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day. Do you ever feel you’re studying some sort of black magic rather than something that can be explained scientifically?”
    â€œAnything that exists can be explained scientifically. You’ve been listening to too many of Auntie Annie’s incantations, Lele. Those Hawaiian genes of yours have been stirred, and the hard-headed reporter has been swamped by all that gibberish the old lady was spouting.”
    â€œIt wasn’t gibberish. I’m sure it had meaning, even though she may not have had any idea what it was.”
    â€œNo way. I’ve heard people speaking in tongues before. That’s just what it was.”
    â€œLet’s listen to the tape.”
    â€œNo. It’s getting late. I have a long flight ahead of me tomorrow, and I can think of better things to do than to listen to Annie fake it. You should have recorded all that stuff she was telling about eruptions instead. Now, that had some meaning.”
    Lehua laughed her musical laugh. “OK. Since I won’t have you distracting me for the next week, I’ll provide some other entertainment for us tonight, and I’ll save the tape till tomorrow. How’s that?”
    â€œGreat. When does the entertainment start?”
    Lehua stood up, moved around the table to his chair, leaned over and pulled his mouth up to hers. After a long kiss she asked, “Why not now?”
    As he stood up, Lehua thought for a moment Bill had pushed her. A rolling noise outside the house, the rattle of dishes in the cupboard, and a feeling of being off balance told her it was a quake—a typical Big Island earth shock.
    Bill turned and grabbed the portable phone. As he was punching in some numbers, he grinned and said, “4.6, 35 miles west of Kawaihae.”
    Speaking into the phone, he said, “Hi, Ed? Where was it?”
    There was a pause, then he nodded. “I wasn’t too far off.” Then, “I didn’t think it was that big. Anything else happening?” Apparently there wasn’t, because Bill ended the conversation with, “I’ll let you get back to answering phones. Thanks, and take care.”
    Turning to Lehua he said, “It was northwest of the Island, and was a 5.2. Now, where were we? Seems to me we were doing something like this.” He pulled her towards him.

Chapter 3
    â€œOne of the best things about being a vulcanologist,” Bill said, “is you don’t have to fight your way to an airport like O’Hare or Logan when you have to go anywhere.” The drive, with Lehua at the wheel, was not much more than a ten minute one from her apartment along a stretch of highway with scant outgoing traffic that time of morning. Dawn was just breaking.
    â€œHow’s Ed taking your departure,” she asked, turning the rear view mirror so she could watch Bill’s expression, lit by the occasional lights of approaching vehicles. Ed Tanaka was a fellow vulcanolgists and a friendly rival in the race for new discoveries on the island, and for choice expeditions such as the one Bill was now headed out on.
    Bill grinned at her reflection. “I think he’s finally resigned himself to the committee’s choice. Now I’m glad I wrote that paper on Yellowstone hot springs. It was a pain to finish up at the time, since I’d pretty much lost interest in anything besides flowing lava by then, but it was worth doing. I’m almost sure it was the deciding factor in the committee’s choice.”
    * * *
    After returning from the airport, Lehua indulged herself by going back to bed. It was not that she intended to sleep. It was just that she did her best thinking in bed. She had her editor’s approval to stay home that day to polish up the next installment of the Angel Tong story. Cy MacLeish had known her long enough to give her a lot of leeway, and she had not disappointed him yet. Being an investigative reporter on a small town newspaper had its advantages,