I, Doctor Edgar Adamson, had the privilege of working alongside Felix Honey as his assistant. Every day, I marveled at his peculiar behavior and unconventional methods. His unkempt hair stood on end as if charged with electricity, and his thick glasses magnified his intense gaze. But behind his peculiar appearance lay a mind teeming with imagination and a penchant for predicting the future.
There. I said it. Predicting the future.
It was an otherwise ordinary day at the lab – the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington – and I was bent over my computer when Honey began excitedly mumbling to himself. Intrigued, I leaned closer, eager to hear what had captured his attention. Honey began to explain a series of calculations and theories, delving into a complex web of scientific jargon. It was a lot to absorb, but I listened intently, trying my best to grasp the essence of his discovery. It was yet another example of why I felt inadequate in my position assisting him. Our superiors had assured me, though, that I was probably as well-suited as anyone when it came to understanding Mister Honey.
“You see, Edgar,” Honey looked at me intensely, “I’ve analyzed the data from various sources—the climate patterns, social dynamics, and technological advancements—and I’ve come to a startling realization. The world as we know it is on the brink of a cataclysmic event.”
As intense as he was, I had never known Mister Honey to exaggerate. “Er, cataclysmic event? Of what sort?”
His eyes met mine, and for a moment, I could see the weight of his prediction etched upon his face. “A pole shift,” he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. “A reversal of the earth’s magnetic poles.”
“Surely it couldn’t be that bad,” I chuckled. “It’s not like it hasn’t happened before, old man. Probably several times since humans have walked the planet and it never killed anyone.”
Honey shook his head, growing more forceful. “Massive earthquakes, super-volcanoes, floods, perhaps a new ice age. But that’s not the worst of it. What is the difference between then and now? The obvious difference?”
“I say, Honey, you’re confusing the hell out of me.”
Becoming even more excited, he went on. “Technology! We rely on technology today more than ever, and it will be destroyed in case of a sudden pole shift. Society would collapse under the stress of having to revert to an era that too many digital natives never knew.”
What he said made sense, in a strange way. It gave me an uneasy feeling. Then I reminded myself that this was all based on his prediction of a sudden pole shift, which no other scientist had anticipated.
I calmed myself, thanked Mister Honey for confiding in me, and went on about my day. Albeit with a growing sense of unease.
Later, in the cafeteria, I cornered Phillip Murray, another colleague, and explained Mister Honey’s prediction. “…and so, he really made sense, Phil. He really made sense.”
Phillip waved it off. “Honey is a freak, Edgar. Tremendously intelligent, but a nut. I think it goes along with living in his head so much.”
“You don’t say?” I thought of Mister Honey as peculiar, but not abnormally strange in any way.
“Sure. Have you ever heard him go on about secret societies, hidden symbols, and ancient prophecies? According to him, the Illuminati still holds influence among the world’s leaders.”
I was astonished. “No, I have never heard that before. He’s usually very quiet in the lab.”
Phillip laughed. “Oh yes and get this. His crazy theories don’t stop there. He firmly believes that Albuquerque, New Mexico in the states, with its diverse cultural heritage and mystical energy, holds a special place in the grand scheme of things. In his eyes, it’s not just a city but a sacred location where Jesus Christ will make his second coming.”
“Oh, my. Well… He is very intelligent. People like him are bound to have unusual interests and hobbies, right? What harm could come of it?”
“I’ll tell you what. He has become a familiar face at various protests, advocating for causes related to government transparency and social justice, and exposing the alleged machinations of the Illuminati. His involvement in these demonstrations has led to confrontations with law enforcement, resulting in multiple arrests. He’s crossed the line from passionate activist to eccentric troublemaker.”
I came away from my conversation with Phillip feeling both surprised and reassured that Mister Honey’s were most likely a bit of nonsense. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was some grain of truth hidden amidst his seemingly outlandish notions.
I decided to spend a little more time with Mister Honey to discover just how serious he was about these “theories” of his. Was he serious, or were they just hobbies? Musings? As a result, I invited him and his daughter for drinks one evening.
Honey’s wife had passed away a couple of years ago and, as a single father I felt that his twelve-year-old daughter might want a friend.
I introduced Mister Honey to my husband, Fred, and our sweet, imaginative daughter, Lauren. Lauren was Fred’s daughter, but we now lived as a family. Same-sex marriage had become legal in the U.K. in 2013, but we had been together prior to that and afterward never made it “official.” I believe that Fred was shy of commitment after his first failed marriage, and as a scientist, “marriage” was just a word to me. The presence-of or lack-of it did not have any bearing on the love we felt toward each other, or our love for Lauren.
We believed it was important for Lauren to meet diverse individuals who could broaden her perspective on the world. Little did we know that this introduction would set off a series of events that would both perplex and disturb us.
“Fred, this is my coworker, Felix Honey, and his daughter Celia,” I turned the other way, “And this, Felix, is my husband Fred and our daughter Lauren.”
I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive and anxious at this point. Honey had made a few perplexing comments about race and religion in the past. I was not so sure that he would approve of our marital arrangement, but I was pleasantly surprised at his reaction. He didn’t seem taken aback, although I had never bothered mentioning my personal life at the lab. Quite the opposite.
“Well,” Mister Honey’s eyebrows raised behind his thick glasses, “It’s certainly refreshing to meet such a lovely young couple. Mister Adamson…” He turned to Fred.
“Whitaker. But please, call me Fred.”
Honey continued, “Mister… Fred, your husband possesses a fascinating mind. Sometimes I wonder who at our lab is the teacher and who is the apprentice.”
“And I have heard great things about you also. Apparently, you have some interesting beliefs that I would love to hear more about.”
What? What was Fred going on about? Was he just being kind? I took the girls into the kitchen and got them soft drinks and then made some drinks for the rest of us. By the time I entered the parlor, Mister Honey and Fred were deeply involved in conversation.
“…you don’t say, Felix?”
“Oh yes, Christ and his apostles had journeyed to the western United States, long before Columbus ever set foot on American soil. I’ve spent years poring over ancient texts and studying old maps, and I have pieced together what I believe to be extraordinary evidence.”
Fred seemed genuinely interested. “I suppose that the idea is not that far-fetched. Jesus’ cousin, Joseph of Arimathea, was a tin trader. We know that he traveled as far as the British Isles. It’s not completely implausible that his journeys took him even further west.”
Where was this coming from? I had no idea that Fred had an interest in these things, or in fact knew anything of them at all. Listening to them speak, I reminded myself that this was the man who had predicted being on the brink of a cataclysmic event.
“I’m, uh… I’ll just go check on the girls.” I excused myself from the conversation, but Honey and my husband did not even seem to notice.
Celia Honey’s eyes were unusually intense for a child her age. She seemed to be such a serious girl. Our own daughter was what I considered a typical, lively, curious twelve-year-old. Not so for Celia. Honey’s daughter was not what one would call pretty. Plain was a better description. Perhaps it was her boyish hairstyle and her dull manner of dress. I supposed that Mister Honey, having no wife, probably had no idea where a young girl’s interests lay. I felt sorry for her, in a way. Perhaps, if she were to spend more time with Lauren, she would develop a healthier sense of being. I made it a point to remember to speak with Lauren about that.
The girls were upstairs in Lauren’s bedroom, so I climbed the stairs. They were engaged in lively conversation, so I stood outside the door and listened to Celia speak. Her words sent shivers down my spine.
At first it seemed like innocuous comments about imaginary friends or fantastical stories, but gradually, her words took on a more unsettling tone. “Daddy says that the world is going to end. Soon.”
Lauren giggled, obviously thinking it was a joke of some sort. “Really? Why would you say such a thing?”
“Daddy told me about what he calls a second coming. He said that first, the earth would turn on its end. Then the stars would fall from the sky, and everything would go dark. Well, it won’t be the end, I suppose. But a sort of apocalypse.”
“Uh… Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No. An apocalypse is a beginning. An unveiling. Basically, life will be forever different.” Then Celia began speaking of imaginary creatures lurking in the shadows, of hidden worlds beyond our perception, and of unsettling prophecies that began to make my heart race.
“Uh…” I could tell from the waver in Lauren’s voice that she was becoming frightened, so I decided to step in.
“Hey girls… Why don’t we come back downstairs. I’m sure that Celia and her dad need to get on home soon.”
I returned to the parlor to find Fred and Mister Honey deeply involved in an intimate conversation. When I entered the room, they looked up at me conspiratorially.
“Well, Fred, I think that it’s getting near Lauren’s bedtime. We had better wrap up the evening.”
“Oh, but surely, we could let her stay up a little late. Just this once. We’re having such a wonderful conversation.”
Really… “Fred,” I sounded like a stern mother, “She has school tomorrow. She needs to get some sleep. Now.”
The men reluctantly wished each other goodbye, and the Honeys left. Fred was quiet the rest of the evening, save for sharing the news he had just seen on the television. There was to be a solar flare the next day. Not a typical one. This would be a super-flare, with energies ten-thousands of times that of a typical flare. Communications are the planet would be interrupted for days. The planet would “go dark.”
Honey’s words haunted me. “On the brink of a cataclysmic event.”
A few days later, I arrived home just as Fred was hanging up the telephone. He was positively giddy.
“Who was on the phone? Sounded like a thrilling conversation.”
“It was Mister Honey. According to him, Jesus began his career as a prophet evangelizing among the Native American tribes, sharing his message of love, compassion, and redemption. He spoke of miracles performed and lives transformed, all hidden from the annals of history.”
I was shocked. “What?”
“He said that Jesus…”
“No, I mean why are you talking to Mister Honey? How long has this been going on?”
“Edgar, you sound jealous.”
I was angry, not jealous. “I’m not.”
“Then what’s the problem? Felix really is a fascinating man. Strange, yes, but intriguing. Were you aware that he predicted this latest solar flare before any other scientist even had an inkling? And, that he said tomorrow, the stars will fall from the sky. He can be so dramatic and mysterious. I wonder what he means.”
We soon found out. The next evening, a bit at a time, our internet access became spotty. Our mobile phones could not locate their network, and – no matter how hard we tried – our televisions were useless. We switched over to antenna and caught some breaking news on one of the over-the-air channels. While the talking heads blathered on, I stepped outside.
My stomach turned over when I saw it. An unexpected meteor shower. Hundreds of shooting stars were very visible, as the appeared larger and brighter than any meteors I had seen in the past. But that’s because they weren’t meteors, were they? They were satellites. The “stars were falling from the skies.”
“On the brink of a cataclysmic event.”
As days turned into weeks, Honey’s ideas took on an eerie accuracy. The small details he mentioned in passing conversations would unexpectedly manifest in our lives. His predictions, which I once regarded as implausible, began coming true with unnerving precision. Increasing frequency and intensity of earthquakes, floods, subtle swelling of the grounds’ surfaces in some places. All indicating serious seismic activity. And all radiating from a spot in the center of the United States’ Midwest. The Yellowstone Caldera, a volcanic caldera and super-volcano. An eruption would cause incomprehensible devastation to the world.
In the midst of the chaos, I found myself questioning the validity of Honey’s remaining theories. Had his beliefs about the pole shift and solar flare been grounded in some semblance of truth? The line between skepticism and the unexplained had blurred.
I was again forced to ponder the words: “On the brink of a cataclysmic event.”
The situation became more unsettling when Honey’s daughter, Celia, began spending time with Lauren. Celia would share fragments of her father’s beliefs with Lauren, which often left her feeling bewildered and frightened. Lauren would come home, troubled by the strange ideas Celia had shared, and I grew increasingly concerned about the potential impact on her young mind. The final straw came when Lauren arrived home crying.
“Daddy! Celia said the most awful things today.”
I did not even know what the Honey girl had said yet, but I could already feel the anger welling up inside. “What, exactly, did that girl say now? I told you not to listen to her talk about apocalypses and such. The solar flare, the, uh… ‘meteor’ storm… Those were simply coincidences. Her father is perhaps a bit more in tune with astronomical events. He is a brilliant man, no matter how misguided, and his research may make him privy to such things.”
“And he doesn’t share them?”
“No. He often does not. The man lives in his own head. Many think he’s a crackpot because of it. I know better. Still, it does not make him some sort of prophet.” I recalled that I was angry. “Now… What did she say that upset you so?”
“She said that there would be some sort of ‘second coming,’ and then the sky would vanish! And then…” she started to cry. “And then we would all choke to death while the earth burned.”
I hugged my daughter to reassure her. “Don’t worry about a thing, Lauren. None of that is going to happen.”
But I had to wonder if my words of comfort were true. I could hear Felix’s voice in my head. “On the brink of a cataclysmic event.”
Driven by parental instinct, I decided to pay a visit to Mister Honey’s house to gain a better understanding of his home environment and the extent to which his beliefs influenced his daughter. What I discovered there sent chills down my spine.
Honey’s home resembled a makeshift conspiracy command center. Walls were adorned with elaborate diagrams connecting various symbols, photographs of political figures, and newspaper clippings highlighting alleged secret agendas. It became evident that Felix had involved Celia in his pursuit of proving his far-fetched theories, blurring the line between intellectual exploration and indoctrination.
Feeling a mixture of empathy and concern, I confronted Honey about the potential consequences of his ideas on his daughter’s well-being.
“Felix, you have certainly put quite a bit of effort into your theories, haven’t you?”
“Why, yes. Of course.”
“But don’t you think that, perhaps, Celia is a bit too young to be exposed to this sort of thing? She has been telling our daughter about some wild ideas.”
Honey looked upset. “Wild ideas? I don’t see anything out of sorts with the concepts that Celia and I have been working on.”
“Celia and you?”
“Oh, yes,” he nodded vigorously, “She has been the source of a great number of my breakthroughs! She is really quite exceptional.”
My mind raced as I tried to comprehend the enormity of what I was hearing. A super-volcano in the middle of the United States—a concept I had only encountered in science fiction novels—was Honey suggesting it could become a reality? The implications were staggering.
Days turned into weeks, and Felix and I delved deeper into his research. We analyzed data, reviewed scientific literature, and engaged in countless debates. The more we explored, the more convinced I became of the legitimacy of his prediction. It was as if pieces of a puzzle were falling into place, revealing a terrifying picture.
Word of Mister Honey’s prediction spread throughout our organization, and soon, he was invited to present his findings in front of a conference of our peers. People were skeptical, of course, some dismissing his claims as wild speculation. But there were a few who saw the glimmers of truth in his research, and discussions about the potential consequences of his prophecy began to gain traction.
As the days rolled on, tensions grew, and we all seemed to hold our collective breath, waiting for the inevitable. We poured resources into developing a survival plan, striving to understand and prepare for what Honey had predicted. Alas, we had dismissed Felix as an eccentric for too long. There seemed to be nothing left to do.
After a time, I started to relax a bit. I wondered if perhaps herd mentality had consumed us and we were so focused on fixing the problem that we ignored the fact that there may, in fact, even be a problem. At some point, Honey’s theories had become so real to us that we were accepting them as fact. Conceivably, we may have been panicking for no reason.
Then came the moment that I had been dreading all along. As I sat on a lounge chair on our front porch, smoking a cigarette, a very excited Lauren came running outside. She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me inside and in front of the television.
“Daddy! Look!”
I listened to my favorite news anchor broadcasting the startling news – perhaps more
staggering to me than most because I realized the chilling significance.
“In other news, an Albuquerque man calling himself Jesus has just performed a startling miracle, essentially proving himself to be what his fans and disciples have been claiming all along. In addition to reports that He has healed the sick and fed large crowds at his performances, he was captured on camera today in the act of actually raising the dead! Witnesses at the scene…”