Chapter 49 - The Ancient Knowledge
Ramón climbed up onto the heavy steel tracks of the bulldozer, yelling over the deafening roar of the fire.
"Mateo! Stop digging!"
Ramón ordered, pointing toward the eastern edge of the property.
"We have to hold the line, Dad!"
Mateo yelled back, coughing on the thick smoke.
"The line is broken! We cannot fight the fire with dirt anymore. We have to fight it with the river!"
Ramón shouted, his eyes burning with an intense, fierce brilliance.
"The river is too far down in the gorge,"
Mateo argued frantically.
"Not the gorge,"
May you like
Ramón corrected him, pointing a weathered, scarred finger toward an old, overgrown stone wall at the edge of the forest.
"My grandfather built an emergency spillway gate into the upper bend of the river seventy years ago. It hasn't been opened since the great flood of '42. It connects to the old aqueduct trench that runs directly through the center of the northern orchard."
