The Seawatcher’s Diary

The Seawatcher is eighteen-year-old Joseph who lives on Carolina Island, which was
formed after the Carolinas broke apart. Joseph’s humble duty is to take the sea’s
temperature. He has never seen a star or a rainbow. The sea is cold and the ice just
retreating. A butterfly would be as mythical to him as a fairy. Multiple catastrophes tore
the planet apart and the sky is now scarred and dark. Most of the species are gone, with
only the insects and humans surviving. Joseph begins having nightmares at the same time
his foster father gives him the old diary that belonged to Joseph’s grandmother. It tells of
how it was before the great catastrophes and all the warning signs. Throughout the book,
Joseph is visited by four spiritual teachers. They are in order of appearance, Gandhi, and
American Indian named Uncle Sam, Martin Luther King, Jr., and St. Francis of Assisi.
The teachers bring warnings and lessons to Joseph who will eventually father the "second
coming". All scientific facts are based on true reports from the media and some hidden
agendas found in unpopular books.
Laugh with Joseph when he finally gets a glimpse of the sun. The mile long crack in the
sky is the new beginning. Weep with Joseph when he fights his own ignorance. Celebrate
with Joseph as he triumphs over himself. Wait with Joseph as the sequel develops and
Miranda is born.

Preview
Reading always made Joseph sleepy, although he just had eleven hours. Sliding off the
rock, he crawled over to the little mattress. His eyes so heavy, he fell asleep, or so it
seemed. He found himself back at the Carter's sitting at the kitchen table. The room was
oval rather than square. All the uncles were there, but something was amiss. In the corner
was the flag Joseph had seen in Grease's bunker and across from that was a large cone
shaped object. All the uncles had insect heads. One was a rat, the others a green lizard, a
spider, a beetle, a grasshopper and a large ant.
Slamming a massive piece of stale bread against a rock, the rat said, "let the meeting be
called to order!" All were in agreement. Looking around the oval room, Joseph saw
hundreds of rows of seats, each occupied by thousands of insects. On the walls were huge
colored banners of species Joseph had never seen.
"Today we will vote out one of the species," declared the rat as he eyed Joseph. "What
are you doing down here in the mother womb?"
"I came to see my papa" Joseph said cautiously.
The lizard looked around and said, "No, no papa here. Do you want to stay for the vote?"
What are you doing?" Joseph asked. You can't just vote a whole species out?"
"Well, your kind did," said the rat. "In fact, your kind voted a bunch of species out.
Wiped them right off the planet. Isn't that right boys?"
The insects made loud noises, flapped their wings, buzzed and howled, and stamped on
the floor. "Sure is!" they shouted.
In the next room, Joseph saw hot red liquid splashing through under the door. "What's
that?" he asked.
"Oh, that's one of the monsters that's going to get you," laughed one of the ants. "You
think throwing us some crumbs is a big deal?" What about all the mutated frogs?"
Yeah," said a one-eyed shark, leaning back on his bent tail. "Do you know how many of
my brothers and sisters, and cousins were beached, all because of your tests? You
polluted our housing and drove us right to the beaches with that senseless sonar. My
children were scared out of their wits. Their little brains couldn’t take the horrible sounds
you inflicted on them. You and your kind have some nerve. What can you say about that,
human? Frogs being born with three legs, one leg, dying all over the world. One of man's
funguses! The rivers are all polluted."
"Hey!" yelled the rat. "We should call Uncle Sam to the meeting. Let him give this kid a
piece of his mind."
"Who's Uncle Sam?" asked Joseph.
The lizard got up in Joseph's face, taunting him with his long whipping tail. "He's one of
your relatives, or didn't anybody tell you about that?"
The grasshopper jumped up on the table. "And what about the fish? Sores all over them.
Didn't do anything about it till it started infecting you humans, and that's when you did
something about it alright."
"I have no idea what you fellows are talking about. I ain't never even seen a fish and I
don't know what a frog is."
In the corner was a mirror. The rat pointed to it. "Look, fellow, over there, see the
beautiful blue just spinning on her side? She's drunk with many poisons. She's sick, and
she's dying." The monsters are gonna get all of you progress freaks. And then we'll roam
the earth just like before, by ourselves, without human intervention. It was real nice till
your kind got here. Nothing but a bunch of parasites. Everything was green. There were
thousands of trees for my people," said the lizard. One of the ants had tear filled eyes.
"There were millions of us. We never did anybody any kind of harm. We went along
minding our business for millions of years."
The grasshopper jumped down right behind Joseph. The insect gestured as to put its arm
around him. "Pay backs are hell, boy! All that bacteria your government sprayed all those
years is coming back on them. There ain’t no air to breathe any more, boy."
Mysteriously producing a blank paper, he pointed and shouted. "See that? Nineteen
species disappeared a day! What are you gonna do about it?"
The insects in the hundreds of rows stood up and cheered. "Kill them! Kill them!"
With these words, Joseph woke up. Reaching for the lamp he stammered to himself. "Felt
too real to be a dream." He wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep or if it really happened. The
pounding was still throbbing in his ears. "Is this some mystical place they stuck me in?
Maybe it's something I ate?"
Trying to shake the dream as quickly as possible, he picked the diary back up. "Where
was I?" Pointing to the middle of the page he began to read again. He wasn't connecting
the dream yet.