فصل چهارم

CHAPTER four

They drove up the mountain. ‘Hey, Mom,’ said Graham. ‘Why don’t you leave me at Ruth’s?’

‘Yeah, me too,’ said Lauren.

‘There’s no time,’ Rachel said. ‘Mr Dalton wants to start working now.’

‘Oh, please, Mom,’ said the children.

‘It’s OK with me,’ said Harry.

‘Ruth is my husband’s mother,’ Rachel said, ‘but my husband left me.’

Ruth lived by a cold, clean mountain lake. They drove up to her small house. A dog ran out of the house and jumped up at the car.

‘Hi, Roughy’ Lauren said through the window.

They all got out of the car. Graham took an old shoe and threw it for Roughy. The dog ran into the trees after it.

Lauren ran over to the house. Hello, where are you?’ she called.

An older woman came out of the house with a big smile on her face. She wore a shirt and jeans. ‘Hi’ she said. The children ran over to her, but Rachel walked slowly. ‘Hello, Ruth,’ she said.

Ruth looked at Harry. ‘Is this your boyfriend?’ she asked.

Harry answered. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m from the United States Volcano Office. I want to look at your mountain.’

‘Yeah, people came here in 1980, after Mount St Helen’s,’ said Ruth. ‘There wasn’t a problem with this mountain then, and there isn’t now.’

Harry looked round at the lake. There were brown, dead trees by the water. ‘When did those trees die?’ he asked.

‘Trees are always dying,’ Ruth said. ‘Then new trees come. We had a bad winter.’

Harry took some equipment out of his bag and went over to the lake. Graham followed him. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

Harry said: ‘This equipment will answer the question: How much acid is there in the lake?’ He looked at the equipment. There was too much acid. He put his finger into the water. Not good. He went back to the car.

‘I’m going to take Mr Dalton up to the warm lake,’ Rachel said to Ruth. ‘Can the children stay here?’

‘Yes, but why don’t we all go?’ said Ruth.

‘Yeah,’ said Graham. ‘We can go for a swim.’

The children ran over to the car. Rachel looked angrily at Ruth. Harry smiled. ‘These two women don’t like being together,’ he thought.

In the car, Rachel asked about the acid in the water. ‘It’s not good,’ Harry said.

‘Do we have a problem?’ she asked. ‘Will the mountain explode?’

‘I don’t know,’ he answered. ‘Often nothing happens. People hear sounds under the ground, there are earthquakes, trees die, there’s acid in the water- and then nothing happens.’

Rachel stopped the car near the warm lake. The children jumped out of the car. ‘Come on’ they cried. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Wait for me’ Rachel called.

‘Oh, they’ll be OK,’ Ruth said. She followed the children.

Harry started getting equipment out of the car. Suddenly Lauren screamed. Rachel ran through the trees. Harry followed.

‘Look’ Lauren cried. On the ground at her feet were two dead animals.

‘There are a lot of those round here this year,’ Ruth said. ‘Do you think they’re ill?’

The children went over to the lake. Graham stood on a rock.

He wanted to jump in. Suddenly Harry called, ‘Stop’. ‘There was a lot of gas. ‘There are some dead fish on the water,’ he said, ‘and there’s something bigger too. What is it?’

Children can see things better. Lauren screamed again. ‘A man and a woman. There, face down, in the water!’