Frank followed Sarah up the plane’s boarding stair and into the revving nineteen-seat Cessna. During the whole trip back from Mankha, he’d been quiet, thinking about his friend and all the man had lost. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the crushed child underneath the roof, and when it wasn’t the child, it was the lost gaze of Ke-tsum’s dark eyes when he left him in the hospital, or the hand of Ke-tsum’s brother sticking out of the rubble of the fallen wall. He’d never felt so powerless in all his years, and he knew Sarah felt it as well. Maybe it wasn’t fair to her, but he couldn’t help it. He just felt numb. There was no fixing what had happened to Ke-tsum’s family, no words or deeds, and money would not make it go away.
He buckled his seat belt. Stared out the tiny window beside h
