Summary

Cleo Allfrey develops the negative she exposed at Asa T. Hill’s dig site and discovers that her Graflex has not captured an excavated grave but a sprawling, living city on the prairie, complete with houses, fields, and children at play. The image convinces her that the camera is recording realities that do not fit the WPA narrative of scientific “discovery” and that the land itself may be revealing what Uz has tried to bury.

In Uz, the prairie witch known as the Antidote abandons Room 11 and flees before Sheriff Iscoe can return and tighten his control. She packs her record books and cash box and drives a drunk customer’s truck out of town, following the road toward Harp Oletsky’s farm. On the way, she is shocked by the height and vigor of Harp’s wheat even as the surrounding region is...