“It isn’t perfect. But I created a chain of connections, questions, and propositions about a group of animals and their place in the city. That felt important. I thought it important to finish up. As you’ve said, a dissertation is a step.”

“Toward what?”

“Completion?” Alfonzo stuttered.

Vinograd consulted a notepad. Alfonzo’s dissertation heap sat on the desk. Troublingly, there were no colored Post-it notes poking out.

“The university has recently implemented the C-R-A-D method of analyzing student work. Is your work C, concrete? Is it R, reasonable? Is it A, affirmed by scholarship in the field? And finally, is it a D, a deliverable our department can stand behind? Now, I know how CRAD might sound.”

Alfonzo hesitated.

“I mean, between you and me, CRAD is wretched. But I had no say. This comes from on high. Committees agreed. But if we put aside the name, it does give us something useful to work from. Just ignore the acronym and hold on to the underlying intentions.”

“CRAD.” Alfonzo nodded. “I didn’t know I was supposed to be reasonable.”

“We’re all supposed to be reasonable now.” The professor nosed another grub from his bag, swallowing the thing in one go. “Alfonzo, I want to spare you the waiting. Your dissertation is not CRAD. I have decided not to advance your dissertation to the committee … You’ve written fifty pages about clouds as the breath of a sky llama.”

“Only to unpack it as an ancient metaphor for the condensation cycle.”

“It would be better if you just listened for now.”

“Sorry.”

“You asserted that money was shit.”

Alfonzo wanted to clarify that what he’d written was that seabird guano was once upon a time a highly valued commodity that fed the Peruvian economy. In certain instances, bags of shit were used to buy goods. He was just being descriptive when he said a great deal of shit circulated in the economy. But it was in the text. Dr. Vinograd knew how to read. Alfonzo did not interrupt.