“That’s my job—hell, you’re a psychologist, you ought to know that.”

“What I wanted to ask is, have you got anything for me? Temporary, I mean, a day or two a week, help with the evaluations, IQ tests, whatever, even subbing—just to tide me over till the thesis is done and I can get back out on the job market.”

What this cost him, in terms of self-worth, in sheer humiliation, was incalculable, but he was beyond all that now. All that counted now was bringing in a paycheck, any paycheck, something rather than nothing, because he’d never lived off anyone in his life and he wasn’t going to start doing it at this point no matter how forgiving Tim and Dick might be. When he’d got accepted at Harvard, Dave—and all the rest of them, teachers, administrators, even the superintendent—had looked at him as if he’d been named to the president’s cabinet or the Mercury space team, as if he’d won the lottery and hit a grand slam at Yankee Stadium on the same day. He’d relished that. The envious looks, the complicated handshakes and dry-throated congratulations—he was getting out of there, going on to something great and glorious, and they weren’t.

Right. And here he was, begging.

Dave said, “Millbrook. That’s where Leary and, who, Alpert, are now, isn’t it?” The fork scraped, he took a sip of coffee. “Are you part of that?”

“I am. We’re all engaged in the research together. It’s—well, it’s exciting. New frontiers and all that, you know?”

“We hear rumors—the stuff in the papers. It sounds pretty extreme.”

He shrugged. “You know the papers—anything for a story. But listen, have you got anything for me?”

“You sure you want to make that drive? It’s got to be forty minutes or more.”

“At six in the morning? There’ll be nobody on the road.”

“Except the snowplows.”

“It’s only temporary. And it’s mostly a straight shot down the Taconic, right?”

Dave played with his fork a minute, then set it down and stared right into him. “Sure,” he said, “we can always use subs. All you have to do is register with the district.” He gave him a thin smile. “We’ll call you, okay?”