In his head Ben began to think of general wisdom he would want to write down for Ahmed if he ever had the chance, his own version of the Companion. It would be a good idea for Ahmed to visit Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, an apartment on Park Avenue. The apartment of someone who disdains Park Avenue. A concert of sixties and seventies rock or bluegrass. Eventually he should branch out from squash and learn or at least try tennis, sailing, canoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, jogging, fly-fishing, hiking. Hiking was good and didn’t demand much practice. It was important not to complain while doing any of these things, but Ahmed hadn’t ever seemed to be much of a complainer. And anytime you were in any kind of contest with anyone, you had to laugh off any defeat or victory no matter how important it actually was for you. This could work, Ahmed could get this.

And then, about ten days into school, Ben saw Ahmed and Tommy Landon together again, leaning against the wood paneling in the Schoolhouse hall. Instantly Ben could tell that they were talking about getting high. Ahmed almost always stood with his chest out, but now the two of them hunched conspiratorially.

Tommy looked up and scanned the hallway, and then Ahmed looked up and scanned the hallway in exactly the same way. Ben moved his gaze to the dull brass doorknob on the closest classroom. Tommy and Ahmed straightened up and began walking away together, turning left down the short flight of stairs to the south exit.

That night back in the room, while Ben stared at his first trigonometry problem set and Ahmed tried to read “Tintern Abbey,” Ben looked up and said, “So I saw you hanging out with Tommy Landon today.” Ahmed gave him a look that Ben wouldn’t have thought him capable of a month before.

“I can be with whomever I want.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t. What’s he like? What do you guys do?”

“We see each other. What do you and I do?”

“We live together, Ahmed.”

“Well, Tommy and I go to the same school. So we are together at some times.”

“All right.”

Over the next several days it got colder and colder, and Ben saw less and less of Ahmed. Every night Ahmed came into the room late, after Ben was lying in the dark looking into the phosphorescence, and he began sleeping until the absolute last minute before getting up for Chapel or class. Then he began sleeping through Chapel, and then Ben would see him with Tommy and Tommy’s friends near the power plant when he definitely had class scheduled.