When they came back to their room and it was time to sleep, Ahmed said, “I am tired in the best way.” Ben was quiet for a little while, feeling the sheets against his skin. “How much would it have rained if it had rained instead of snowed?”

*  *  *

They woke up the next morning, and after Ahmed came back from the shower, he said, “Maybe we could have one of your posters framed and hang it here on the wall instead of the picture of the chapel.”

This moved Ben to a degree that embarrassed him.

“I don’t think we need to, Ahmed.”

“No, really. I think that something other than these photographs would be positive change.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I insist.”

“Ahmed, you’re going to have the room to yourself soon, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to come back next semester.”

Ahmed looked like someone had sprayed water in his face. “I don’t understand. Are you not liking it so much? We can put up more of your things on the wall, or if you would like to have your bed on the ground again…”

“No, it’s not any of that.” He paused. “My tuition hasn’t been coming in.” This didn’t feel as hard to Ben as he’d imagined.

“But that cannot be the case.”

“It is the case, though, Ahmed. So they’re not going to ask me back next semester.”

“But I need to become poised like you. We are so behind on that.” Even as he said it, Ahmed heard that he was trying to convince himself of an old possibility. “The school can’t help you pay?”

“It’s not easy like that.”

“Oh.”

Ben knew he should just leave it here.

“You are supposed to stay.”

“Well, it’s going to go a different way.”

“I don’t want it.”

All Ben could do was shrug. He left for the Dish to get an omelet.

He walked toward the PO and found that all the paths were already shoveled and salted and the edges of the snow along the road were turning brown. He turned along Sluice Pond, and the crystals of snow puffed off the countless moving branches in the cold sun. He knew exactly what all this austere loveliness was supposed to do to him, exactly what it was supposed to have shaped him into.

That night Ahmed said he’d had an idea. His father had agreed. Ben refused, said he couldn’t accept it, and then slowly let himself be persuaded.

Ahmed said, “This is how the Companion would say to act. This is to the benefit of another person.”