20
Danny is ignoring her but reaches over to pat her thigh with a glance and a
smile so she does not pout. Seeing that he is not going to comment, Daisy
switches on the radio.
.. seem to have completely disappeared from most
wetlands. Naturalists theorize that the damaged ozone
layer may be a factor, allowing harmful sun rays to
kill the frog eggs, but the disappearance of frogs is
not just occurring in areas affected by the ozone
holes. For those traveling on I-15, we have a flash
flood warning near Fishlake National Forest. Drivers
should take alternate routes, or drive with extreme
caution. . .
Daisy quickly switches off the radio, not wanting bad news to spoil the mood.
Daisy turns and looks out of the car window. It’s still raining. She says,
Are we on I-15?
Danny’s battered blue Toyota is beset by a downpour, moving slowly. Up ahead
beyond some hills the highway is flooded, traffic stopped on either side of
the washout.
_______________________________
Danny and Daisy sit around their camp site sharing a beer with some campers
from the site next to them. Introductions have already been done, tents are
setup, dinner dishes washed and put away, a fire roaring in front of them as
Danny and Daisy and the couple camping next to them prepare to relax at the
end of the day. It has stopped raining, but occasionally some water splashes
off the rain drenched trees above them, causing the group to raise their hands
to block the drops when this happens, or shake the drops off their shirts
afterwards. Danny is perched on a convenient rock. Danny says,
Pull up a rock . . you wanna beer?
Jane is from California and a health nut. She quips back.
Do you happen to have any fresh squeezed orange juice?
Danny replies,
We have some fresh squeezed Coors.
Danny leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees, and gets a serious look
on his face.
I'm in the newspaper business, and ordinarily we chase
a story down and if it has any appeal at all, rush it
to press. Well, I had a real live wire, a local
professor who had a theory about crop circles. Gave a
talk at a local club and someone in the audience was
so impressed they sent me the flyer. Then he called
the paper wanting to get some coverage. What the heck,
21
we print everybody else's theories about crop circles
- its math, it DNA, whatever. His theory was that
we've got another planet in the Solar System, comes
orbiting around only once every 3,600 years or
something, and these crop circles show up just ahead
of another visit, like a warning!
Danny holds up two fingers, counting off on them.
Two things are bothering me here. One, he had a damn
good argument, and two, my editor wouldn't let me
print the story.
Jane’s husband, Frank, is pleased that the campground has at least one party
he can talk to, beyond the usual chatter about mosquitoes and barbecue sauce.
You're talking about Sitchin's theory. He claimed some
ancient records showed that this planet exists. And
that number - 3,600 years - these ancients had a term
for it.
Danny sits up, back ramrod straight, suddenly energized.
Well, dang! My editor went ballistic when I presented
the story. I've never seen him like that. So now I'm
wondering, if there's nothing to it, why did he react
like that? So I went out to see this guy, the
professor, and he told me the media is being silenced.
He told me the government knows about this, has the
dang thing in its sights and is watching it barrel
towards us, and is saying nothing to the rest of us!
Danny starts demonstrating what's going to happen with his hands, relaxing now
that he can talk about his worries and has an intelligent ear.
Mountains pushing up, tidal waves rolling across the
coastlines, howling winds, and of all things, red
dust. Red dust.
A slight flicker of a smile plays over Frank 's mouth, seeing Danny's
consternation. Having lived with the legends, and with a wife well into New
Age prognostications, Frank had come to find these theories almost stale.
Oh, there's something to it all right, at least all
the prophecies point to it in one way or another.
Finding an opening, Jane leaps in.
The Hopi speak of the Purification Day, when the whole
world will shake and turn red. And White Buffalo
calves are being born, that's another Indian prophecy
coming true.
Loath to let his wife take the center stage completely, a constant battle
between them, Frank joins in again.
22
There was an obscure channeled work by an Ohio
dentist, about a hundred years ago. Oashpe, I think
it's called. Talks about a Red Star that travels and
causes a lot of death. Says that souls are harvested
at that time. That's the term used - harvested.
Glancing at her husband, and seeing an opening, Jane jumps in.
Edgar Cayce saw California covered with water.
But Frank has the prize prophecy.
And then there's Mother Shipton, several hundred years
back, who pretty much predicted the same thing back in
merry 'ol England. She had a good track record on
predicting our technology, too.
Frank stands up and quotes Mother Shipton.
For seven days and seven nights
man will watch this awesome sight.