I heard the sound of a vehicle and turned around, but I didn’t see anything coming. The noise got louder and I realized it was coming from up ahead. A truck appeared, slowly bumping up the road. I moved to the side to allow it to pass.

The truck came to a stop right beside me and the driver leaned out the window.

“Do you need a ride?” he asked. He was Thai but his English was perfect.

“You’re headed in the wrong direction for me. I’m looking for my family. They were down at a resort right on the beach.”

“Not much left down there,” the driver said. “I’m going up to the airfield. These people are going home.”

“People?”

He gestured. “In the back. I’m bringing tourists from the evacuation site up to—”

“Can I check in the back? Please!”

“Of course. Sure.”

He climbed out of the truck and I followed him around the side. The truck was canvas-covered, but the back was open. There were people sitting on benches along both sides.

“This girl is looking for her family,” the driver called out.

A couple of faces peeked out of the back, but nobody I knew.

He turned to me. “What is the family name?”

“Brooks…James and Ingrid, and my brother is Sam.”

“Are the Brookses on board?” the driver asked. “Does anybody know the Brookses or have any information about what happened to them?”

There was no answer, but I could hear a hum of conversation inside the truck.

“Where were they staying?” a voice called out.

“On the coast at a…at a resort,” I stammered. “Kamala Bay Beach Resort.”

“I was there,” I heard a voice answer. A man came to the back and leaned out. “My wife and son and I, we were there. Do you have a picture of your family?”

“Yes! Yes, I do!” I pulled off my backpack and rummaged through it until I found my purse. I opened it up and pulled out our Christmas picture from the year before—it had been taken at the resort. That made me shudder. I passed it up.

The man looked at the picture and his eyes widened. He said something in a foreign language—maybe German—and a woman holding a baby appeared beside him. She looked at the picture and nodded.

“That is him, both of them,” the man said. “The man and the boy.”

“That’s my father and brother. Have you seen them?”

“They are the ones who saved my wife and son. They are the ones.”

The woman started to cry.

“They pulled them from the water,” the man said. “They risked their lives…so brave.”

“Do you know where they are? Do you know where they’ve gone?” I exclaimed. I felt such a rush of excitement and joy—if they’d saved these people then they had to be all right!

The man shook his head. “I saw them…I thanked them for what they had done, but then we left. My wife, my son…I had to get them to see a hospital, I mean, to see a doctor…we left. I am so sorry…I just wish I could tell more.”