The Earth Breathes

Polly woke to a smell like breakfast eggs, but there was no kitchen for many kilometres. The smell was sulphur. It came from a field of bubbling pools and hissing cracks in the ground. The pale blue water was far too hot to touch. Polly walked carefully between the pools. Her blue-teal wings were folded tight, and her round glasses misted in the steam.

In the middle of the field stood a geyser. Every few minutes the water swelled into a smooth blue dome and then burst up in a tall white column. Here is the secret. Water sinks down to rock heated by the fire below. It grows hotter than boiling and turns into steam, which throws the water into the sky. Polly flew up through the warm spray and came down laughing.

The people here use all this heat. In most towns, the hot water in the houses comes straight from the ground. Greenhouses warmed by the earth grow tomatoes and even bananas, in a cold country near the frozen north. Very little is wasted.

In the evening, Polly found a stream where hot water met cold snow water. She floated on her back and watched the first stars. The earth hummed softly below her.