21
After a sleepless night, Laura stirred early the next morning with a thumping headache. She needed to clear her head, so she drove out to Creek View Lookout. Following the road west out of town, she turned off toward the scrubby hills and up a winding road to the top of the Banyula Ranges. She parked in the gravel parking lot and walked the five hundred meters toward the lookout, carefully dodging the muddy puddles before reaching the clearing. On a clear day, you could see for miles into the distance—Banyula to the left, and further to the right, the town of Clear Springs. Clear Creek could be seen snaking its way in and around Banyula and then over to Clear Springs and beyond. Today, however, a sheet of gray blanketed the horizon, and low-lying clouds settled in the valley along the
