“Should we call the printer and get a time frame?”

“Patience, Malone. Come back when I’m done.”

“Father, it’s the last day of school. I’m not trying to come back. I’m trying to go home.”

“And I’m trying to develop film. Give me an hour and we’ll go up to the principal’s office together. Pull the drapes behind you.”

Dan ripped the curtain closed and sealed Cardinal Kodak back in his vampire vault. What a pain in the ass. He should have just gone directly to Dallanach, who would probably have blessed it with the incense of a Benson & Hedges and been done.

Looking to kill valuable time, Dan left the Roundup office and wandered down the Bellarmine hallway to the counselors’ wing. There he found Mr. Oglesby tapping with his stick Keisaku while seated at his typewriter.

“Malone, still here?”

“I can’t get the Society of Jesus to close the graduation issue.”

“The greater glory of God preoccupies us all. Come in. For an honored rodent, you look distraught.”

Dan plopped into the low-slung creamsicle-colored chair across from his teacher’s desk. In the corner, he noticed the umbrella stand that held all of Oglesby’s other teaching sticks. He knew them all now, and smiled at each lesson and lecture they pointed to. Like the moods of the poet, Dan thought, or the magician.

“Yeah, I have to get out of here soon,” he began, and then the following tumbled out: “My dad is leaving.”

Oglesby turned from the typewriter. “Where is he going?”

“He has a new job in Miami. He’s flying there tonight.”

“So, how long—”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if he knows.” Dan hesitated to share more, like he was crossing some invisible line.

“Okay.” Oglesby nodded. He saw the line too. “So while I have you here, let’s talk about what’s next.”

Oglesby spooled a new page into his typewriter and, with the occasional glance at his bookshelves, strafed the keys. In under two minutes, he handed the following to Dan:

RATTUS N., MIDSUMMER CAXTONIAN CONSUMPTION:

Heart of Darkness

Frankenstein

A Clockwork Orange

Catch-22

Of Human Bondage

The Heart of the Matter

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Invisible Man

I, Claudius

Breakfast of Champions

“And since you’re a hyperborean, Malone, let me add this last one.” Oglesby took the list back and wrote at the bottom in blue felt pen.

Yeats. (A poem a day.)

“Thank you, sir.”

“So this summer you’re going to read each of these books. And when you finish one . . . here, give me the list again.”

Dan handed it back, and Oglesby scribbled down a phone number.

“When you finish a book, call me. I’m around all summer. You call me and I’ll have you over for tea, or we’ll come meet here in my office, and we’ll discuss that book. Sound good?”

“Yes, sir.”