For the first time, I saw that perhaps he was hearing of them at the same moment he was meeting them.

The girls watched us with increasing uncertainty.

I put my arm around Hazel.

“We’ll talk privately, through the right people,” I told him.

He nodded, but his face had lost every trace of that familiar confident smile.

PART 6: A Question Without a Simple Answer

Back at home, the girls wanted to know why the airport man had looked so sad.

I told them he was someone I had known a long time ago who had heard surprising news.