“You’ve done enough. At least I know they’re alive, and that’s all that matters.”

He opened his mouth to say something and then he didn’t.

“What? What were you going to say?” I asked.

“We left just as the second wave hit. There were four waves. We were away from the hotel, well up from the beach, but still, that second wave was much stronger than the first.” He looked serious, deadly serious, but he stopped talking.

“And?”

“When I spoke to your father and your brother they were going down to the water, I think to help other people. When the next wave hit they might have been right on the beach. I don’t know. I just do not wish to worry you.”

I felt my knees buckle and my stomach churn violently. I had to fight the urge to simply collapse. But I couldn’t…I needed to know more.

“And…and…my mother. Do you know anything about my mother?”

He said something to his wife that I didn’t understand and then turned back to me.

“She was the one who held our son when they went to save my wife. She was not with them at the beach. She must have stayed up at the hotel…lots of people were there in the lobby.”

There was at least a glimmer of hope. “Thank you so much.”

“No, no, thank you and your family. I wish I could do something to help, but I do not…wait!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. “You must take this!”

“I have money.”

“Please, please, take it. We are leaving. This might help.”

He stuffed the bills into my hand. I didn’t want them, but he was so insistent, and maybe he was right, I might need them.

“And take this. It is my business card. I gave one to your father…in case he lost it.”

I took it from him.

“We have to go,” the driver said. “I have to get them there for their flight or they might miss their turn.”

“I understand. Thanks for stopping.”

The woman said something to her husband and he translated. “My wife said your father and brother were such good swimmers, and they were strong. She said she is sure they must be fine and that maybe they are still there helping people.”

Right—it was like I had imagined. I knew it. They wouldn’t have been able to just walk away if people needed their help.

The truck started up with a loud rumble and a puff of blue smoke shot out the exhaust.

“Your family will be in our prayers,” the man said.

“Thank you.”

The truck started to move.

“God bless your family!” he yelled out.

The truck picked up speed and the man and his wife waved as it rocked up the road. I waved one more time and then turned and started walking again.

My head was filled with thoughts. I tried to do some mental arithmetic, tried to figure out the significance of everything I’d just heard. My whole family was alive after the first wave. My brother and father were down at the beach when the second wave hit, but my mother was probably up in the lobby. My father and brother were good swimmers. So was my mother, but not with the MS in relapse. They might have been separated, and it might have taken time for them to find one another. They had been helping and probably were still helping other people. The phones were down and that’s why they hadn’t called. I played it all around in my head. Had the odds increased or decreased? Was it more likely they were alive or less likely? What did it all mean? Nothing. It meant nothing until I found them.