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Isaak sat in the office, waiting for his second session to begin. His first session had been short and mostly covered the therapist getting to know him and vice versa. They also talked in-depth about what the objective of the therapy was. The room was dimly lit, with comfortable leather furniture. Books lined one wall, and abstract art covered another. Nothing here to make a crazy person upset, Isaak thought. But Isaak wasn’t crazy, and his therapist knew it. Isaak had experienced things that could later manifest themselves as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, or some other mental affliction if not hashed out now, or so was the theory.

He had been seized, drugged, and tormented. He had seen many people killed, some in especially gruesome ways. Isaak had never killed anyone unless you count killing someone who was already dead. He felt he was responsible for the deaths none the less. For them, he felt no guilt or shame, only sadness. Isaak also loved a girl so completely that he felt love, fear, joy, and pain all at the same time by merely thinking of her. Even today, it seemed incomprehensible to him how deep these feelings were, are, and he thought, always will be.

In his first session, he was asked if he could have done anything different to change the circumstances that resulted in all this tumult. Isaak had always been a quiet and non-confrontational person who would most times take the path of least resistance. A year ago, he would have crafted an answer that would have had him avoiding all of the unpleasantness. Now he was a warrior, and would battle a thousand times more if necessary. If he had taken an easier path, he would not have met the girl, which was unspeakable, unthinkable. His poor mother had always implored him to find a direction to take in his life. Well, now he knew how he would live the rest of his life, and he was only fifteen years old.

The therapist, Ms. Tonya, entered the room. She was a heavyset Black woman with a big smile, not too old, but older than his mother was, forty years old, he guessed. She was chosen because she had experience counseling young gang members who had witnessed violence and death up close. Isaak promised Willie that he would cooperate fully with the therapy. Willie well knew about Isaak’s predilection to agree to go somewhere or do something new only to sit like a boulder looking at his iPhone when he got there. Isaak did want to participate because of many sleepless nights and nightmares he’d been having. He hoped the therapy could help him. He’d read a book at school about child soldiers in Africa and how their experiences had messed them up for life. He didn’t want to end up like them.

Ms. Tonya asked him to tell her his story, what happened, that had him sitting in her office. She asked him to start at the beginning, but whenever he began, she would ask if he could remember further back than that. After a few interruptions, Isaak was exasperated and snapped at her asking if she wanted to hear about when he was a baby. She said she did and seemed genuinely interested. Isaak was sorry he was curt with her. So, he began to tell his story as he knew it.

Isaak was born in Elk Horn, a small village in Alaska, a full-blooded native Alaskan from the Sanhinga Tribe. His father left his Mom when he was very young, and Isaak has no recollection of him. He and his Mom, Mary, were almost always happy. His mother was in a long-term relationship with Peter, another Sanhinga from their village. They had lived in Peter’s home for as long as he could remember. Isaak liked Peter and thought of him as his stepfather, although Peter and his Mom were never married. Peter was sober and had a good job working in the village’s water plant. Peter was also really into Sanhinga culture and heritage. Isaak shared that interest until recently when he began to think that grown men dancing around in costumes wasn’t cool. Isaak also started to doubt a lot of the Sanhinga teachings because much of it was magical and improbable. Now he understood things quite differently.

Peter, who was an officer at the Sanhinga Cultural Guild, had gotten correspondence from their sister city in Greenland. Peter said that there were Sanhinga in Greenland who were originally from Alaska and could even be related to the Sanhinga in their village. Greenland was a territory that was part of Denmark the same way Alaska was part of the United States Isaak surmised. A private school in Denmark was offering a scholarship to a Sanhinga as part of their diversity program. No one in the Greenland village was interested, nor was anyone in Isaak’s community. Moving away from home and friends is not something an average kid would find appealing. Peter and Isaak’s Mom thought it would be an excellent opportunity for Isaak. Isaak was smart and tested in the highest quartile in school, but in the classroom, he was less than ambitious. Isaak had no interest in going to school in Denmark. But after much prodding, he started working on the application. He did not think he would have a chance at winning the scholarship, and completing the application made both his Mom and Peter happy. As it turned out, Isaak won the scholarship. Isaak thought that no one else could have applied because his application wasn’t all that great. His mother filled out most of it. He just had to write an essay that he put no particular effort into.

A few months later, Isaak was in Copenhagen at Lund Skole, which is a co-ed International Baccalaureate school from the sixth grade through the sixth form, which is the American equivalent of sixth grade to a senior in high school. The classes would be taught in English and Danish, and the school had other international students besides him, although the vast majority were Danish nationals. Isaak tried to rebel and get out of going, but both Peter and his Mom were persuasive. They told him If he didn’t like it, he could always return home. Peter also raised some good points. He knew many of Isaak’s friends, some of whom were already smoking weed, and huffing paint. He had spoken to Isaak about distancing himself from these boys as they developed bad habits. Isaak agreed with Peter but thought four thousand miles away was a little extreme. Isaak knew he someday wanted to leave his village, but for California or Texas, not Europe.

After Isaak got settled into his dorm room, he had to go to orientation for a few days before classes started. The school had live-in students, and more than half of the students were day students who lived somewhere in the area and went home after school every day. The day before school began, Isaak met his roommate Felix. Felix didn’t have to attend orientation because he was a student there last year, orientation was only for newbies. Felix was a short boy with dark hair and fair skin. He seemed even shorter Isaak noticed because the Danish students were taller on average than students in the US. Isaak was five-foot-eight inches tall, which made him one of the taller students in his class in Alaska. Here he was only average height. Felix was quiet and stoic but very polite and seemed to put an extra effort to make sure Isaak was getting along in his new surroundings.

The school campus was beautiful and seemed very old. The buildings were made of stone or masonry and looked like they were built in stages. As the school grew, the campus grew along with it, Isaak thought. There were lush lawns and athletic fields. The school was also close to town, about a half-mile he guessed, and the live-in students could walk to town or use one of the community bicycles the school provided. There was a lot of freedom. Students could do practically anything they wanted after school. They just needed to be back on campus by nine PM on school nights and eleven PM on Friday and Saturday.

School started well, and while the studies were harder than what he was used to, he was able to keep up. He at first didn’t like the uniform of dark-colored slacks and a light-colored collared shirt covered by a blue sport coat with the Lund Skole logo on the right breast of the jacket. He soon grew to like the uniform because what to wear to school was one less thing to worry about. The dress for the girls was the same, although they could wear a dark skirt if they wanted, and their uniform was topped off with a blue Lund Skole sweater. Being surrounded by students who had good study habits helped him keep on track. He would hang out with Felix, and when Felix studied, he would also. The food was good there too. While he was unfamiliar with some of the dishes, they seemed to be of good quality, and not being a particularly fussy eater helped as well. When someone asked if Isaak wanted to try something, he would usually say yes unless it didn’t smell right. As a consequence, he began gaining some weight, which was a good thing because even after gaining a few pounds, Isaak was still pretty thin.

Isaak missed his Mom and Peter and life in Alaska but was pretty happy at his new school. He liked his new friends and gained some respect when their teacher Mr. Jepsen had heard that some of the boys in his class were calling Isaak an Eskimo and a whale killer. Isaak and most Sanhinga think the term Eskimo is derogatory. Not quite as bad as calling a black person the N-word, but not nice either. Isaak told Mr. Jepsen that he didn’t hear these insults, although he did, and said he thought if they were said, they weren’t said with malice. Mr. Jepsen was disappointed. It seemed that he wanted to have an investigation and bring the students up on charges for violating the school code. Isaak assured him that he didn’t hear anything. It seemed crazy to start trouble over something a ninth-grader would say because, at that age, kids will say just about anything to get a laugh or a reaction. None the less he made a mental note to watch what he said in the future.

Of course, when things were going great, better than he could have dreamed, a load of garbage was about to be dumped on him. Isaak had a girlfriend, Liva Meller. She was tall and beautiful with short blonde hair and a crooked smile. Liva lived off-campus with her family. Isaak would often hang out with Liva after school, and they would hold hands and sometimes make out when no one was looking. They studied together and couldn’t be with each other enough. Both her parents seemed nice. Her brother Carl was a year older but shorter with a muscular build. He also had recently grudgingly accepted Isaak’s presence around his sister. Isaak had been worried about him. In the past, he gave Isaak dirty looks. Isaak was pretty sure Carl could beat his ass if it came down to it. Carl now just treated him with indifference, which was an improvement.

Peter had schooled Isaak on the Sanhinga legends and philosophy. One of the main lessons was about balance. When things are going great, prepare yourself for bad times. When times are bleak, keep hope that the weather will break and the sun will shine. The Sanhinga legends were usually about the weather, their sled dogs, and the animals they depended on for survival. The stories used those things as symbols to show a greater meaning. Isaak would often joke with Peter when he told another story about how the sun never shines on the same dog for long or some such thing. Peter would say to him that the stories were hundreds, sometimes thousands of years old, and were about what the people had at that time. The stories weren’t fatalist, though. Men had the power to change their outcomes through preparation. You could survive, even thrive, in the coldest Winter if you had correctly prepared. If you told the truth, were kind and fair with all others, good luck would follow you. If you ignored the Sanhinga ways, you invited misfortune.

One day in science class, Mr. Jepsen was lecturing about climate change and how Polar Bears would become extinct in Scandinavia if humans didn’t begin curtailing their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. One of Isaak’s classmates, Magnus, said that Isaak might have an opinion on this being that he was from an area where Polar Bears lived. Magnus was the kind of person who thought he was smarter than everyone else and would try to put other people down, often surreptitiously. In Isaak’s opinion, Magnus was a complete dick, and he knew that Magnus thought he would mumble and stammer when called on. Isaak decided to disappoint him. Isaak knew quite a bit about the Polar Bears and all other things Alaska, thanks to Peter. Mr. Jepsen then called on Isaak to see if he had anything to add. Isaak nodded in the affirmative and stood behind his desk, which was the custom for students when they were addressing the class.

Isaak began: It is silly to think that the Polar Bears will become extinct if it becomes warmer. They have been in the North long before humans were here. They have survived when the weather was much warmer than now and much colder than now. Sanhinga history shows that one thousand years ago, it was much warmer than it is now. It was called the time of the Caribou. Much of the ground that was usually covered with ice and snow almost all year was now uncovered. The Caribou could graze without having to travel hundreds of miles to find open land to feed upon. The Caribou herds became huge, and hunting them was easier for the Sanhinga. This time period was also sometimes called the time of the wolf because the wolf packs also became quite large along with the Caribou herds and became the dominant predatory force. The Polar Bears, along with the seals, moved North where there was more sea ice. The seals prefer sea ice because it extends for miles over open ocean out into their fishing grounds like a super long fishing pier that allowed them to get to the fishing grounds without swimming for many miles. Some Polar Bears remained in the South during the time of the Caribou scavenging off of dead whales that washed up on the shore and anything else they could find. Four hundred years after that, it began to get quite cold. The ice returned in abundance. The time of the Caribou ended and the time of the seal started. Now the Caribou had a tough go of it while the seals and Polar Bears lived like kings. The Sanhinga had to adapt yet again from hunting Caribou to hunting seals. Isaak sat down. The class began clapping at his informative dissertation.

When the clapping stopped, Magnus asked Isaak how he could rely on a primitive people’s legend. Isaak bristled, He knew that Magnus didn’t like him and thought he was better than him, but now he was implying that the Sanhinga were some sort of Neanderthals. Isaak stood again, and although he was quite pissed, he held his temper and said: The Sanhinga have a written language and wrote the history of the time of the Caribou and the time of the seal on ivory and leather. When these writings were compared to writings in Europe and Asia about the same time, all of them said the same thing. It was much warmer one thousand years ago than it is now and much colder six hundred years ago. The Vikings had to leave their settlement in Greenland at the same time for the same reason.

The class began clapping again. Isaak didn’t know if it was for him or he suspected possibly against that jerk Magnus, but he didn’t care. He felt great, even more so when Liva blew a kiss at him. This feeling didn’t last. When Isaak looked at Mr. Jepsen, he looked upset and angry. Isaak blew it off, figuring maybe he had a fight with his wife or had something else going on. Mr. Jepsen had a reputation for having quite a temper.

When Isaak and Felix returned to their rooms after supper that evening, there was a note in their mailbox. In addition to email, texting, and calling for the students over the campus intercom, each dorm room had a small mailbox that notes or letters from home could be put in. The note was for Isaak and said that he was to report to Dr. Nissen’s office at eight-thirty the next morning. Dr. Nissen was the director of the school. Isaak was curious about what it could be about but not worried. He had not even come close to breaking any rules that he knew of. He thought maybe it had to do with his relationship with Liva, but he doubted it. Her parents were cool with them spending time together.

The next morning Isaak went to Dr. Nissen’s office and was met there by Dr. Nissen and Mr. Jepsen. The two men looked like opposites. Mr. Jepsen was tall with balding blond hair, and he usually had a sour puss on his clean-shaven face. Dr. Nissen was short and fat like a garden gnome. He had a head full of gray hair and a beard that was cut too short and looked like he merely forgot to shave for a few days. He was almost always smiling. After making introductions, Dr. Nissen got down to it. He said that Denmark, along with the European Union at the recommendation of a committee of the United Nations, had recently made it a criminal offense to deny that Manmade Climate Change was taking place. It had quietly been made part of Denmark’s extensive hate speech statutes where it was layered between two long and boring bills that few people had the time or inclination to read. Nissen, seeing that Isaak had no idea what he was talking about, told Isaak that the Sanhinga history on the time of the Caribou could be construed as being speech that denies manmade global warming. Isaak could be in serious criminal trouble for this. He further stated that Mr. Jepsen, by law, is required to report any such violations.

Isaak defended himself. He said that he believed that Manmade Climate Change was a fact because Mr. Jepsen had taught that it was in class and that he had no reason to think it was not true. The Sanhinga history about the time of the Caribou was just that, history, not science, and was backed up by other historical writings around the globe at the same time. Nissen then went on to say that the students are young and impressionable. Denmark and the EU have put mandatory lesson plans in place for first grade through the sixth form that teach that the Polar Bears, along with many other living things, will indeed become extinct if the global climate continues to warm. Isaak replied that this simply wasn’t true, and history exposes this inaccuracy. Isaak was getting nervous about how tense both Mr. Jepsen and Dr. Nissen were. He appealed to them. As a Sanhinga, he is obligated to tell the truth and be fair in his interactions with others. Dr. Nissen looked at the clock and saw that class was about to start. He ended the meeting, saying that Isaak shouldn’t repeat the history of the time of the Caribou. Other students may begin to doubt the veracity of the Manmade Climate Change (MMCC) theory, and he didn’t want Isaak to get into any legal trouble because of it. Nissen then told Isaak that if he disagreed with anything Mr. Jepsen was teaching in class about MMCC not to speak about it but quietly leave and be excused from the class until the subject had changed. Isaak readily agreed with this plan just to get out of Nissen’s office. He honestly couldn’t care less about all this climate change crap. He thought Alaska getting warmer would be a good thing anyway.

At lunch, Isaak sat with Liva and Felix and told them about his meeting with Dr. Nissen and Mr. Jepsen. They both couldn’t believe that the administration was making such a big stink over a scientific matter. The school code of conduct mandated that all points of view are to be respected and that vigorous debate was a critical part of their learning environment.

After school, Liva and Isaak went to the school’s computer lab, which was a room off of the library. Liva was curious about this new law and why it was put into place to protect a particular scientific theory. They read up on the law and saw that it was written in legalese to confuse the reader purposely. Liva’s father was a lawyer, and she said she would ask him about it at dinner. They then typed Manmade Climate Change (MMCC) into the search engine. Thousands of hits came up, some declaring that it was a hoax or a scam. Liva clicked on one of the hoax sites. She was redirected to a Denmark government site complete with a warning that appeared in a pop-up screen that said it is a crime in Denmark to deny Global Climate Change is manmade. Every time they tried to visit one of the scam or hoax sites, they were redirected to the same government site. Liva couldn’t figure out if the school’s webmaster was responsible for this or if the government was controlling access to these sites.

Isaak was uneasy about Liva doing all this checking on the computer. He didn’t want any trouble and would be happy to never talk about the subject again. If the school and the country were all sensitive about the matter, he felt like as a guest; he should respect their wishes and drop it. Liva, on the other hand, was behaving like a detective checking everything out. The fact that the school or the government were telling her to stand down only made her more curious and more determined. Isaak felt lucky that Liva would even look at him. Some boys were richer, well everyone at the school was wealthier than Isaak. But other boys were also better looking, smarter, funnier. You name it. Liva had chosen him, and it made him proud and more confident that he had been before. If Liva wanted to research this subject, he would go along with her just to be with her. While Liva was kicking around theories and scenarios in her fast-moving brain about MMCC, all Isaak could think about was how good her hair smelled.

That night Liva sat with her dad and explained the situation. Liva’s parents were both about fifty and looked like their children. The father was short and thick like Carl, while Liva’s mother was tall and pretty. Liva’s dad always had time for his children. He couldn’t help but notice that they seldom had time for him anymore. So, when they wanted to talk or on those rare occasions when they wanted to do something, he cleared the decks to try to make it happen. They used to go hiking or mountain climbing in Germany as a family for years. Now the children were no longer interested.

Liva told her dad about what Isaak had said in class about the time of the Caribou and the warning he had received the next day. She also told him about being redirected to the government site on the school computer. Liva now knew that it was school’s doing because she could reach the Global Warming hoax sites on her home computer easy enough.

Liva’s father explained that the law on denying manmade climate change seemed to be written with a certain degree of ambiguousness to create fear in the people who believed it was a hoax. In other words, if the law was clearly written, people would be able to doubt climate change up to a point without violating the law. If no one really knows what the law means, people would be afraid to say anything because they do not know when they would be crossing that line from being legal to committing a criminal offense.

He further stated that the MMCC theory was just that, a theory. The science behind it is quite suspect. There is no scientific proof that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has anything to do with climate change. If there were, there would be no need for these laws. You don’t need a statute to protect Newton’s law of gravity. Just throw a coin up in the air and see how long it stays there. Now there is almost a reverse of what religious people thought years ago. They believed that whatever happened god was somehow responsible. Now there is no more god. Religion is almost totally absent from European life. Now, whatever happens, man is responsible. Dishonest people are using this theory to enrich themselves or redistribute wealth. Others believe it without having examined it critically. Before the law was enacted, I was publicly skeptical of the theory. People who were as doubtful as I said that we need to curtail our CO2 emissions. On the outside chance that the theory is correct.

The cost to implement all of these changes seems too high to honor a theory that probably isn’t correct, especially when we look historically at what we accepted as fact that was later proved false. Even Darwin’s theory of evolution has come into question. There is now more evidence on hand to disprove this theory than there is to support it.

But we have a comfortable existence in a great country. What is demanded of us is a degree of conformity. We must obey the laws, even the ones we disagree with. My advice is to drop the subject, and when they teach that manmade climate change is a fact, just nod your head yes and move on.

Liva argued with her dad, saying that the school and the government shouldn’t be forcing the people to believe in something under penalty of law. She compared it to communist countries where people who believe in god are punished. Her dad agreed with her but added that “it just wasn’t worth going to jail over.” Liva really couldn’t dispute that.

Magnus always had a crush on Liva. She was smart, pretty, and her parents were well off. She made it clear without being rude that she was not interested in him. He could not understand why. He was one of the smartest boys in their class, and he wasn’t bad looking either. On top of that, he was on the school’s soccer and basketball teams. He was rich too. Although his parents were divorced, he and his mother lived in a huge house and had money for any luxury they wanted.

Liva did not have a boyfriend. Magnus thought that maybe when she was ready to choose a boyfriend, he would be her first choice. When she started going out with Isaak, he freaked out. He could have understood if she wanted an older boy or someone whose attributes were on par with his, but to choose that dark-skinned foreigner over him was more than he could take. He had tried to make things uncomfortable for Isaak by urging the other students to call Isaak an Eskimo, and worse. Isaak ended up getting the best of that because he refused to rat on the students who insulted him, gaining their respect and gratitude at the same time.

Magnus thought he finally would make a fool of Isaak when he asked him about the Polar Bears. That also blew up in Magnus’s face. For one, he had underestimated Isaak. He was no dummy. He didn’t know much about Europe and never lived anywhere outside his village in Alaska. But he was well-read for a ninth-grader. Secondly, Magnus stupidly chose to quiz Isaak on a subject that he had a wealth of information. One good thing came from that. Magnus had gotten Isaak to break the law. It was a law no one in the class had even heard of. The day after Isaak told the class about the time of the Caribou, Mr. Jepsen informed the class that implying that MMCC is a hoax was a violation of the Lund Skole code of conduct and a violation of the Danish criminal code. He also said that anyone hearing a student saying such things had an obligation to report the student to their teacher.