Death Dance

Section 5 Dance for a New Millenium Chapter 7

All the stray dogs whined and trembled. Roosters crowed. Horses knelt. Even the chickens appeared nervous. Then the earth shook. The mountains convulse and writhe as the soil dances. The largest earthquake in Nevada history, takes place on September 28, 1932. Tremors reach from the Rocky Mountains of Canada to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. The largest earthquake in Nevada history strikes the same day Wovoka rides the white horse on his last journey along the crow’s road. The Paiutes claim that the earthquake was necessary because the heavens needed to be cracked apart so that the afterworld could hold all of Wovoka’s magic.

The earthquake made the Sierra Nevadas shimmy and quiver almost as if they were dancing. The mountains shook as the earth rumbled and boulders tumbled while mountain slopes crumbled into mud flow and avalanche; giant rocks crashing down the precipices. Trees were snapped like matchsticks. Geysers erupted into the air, water bursting up from the earth, rising upwards and upwards in a column before falling back to earth, splashing on the parched desert soil. The water puddles and pools without nourishing a single blossom or root, slowly evaporating in the Death Valley heat like wasted blessings. A giant boulder wobbles, several tons of granite swaying back and forth before toppling over with all the finality of a tumbling tombstone…