Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

burned.
    ‘Wow!’ said Erika.
    ‘This is so cool!’ said Franz.
    Dúddi smiled.
    ‘Amazing,’ said Nico, his eyes alight with excitement and the orange reflection of the volcano. ‘Can we get closer?’
    ‘Of course. We can climb up there.’ Dúddi pointed to the pile of rubble ahead of them.
    ‘Are you sure?’ asked Erika. ‘Isn’t that lava?’
    ‘It is, but it has cooled. Last time I was here it was crowded with people. Look! There are a couple of guys up there now.’
    It was true: there were two people silhouetted against the orange of the volcano.
    They all followed Dúddi up the slope. Erika could feel the warmth beneath her feet. She picked up some of the stone in her gloved hand. It was warm and it crumbled. She was a little
nervous that the whole slope would slip away underneath her, but it seemed to hold. The wind was still blowing, but Erika didn’t notice the cold.
    ‘I told you it would be worth coming,’ said Nico, grabbing her hand.
    They reached the top and the view was even better. The volcano itself was only a hundred yards away. They couldn’t get any closer: the lava was too soft.
    ‘It looks powerful from here, but this is actually a small eruption,’ Nico said. ‘It’s what’s called an effusive eruption. They’re the pretty ones. Basalt
lava gets thrown up into the air and then flows down the side of mountain.’
    ‘What’s the other type?’ Erika asked.
    ‘Explosive eruption. That’s when the magma explodes into ash and is flung way up into the atmosphere. They are nasty: you don’t want to be anywhere near one of
those.’
    ‘My, aren’t we the expert?’
    ‘Told you,’ said Nico with a smile. ‘They say there’s a chance that Katla will blow, that’s a big volcano under the Mýrdals Glacier back there. If it does
there could be a real mess – massive floods.’
    ‘Floods?’
    ‘Yeah. The eruption melts the ice in the glacier, and the meltwater surges down the mountain in a series of powerful flash floods. Jökulhlaup , I think the Icelanders call it
– “glacier leap”. You really don’t want to be in the way of one of those.’
    They stared at the convulsions of the volcano in awe.
    ‘You know what? I’ve thought of a code name for this Gaza video project,’ said Nico. ‘ Meltwater .’
    ‘Not bad,’ said Erika.
    They stared a bit longer. ‘It’s amazing to finally see an eruption for real,’ Nico said. ‘Come on! Let’s take a closer look at the lava flow.’ He led Erika
along the rim.
    Ásta was impressed. She had seen Hekla erupting before from a great distance, but she had never seen a volcano this close. She had meant to join the thousands of
inhabitants of Reykjavík who had flocked up to Fimmvörduháls over the previous three weeks, but had just never got around to it. Although she thought Dúddi was an idiot to
drive up on to the glacier without checking the weather, she was very glad she had come.
    As she watched the volcano thrashing and writhing in front of her, she thought of the line in Genesis: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Well, that was what
she was witnessing: God creating the earth. You could do that here in Iceland. And it was a magnificent sight.
    It was beginning to get dark. The setting sun slipped behind the volcano, blushing pink across the whiteness of the Mýrdalsjökull behind them and stroking the underside of the cloud
just above it. A few flakes of snow bit into her cheek.
    She was excited to be working with Freeflow. She liked the look of Erika. It was good to meet another woman who believed in something and had the energy and drive to make a difference. To
Ásta’s disappointment, there weren’t many people like that in the Icelandic Church.
    She could learn from Erika. She would need all the inspiration she could muster if she was to go ahead with her own plans to shine light into dark corners.
    The snow thickened ahead of her, horizontal flakes obscuring the volcano. The sun had disappeared. She turned to Dúddi. ‘Do you think we had better get back?’
    A blizzard on a glacier was a really bad idea. Especially at night.
    Dúddi nodded. ‘Time to go, guys. Where are the others?’ The visibility was deteriorating rapidly. Dieter, Dúddi, Zivah and Ásta were all in a group together, but
the other three were out of sight.
    ‘I think Nico and Erika are just along there,’ said Dieter, pointing along the rim. ‘Don’t know about Franz.’
    ‘Can you