Summary

In Part 9 of Deraniyagala’s story she recalls being in Miami in 2011. It was around the time of year when Vikram would have celebrated his fourteenth birthday. She had come to learn that near the days that would have been special occasions in her family’s life, it was easier for her to be alone.

At the hotel where she was staying, she had been caught in a conversation with a couple, the Rosenbaums. The man had commented on Deraniyagala being single. When he learned she had been married at one point, he seemed to think the English man she had married had divorced her. In order to protect Steve’s reputation, Deraniyagala felt she had to tell them that her husband was dead, he had not left her.

Deraniyagala’s final words in her story come on June 22, 2012, seven years after the wave...