Ben took a half step farther in, squatted, and pulled the box toward him. It was light, too light to hold shoes, but not so light that it could be empty. Ben lifted the top. The loose vacuum of the box resisted for a moment. Then the top came away, and Ben caught the smell before he saw a gallon-size Ziploc bag full of dark green pot. Ben wanted to put the top back on and open it again to see if there would be something different there the second time. He kept looking at the bag, at the buds that were each so verdant and so dense that they didn’t completely flatten against the transparent plastic. Carefully he replaced the lid and slid the box back into place.

That night Ahmed came back to the room at eleven, and Ben was reading on the couch. Ahmed began to go through his rituals of getting ready for bed. Finally Ben got himself to speak.

“Ahmed, why do you have a box of pot in your closet?”

Ahmed turned and looked at him without any surprise in his face.

“Tommy said no one would guess it was in my room,” Ahmed said. “Which is true, if you think about it.”

“In our room, Ahmed. No one would think it was in our room.”

“Which is true.”

“But I didn’t decide to take that risk. And if they do find it here, I get caught too.”

“You will not get caught because you did not know it was here.”

“But they won’t make that distinction. You’re responsible for whatever’s in your room, and now I know it’s here.”

“But why were you looking in my closet?”

“That’s not the point.”

“What?”

“That’s not the important issue here, Ahmed.”

“I think it is the important issue. Why were you looking through my things?”

“I saw the L.L.Bean shoe box and I knew you didn’t own L.L.Bean shoes.”

“But the shoe box was not out in the middle of the room. It was down at the bottom of the closet. Why were you looking in my closet?”

“People talk. It might be safe right now to hide drugs in your room—”

“Lower your voice,” Ahmed said. Ben startled, and Ahmed continued. “And never go into my things again.”

Ben went on in a lowered voice: “It’s safe to do it now because you don’t have a reputation yet, but people talk, and soon people know that you’re the kid who keeps drugs in his room.”

“No one knows. No one will find out if you stay quiet. So stay quiet.”

“But people see you hanging out with Tommy. He smokes constantly, and people see you hanging out with him, which means that you smoke too, or you sit and watch him while he smokes, which no one does.”