12

Alex waited with Mom and Drew on hard plastic stadium seats near the surgery area. They each downed a bottle of water and a couple of granola bars flown in from the mainland. Drew found some scrap paper and penciled a picture of their family standing in front of their old house in Minnesota. Alex knew it was the old house because they didn’t have pine trees like that in Hawaii.

Drew glanced at Alex.

“I miss home too,” she said, meeting his eyes.

Alex felt restless. The surgery seemed to be taking forever. It was all so unreal.

“How long is this going to take?” Alex asked her mom.

“Honey, he’s only been in there for a ten minutes.”

“I’m going to walk around,” Alex said.

“Can I come?” Drew asked.

Alex looked over at Mom. She glanced down at the ground and rubbed her forehead. She was worried.

“No. I want to be alone for a while. You stay here with Mom.”

“Awww,” Drew whined. Then the corners of his mouth turned downward. “Please can I come with you?” he asked again.

“No.” Alex shot him a look to shut up and motioned toward Mom. Drew’s shoulders slumped. “I’ll be back in a little while.” She headed for the perimeter of the stadium.

Near the fifty-yard line, about a dozen kids made pictures with construction paper and pencils. They probably did that to keep them calm. Drawing always seemed to relax Drew. One really little kid caught Alex’s eye. He had the curliest brown hair, and when she got closer she saw he was coloring a picture of a red balloon.

“Joseph?” she yelled.

The little boy turned and looked at her.

Alex ran over to him and knelt down. “Are you Joseph?”

He pointed at himself. “I’m free.”

She realized he meant to say I’m three. He looked just like the boy in the couple’s picture. In fact, she was sure it was him.

“Joseph, where are your mommy and daddy?”

He glanced at the sky. “Mommy and Daddy went bye-bye.” Tears filled his eyes.

Oh no, Alex thought. I made him cry.

A nurse came over. “May I help you?”

“I think I know this little boy’s parents. If they’re the right people, they’re here!”

The nurse’s eyes widened. Alex explained about riding in the truck and meeting the couple with the photo of the little boy holding the red balloon. Then she suddenly realized something: “I never got their names.” Her shoulders felt heavy. She had told the couple her parents’ names, but she didn’t ask what their names were.

The nurse said, “Do you think you could recognize them?”

“I’ll look for them,” Alex said, feeling more determined. “I’ll find them! Can you make sure he stays here?”

“Yes, of course.” The nurse gestured upward. “Where else would he go?”

Alex ran back to Drew and her mom.

“Drew! Drew! I found Joseph, the boy in the photo. I found him!”

“Wow.” Drew smiled. His eyes widened as the enormity of the discovery set in.

“I mean, wow.” He set down his pencil. “Now can I come with you?”

Before she could answer, someone else called her name. It was Sienna, her leg all bandaged up, accompanied by a uniformed man.

Alex gasped. “I forgot to come find you. I’m sorry. But we found Mom and Dad!”

“It’s okay,” Sienna said, grinning. “Look who I found!” Her dad waved and introduced himself to everyone. He had to get back to work, but he made sure they had enough water, food, and sunblock before he left.

After Sienna had hugged him one last time, Alex waved her over for a huddle.

“We have a mission,” Alex said. “We need to find Joseph’s parents.”

“Why?” Sienna asked.

“Because they’re here at the stadium, and Joseph’s here too.”

“No way!”

“Yes way,” Drew said.

“If we can reunite them, that will be something,” Alex said. Inside, she was feeling like that might alleviate some of her guilt over the lava rock.

“Okay,” Sienna said. “Where should we start?”

“Well, first, I think one of us needs to get something up on the ‘Have you seen?’ board, telling his parents that Joseph is here and alive.”

“I’m on it!” Drew said. Alex fist-bumped him, and Drew jogged down toward the bulletin boards.

“Okay,” Alex continued. “Now we need to search for Joseph’s parents. What are your ideas?”

Sienna paused a moment before asking, “Is there a sound system? Maybe we could just have an announcer say their names.”

“We never got their names, remember?” Alex said.

“Oh, right,” Sienna said.

“But they’re here somewhere,” Alex said. “We just have to find them.”

“Were they injured?” Sienna asked.

“Hmmm. No, I don’t think so,” Alex said.

“Okay, so we may be able to rule out critical care.”

They looked around the rest of the stadium. “It’s a lot of ground to cover,” Alex said.

“I know,” Sienna said. “Hey, let’s look at each seating section in order, so we don’t duplicate our search. Maybe we’ll be lucky.”

“Great idea,” Alex said. “Let’s go!”