Epilogue

Ken pulled the crew-cab to a stop where a highland road abruptly terminated. Mrs. Burnette’s pickup eased up beside him. Beyond an upheaval, there was a grassy plateau bordered by a tumbling creek. A plume of ash belching from the volcano was drifting east. Where there should have been a hill, a grassy mesa and the archeological dig, now there was a broad valley and grassy meadows dusted with volcanic ash. A large, new creek curved south around the finger of lava, the rushing stream already cutting a gully down to the lake.