That day was February fifteenth, a Tuesday, so the twenty-seventh was two Sundays away.

The weather stayed warm, and over the next two weeks Ben saw three more notes, all with the same handwriting. He imagined Tommy in their room, looking at Ben and Ahmed’s things.

We’re all set with the guy. Come by.

There’s no problem having it all together, right? Let me know.

We’re gonna do bus instead of car.

On the Tuesday afternoon before whatever was being planned for the twenty-seventh, Ahmed swung open the door and strode into the room. Ben was there reading the Tintin comic book, The Seven Crystal Balls.

“Mr. Twombley gave me a high grade on my English paper!”

Ben looked at the outstretched page and saw that it was an Honors, the equivalent of a B. Ben made himself see the friendliness of the exchange after their pot standoff.

“Ahmed, that’s so great.”

“And look at the passage he circled here.” Ahmed flipped two pages and moved beside Ben. “This was the one I asked you about, the one I could not get to go correctly.”

Ben looked. Ahmed’s father loved falconry, and Ahmed had wanted to draw a comparison between hunting with falcons and hunting for chestnuts in Wordsworth’s “Nutting,” but he hadn’t been able to make the sentences parallel until Ben had straightened it out.

“That makes me so happy, Ahmed. I’m so glad.”

“Thank you, Ben. I appreciate it very much.”

Maybe it wasn’t too late.

“We should celebrate,” Ben said. “Want to go into town soon? Get some dinner?”

Ahmed smiled. “Yes, I would like that.”

“Great. How about Sunday?”

Ahmed’s smile changed. “Ah, Sunday. I can’t.”

“What are you up to?”

“I am signing out to go to Boston with Tommy and Graham.”

“Oh, cool,” said Ben. “Getting dinner or whatever?”

“Yes,” Ahmed said.

They stopped talking.

“How has squash been?” said Ben.

“Everyone is thrilled and nervous about Gray. But I’ve been in the same place for a while. Still players on the team think I should lose to them. As though I am lucky every time I beat them.”

“But you beat them.”

“Some. But I am still on JV. Peter Rutherford, he always gets me by three or four points. And Price, he seems to never remember that I’m on the team. He seems to look at me as a visitor every time, someone visiting for every practice and every match.”

“Would you want to play varsity?”

“Of course.”

“Well, let’s go hit.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why don’t we go to the courts? Maybe I can see something you don’t see.”

Ahmed smiled a more guarded smile than Ben had seen before.

“You would want to hit with me?”

“Listen, head over there and start warming up and I’ll come in a few.”