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Angela looked back and forth between David and Hulan despondently “I need to know about Brian”

“We may never know exactly what happened,” Hulan said, not without some sympathy in her voice “You should prepare yourself for that”

“Dr Ma already told me what happened to my brother He fell in the river and drowned There are risks in everything we do I know that My brother knew that too There’s nothing I can do about how he died, and a fewwon’t hurt him now But I need to understand his last days How did he spend them? Who did he talk to? What was he interested in?”

“For what purpose?”

Hulan was so ela answered in the samatic way “Do you knohat it means to los

e someone?”

Hulan kept her face expressionless, but David knew the impact the question would have on her, for he felt it too

Angela didn’t wait for a response “Grief counselors would probably say I’ether…”

At last Angela’s toughness cracked and the tears flowed

The waitress returned with a bottle of wine and three glasses By the tiained her coested she tell them about her brother As she spoke, he saw in her face that sarief that he’d seen so many times this past year when he’d looked in the mirror or at Hulan

“Brian always loved dirt,” she began “I’m two years older, but soosh, I must have been about four, so he would have been two He’d play in the dirt all day if our mother let him I know it sounds hokey, but dirt was one of his first words He was entranced by it So I guess it was only natural that he’d end up digging in it for a career”

She faltered again, and David said, “I understand you’re froton”

“We grew up in Seattle We were both doing graduate work at the University of Washington, but these last couple of years we hadn’t seenon my dissertation He was over here last su to stay until October, then come home and write his master’s thesis”

“He must have been smart,” David said

“He was book s to hide the sisterly impatience in her voice “But he was du else”