Back for the Flames

I went back the next evening, which is my oldest research method: the first visit is for astonishment, the second is for information. The tour schedule was on my side and I had the entire burning bank to myself, a private audience with a geological habit.

Alone, the site rearranges. The flames stop being an attraction and resume being a process. You hear the seam breathe, notice which pockets gutter and recover, see the scorch line's slow negotiations with the grass above. I stood with my back to the camera and my face to the heat and did nothing else for half an hour, which was the entire agenda.

The buzzer taught me this and the antennas confirmed it: persistent signals reward persistent listeners. Fire that never goes out is just a broadcast in another band. Second visits are how you learn the schedule of eternal things.