The contrast between here and other places she’d visited was stark. She had already heard from Bjarkey that the IMO had daily meetings with the civil defence agency to discuss things like road closures and other measures but she’d not imagined they’d actually manage the risk for people who wanted to visit rather than just restrict it entirely. In Hawaii, an entire area of the national park near Mount Kilauea had been closed off to the public since the last eruption.
Even from this distance, Iris could see the steam rising up around the eruption site, and a thrill coursed through her. It never ceased to amaze her that she could witness the planet adjusting itself in spectacular style. Literally getting itself comfortable. And to witness in real life what she’d spent years seeing on the screens in front of her was incredible. This was only the third live volcano she’d visited.
They made their way along the path towards the volcano. It had been erupting for a while so there was nothing spectacularly being blown up in the air, and the lava flow, once they approached it, was moving at a constant yet sluggish pace. The risk of being caught out by anything was fairly low. And although she probably knew far more about the risks involved in this kind of of situation, Siggi was a reassuring presence.
They stuck to the well-trodden path that would lead them closer to the volcano. The smell of sulphur hung in the air, but somehow the crisp coldness helped to mitigate the assault on your senses.
‘This is incredible,’ said Iris, unable to take her eyes off the volcano.
‘Let’s head this way,’ Siggi said, grabbing her hand and veering away from the path, almost heading around the back of the cone.
Iris took a deep breath, finding it difficult to assess the merits of following Siggi away from the beaten track and into an uncertain terrain, because all she could think about was his hand holding hers. All she could think was that she wished it wasn’t so cold that they both had gloves on, because she’d like nothing more than to feel the actual warmth of him.
Holding hands proved to be practical, as well as something that was giving Iris butterflies. They had to hike over very uneven ground, negotiating rocks and loose stones as they went. Iris found that she was having to look at the ground all thetime so that she didn’t twist an ankle. But eventually, Siggi said, ‘Look.’
They were overlooking the lava flow. It glowed red and orange, and even from this distance, they could see molten rock spurting into the air.
‘This is incredible,’ Iris said again.
‘I know, it is amazing,’ he said, looking at Iris. He had a look of satisfaction that was purely because of her reaction to where they were. This was why his job didn’t feel like work to him; because he got so much out of seeing people’s reactions to the places he took them. Or was this look for her? Did anyone else get this version of Siggi on a tour?
Iris dropped his hand. She’d caught sight of a rock strata and took her glove off, compelled to run her hand over it. ‘You see this? It’s a colonnade structure.’ The rock had vertical ridges in it, fairly uniformly spaced, making it look almost stripy.
‘Are you auditioning for my job?’
She tried to look affronted, but he had taken his own glove off and was running his hand over the rock now as if he was trying to feel the same way about it that she did.
‘Feel how that part is so smooth, and this is more granular,’ she said. ‘You can hardly see by looking at it because it’s such a similar colour, but you can feel it.’
‘I can,’ Siggi said. ‘We learned about some of this stuff at school and we went on a couple of trips, but we didn’t see any cool stuff like this.’
‘Well, cool might be stretching it.’
They grinned at each other.
‘Come on, put your glove back on before your hand freezes.’ He put his own glove on, then took Iris’s hand again. This time, he looked her in the eye as he did so. It was a look that told her it meant something. Her heart gave a small leap, and she had toswallow a gasp of surprise as he turned away. Was it surprise or was it pleasure that a closely guarded hope was coming to life?
They gave the lava flow a wide berth as they skirted around the base towards the area not visible from the direction they’d come.
‘Oh my god!’ Iris exclaimed when she saw what Siggi wanted to show her. ‘It’s a pahoehoe lava flow!’ Again, she dropped Siggi’s hand and went to take a closer look. Now that they were further around the volcano, they also had a better view of the current, very active lava stream that was regularly spewing fire about a metre into the air. The pahoehoe lava behaved differently to the main flow and was breaking away from it. ‘I’ve never been so close to this kind of lava when it’s been moving before. I saw it from a distance in Hawaii, but we couldn’t get this close because the crater had collapsed.’
Siggi asked her why it was so interesting. ‘I just thought you would like to get closer to the flow. I did not know it was anything special.’
‘I guess to most people, it’s just lava. I don’t want to bore you with the science,’ Iris said, wary that she didn’t want to break the spell and would rather stroll around holding Siggi’s hand again than get involved in a geology lesson.
‘You won’t bore me, Iris.’
What was happening? A man who wanted to hold her handandwanted to know about pahoehoe lava. It seemed so unlikely.
She gave him the briefest explanation that she could, checking every sentence or so for signs of fatigue in his face. But all she saw were his eyes, bright, watching her, interested. And it was overwhelming.
They carried on talking, discussing the volcano, as they walked back the way they’d come, periodically turning to admire the lava firing into the air.
‘Thanks for bringing me here, Siggi.’
‘It has been my pleasure,’ he said, squeezing her hand. ‘I am ready for a coffee and a cinnamon bun.’
‘Me too.’
