Chapter 19

Later in the afternoon, Cassian drove Jasmine out to the northern slope. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as folk songs played out from the car radio. He pointed out the window. "Look there. Doesn't it resemble a whale's back? Wind and rain are nature's own sculptors." Jasmine looked over and saw a reddish brown array of ridges, ditches, and valleys formed by thousands of years of wind erosion. Cassian added, "For all that the area is completely dry now, it may have been a huge lake millions of years ago. Nothing is constant in the world." He stopped the car on a slope, then nimbly took out his toolbag and water canteen. As he led her up the slope, he pointed at a cross-section of rock. "Look. This rock bed is a recording of ancient climate changes. Every layer tells its own story." He picked up a fossilized snail shell and handed it to her. "Human emotions seem trivial in the face of time, so when you're feeling down, look around at the world around you. You'll f