Story and art by Dean Adams Curtis
copyright 2008

Archaeologist Maria Demeter knows there are more artifacts to be discovered in her excavation, but she's out of time. With tomorrow's dawn will come the trucks. The workers will hoist away her camp, equipment and artifacts. Then the lower sluice gates of the new dam will be closed, the water level will begin to rise behind it, and the archaeological site she is in will be submerged under hundreds of feet of water. Maria smells the damp earth as she descends for the last time into her excavation. She senses the people who lived in this valley 8000 years ago. Somehow, they seem to be close around her, saying to her that there is more she has not yet discovered. If she can just find whatever it is tonight, then get the dam opening delayed long enough to complete a proper excavation of such an important site.