Alex turned his iPod back on and waited for his meal to come. The Eagles Long Road out of Eden picked up where he’d stopped it. As the song ended, Alex looked up to see a tall man of perhaps fifty enter the restaurant. His brown hair was neatly groomed and showed only tiny bits of gray. The casual attire looked more attuned to Saturday at a lawyer’s office than a roadhouse far from the city. He looked at Alex, and then walked straight toward him.
“Mr. Clark,” he said. “May I have a few words with you?”
Alex felt a flash of apprehension. He looked at the man for a several seconds, searching his mind for some hint of recognition but could find nothing. “Do we know each other?” Alex asked at last.
“Not yet,” the man responded. “My name is Jack Goodman, and I want to ask for your assistance.”
“How do you know me?” Alex asked. “And how can I help you?” He made a conscious effort to look the man in the eye, but his gaze wasn’t returned. In fact, the man seemed to stare into space and for a moment Alex wondered if he was blind.
“A few weeks ago you wrote an article about climate change in which you speculated that the heating of the planet might cause crop failures and other problems that could lead to global warfare. You probably have no idea how accurate your predictions are, but I do, and I want you to help me prevent this catastrophe,” Jack Goodman said, taking a seat across the booth from Alex. Still, his gaze didn’t change.
“I did write that,” Alex said, “but I didn’t mean that the danger is imminent. It might take decades to get to that point. My point in the article was that we need to start thinking in terms of reversing the trends soon.”
“Yes,” Jack Goodman responded, “I know that was your meaning in the article, but I am here to tell you that the danger is much more imminent than you believe. In fact, if some things don’t happen by the end of next month, the danger could be irreversible.”
Click Follow to receive emails when this author adds content on Bublish
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.