Jack’s heels are rubbing in spots and have started to burn. To take his mind off the hurt, he reflects on what brought him here, to this moment. After losing Sarah, he realized he had nothing left, that life had passed him by. So he decided to travel, to pull up stakes and fly to South America. With the same skills he had learned in business, he researched the different countries he would be crossing. Reading up on Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, taking in histories of the people and the regions, adding to what he knew about this area he is now traversing: San Pedro de Atacama. Yes, it is the driest desert on earth, and yet people have lived within it dating back some ten thousand years. The people here were once ruled by the Inca Empire. Then the Spanish arrived, and the Incas fell. War came. Independence. And the creation of the Bolivian and Peruvian territories. Then, in the eighteenth century, came the War of the Pacific, and a division and self-identity among the Peruvians, Bolivians, and Chileans. Chile claimed the Atacama region and its indigenous people. During the nineteenth century, the Atacameños were employed to mine silver nitrate and copper. Then, in the twentieth century, the silver industry collapsed and created an economic crisis. And life in the Atacama got even harder.

Hours have passed, and Jack has a problem. Not a single vehicle has driven by, and the burning sensation on the ball of his right foot is getting worse. But even though everything hurts, he can’t take his eyes off the beauty of the skyline—brilliant blue above, against it the earth tones and glowing orange of the mountains, aproned with dazzling white mineral deposits. Breathtaking, but there is no shelter from the unrelenting sun. No hiding from the heat. And for all the material wealth he has accumulated, none of it can do him a damn bit of good. He wants to stop and sit, but that won’t get him anywhere. He needs a ride, a rest area, or a gas station—even a scraggly thornbush to provide a little shade. He wonders whether the heat is making him delirious. Tears sting his eyes as he thinks of Sarah. Meeting in high school. Him washing dishes in a diner. Studying with her. Sharing their dreams. She wanted to be a lawyer—something not too many women did back then. Dating all the way into college. Coming home in the summers. Working for Sarah’s father at his family-owned insurance company. It was there that Jack saw a way to make a lot of money fast. His future father-in-law wouldn’t be too happy about it afterward, but by then it wouldn’t matter. Jack would already have his ticket up the corporate ladder.