The closer they got to the house, the more upsetting Rafi found it. True, no one had died—but this was a family’s home, the walls that had sheltered them, the floors their children had learned to walk on, and all the little things they had gathered around themselves for comfort and beauty and memory of the past. All gone, reduced to black bones and tumbled, waterlogged pieces.
“This is such a shame, ma’am,” Rafi said, eyes scanning the devastation. A few yards away, Helen’s son was wiping his eyes, holding the charred remains of some item he clearly recognized. “What can I do to help?”
“There’s only a few things we’re specifically trying to retrieve today,” Helen said. “A safe from my office, if we can find it, since that part of the house collapsed. Gene’s computer hard drive—it has a l
