Pay Dirt
Peter Bolton was very excited that sunny day as he was rushing his wife Suzane to the hospital. "Please hurry," she said, "I don't want to have my baby in the car!" He made it in time, but just- their nerve racking experience was rewarded when they were presented with a beautiful baby boy. "Aren't you happy Peter, I knew that you wanted a boy even though you pretended that you didn't care." "My first concern, Suzy, was that the baby be healthy and normal. We are also fortunate that he is adorable," he added with a smile. They quickly named him David as they had agreed on the name a long time ago. David was the joy of his parents until he grew to the age of five. One sunny Sunday morning, as Susan went to the garden to check on David, she got into a panic by looking at him. Peter, who was relaxing in his favorite armchair reading his paper, heard her scream. "Peter, come quick and help me." As he rushed out, he saw Susan bending over her son who was playing in a large pool of water remaining from the previous night's downpour, his face completely covered with mud. "Don't just stand there. Help me clean him up." They proceeded with the operation. That took a long time as he had mud in all possible openings, including his ears, nose and mouth! "What on earth made you do that?" screamed Susan as she recovered enough to speak. "It's so much fun." he replied with a big smile. The parents scolded him energetically hoping he wouldn't do it again. To their chagrin, this reoccurred many times no matter what they did. In spite of all the punishments, when asked why he did it, the reply was essentially always the same. "Because I like it!" The only thing that the scolding managed to do was, that over time, he would do what the embarrassed parents referred to as "his thing" without getting dirty . It did not seem to have any effect on his health. In fact he was particularly strong for his age. Peter and Susan nevertheless where particularly worried. They realized that Dave was not "normal" and they were ashamed of it. They kept his strange behavior a secret from all their friends. They managed to convince David to do "his thing" away from the eyes of his playmates. Being very bright he understood that it would be best for him to be very discreet when he indulged in his favorite strange activity. This was particularly true when he started to go to school and did not want to be called a "weirdo" by his friends. Dave managed to go through the school system without incident. In fact, he graduated from University with high marks in ecology as he loved earth science. After graduation David met a wonderful girl named Jacky who was also involved in improving the environment. They shared many things in common and fell in love. Their marriage followed rapidly. Needless to say, David did not tell Jacky of his "thing". But by then, he was extremely good in hiding his strange liking and could control his urge so as to keep it completely private. Besides, he did not feel it affected his life in any way. Why should he jeopardize his happiness by telling Jacky something that might repel her and ruin everything. They soon had their first child, a girl that they named Monica. One day, Jacky found her, at the age of four with her head completely covered in mud, including her beautiful curly blond hair which was the pride of her parents. Jacky could not wait for the return of David from work. "Dave, you're lucky you weren't here a couple of hours ago." "What happened, you look flustered?" "I found Monica in the garden with her head completely covered in mud, and she did not seem to mind at all, in fact she seemed to be perfectly happy looking at me with her big smile. It took me a long time to make her look decent again. I'd wish you had been here to help me out." "My God, why didn't you call me at work, I would have rushed right back." "It was quite annoying, I must admit, but I could handle it. Don't worry every thing is under control." David rushed to see Monica and kissed her very affectionately. Jacky was surprised by his strong reaction. He seemed to be very upset. What she didn't know is that he understood right away the possible implication of what had just happened. His little daughter must have inherited his peculiarities. That made him very sad and worried. It was enough that he had his cross to bear without having his daughter go through the same ordeal. Also, if that behaviour were a dominant trait, it would be passed on to his other children. He quickly came to the conclusion that he had to divulge the secret that he had so well hidden from his wife. "Why didn't you tell me before we got married." cried Jacky. "Well I didn't know until now that this peculiarity was inheritable, and as far as I was concerned, it did not affect our lives. Although I like to indulge in doing "my thing", I don't have to do it , or at least not in front of you." Although this explanation did not fully satisfy Jacky, she loved her husband so much that she was willing to forgive his deception. Being realistic, she decided to be positive about it. "What should we do about it?" she said worriedly. "I have lived with this problem for most of my life and have learned to cope with it very well as you must admit. We just have to bring Monica up as I was and every thing should be fine. Don't forget I have experience," he said comforting her by holding her in his arms. "What about Monica's friends in school? They will make fun of her." "The point of it all is to keep this a secret between us and explain it to Monica as soon as she can understand. The only thing different from my own experience is that, to be fair to her future husband, Monica would have to let him know about it before she gets married, since we now know that this is hereditary." What happened to Dave and Jacky's family happened to all Dave's five brothers and sisters as they were all married and had their own kids. Peter felt an obligation to his descendants and thus formed a secret society that included all his extended family and he named it "The Earth Lover Society" or "TELS" for short. The members would meet regularly to discuss their problems and exchange experiences. They realized that there were not only problems but also benefits as well all of which were investigated carefully. By the next generation, TELS grew to more than five hundred members. All was not well with the world, however. Apart from the regular regional wars a more impending threat was looming. People had heard many times of dire predictions of potential asteroid collision with Earth. Many science fiction books and movies were based on this subject. Now, however, serious astronomers discovered one that they named "The Intruder" which seemed to be on a collision course with Earth. With so many previous false alarms from headline seeking journalists, very few people took the threat seriously. The reports went on to say that within a few months, calculations would be accurate enough to determine the exact trajectory of The Intruder and therefore the reality of the threat. In any case, collision, if it were to occur, would happen only after many orbits. This interval was estimated to be at least ten years. Since for many ten years is an eternity, most of the population carried on as usual. A small number of responsible people, however, started to mobilize. Some in the armed forces were calculating whether a nuclear rocket could break-up such an asteroid or at least deviate its course. Others, such as Peter from TELS started to think whether the society could be of help if worst came to worst. As time passed on and the astronomers slowly confirmed the collision trajectory, TELS mobilized for real and started to prepare in earnest. Unfortunately, the inevitable was to occur. The collision with the Intruder was now imminent. The general population panicked. Heroic attempts to obliterate or deviate the celestial object were all unsuccessful. The unimaginable finally occurred causing a tremendous explosion, equivalent to a thousand nuclear explosion, somewhere in India. Terrible earthquakes and tsunamis followed causing the death of millions of people in many big cities around the world. The next few weeks saw the sky getting dimmer and dimmer because of the huge amount of dust spewing into the atmosphere and enveloping the earth. The theory long held that the dinosaur had disappeared because of the fall of an asteroid turned out to be true! With lack of sunlight, crops did not grow, nourishment became scarce, many animals started to starve, as did people. TELS, however, did not stay idle during this catastrophe. The members put to good use the studies they had made of their possible adaptations to this terrible situation. They bought a huge lot in the middle of nowhere, far from prying eyes, and accumulated many types of seeds, and selected live-stock and managed to survive reasonably well under the circumstances. One morning, to give the members of TELS courage and lift their spirit, Peter, the patriarch convened a meeting of the little colony to give a very important speech. "My dear extended family, we are gathered here not by choice but by extreme necessity. The event that befell us gives us little time to organize for the survival of our community. We will have to take draconian measures to sustain viability. It is now evident that most humans will die in the near future because of lack of nourishment. A sizable number of the colony, those not protected by heredity, will die unless we take fast action to protect them. We have brought here a great variety of seeds and animals of all kind. We shall build large greenhouses illuminated by artificial lighting powered by generators using fuel which we have stored in large amounts. This will allow us to harvest enough food to nourish those of you who need it for their survival. The time will come when the Sun will reappear. In the meantime, the mission of our colony will be to preserve humanity. For those of us, who until now had to hide doing "our thing", we can finally come "out of the closet" and proclaim our happiness and our pride to be EARTH EATING CREATURES...who don't need vegetation or meat to survive... This until now was our cross to bear but is now our salvation. Go to it my dear friends, with courage and perseverance we shall repopulate the New World! "
Copyright © 2005 Armand Waksberg |