Upon returning to the camp, Sophie found Li Du in a low mood. She hugged him and asked, "What's the matter?"
Li Du told her about Tomasson. "I went looking for him and wanted to say goodbye. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to him."
Li Du had eaten almost all the vegetables, grain, and fruit that Tomasson had supplied to the camp in exchange for horses and carriages. There was more than business between the two men; there was friendship.
Sophie patted him on the back and whispered, "That's all right, dear. We'll go to Los Angeles, and you can visit his wife." Tomasson was no longer alive, so they would never meet again. Li Du could only go to see Tomasson's wife.
Perhaps, from time to time, he would be reminded of that sunny morning when a man in a black suit and white shirt politely took off his hat and asked him, "Do you want to rent the vacant lot? We'll be neighbors."
