solitude of his cell and eventually fell asleep. Sometime later, a loud thop-thop-thop sound woke him up. People were shouting and running outside. Steve pressed his face against the narrow bars set into the door of his cell and tried to see what was going on. A voice boomed out over a loudhailer. They were speaking Spanish, but Steve’s heart soared as he recognized two words: La policia. Two days after the camp was raided, Steve was reunited with Mom in her hospital room. He ran toward her and hugged her tightly. “Oh Steve! You saved us all,” she said.“What do you mean?” Mom smiled. “Didn’t they tell you? The police had been searching for that camp for a long time but they found it because of your fire. That smoke was seen for miles and people reported it.” “When the police came to investigate, they found Pedro and his friend washed up on the river bank,” Mom continued. “They realized they must’ve escaped from the camp they were looking for and that’s how they found us.” “Well, I guess my plan worked after all, just not the way I expected.” “They’re sending us back to the States soon.” Mom leaned back on her pillows. “Mr. Russo has been arrested and the police back home tracked down Mike.” Mom wiped away a tear that spilled down her cheek. “He’s going to be waiting for us at the airport. God, I can’t wait to be back home with both my sons.”