At some point later Ben suddenly understood that his dad was actually a fairly middle-of-the-road player, and then they played their first match where his dad wasn’t totally in control, and then inevitably and with some sadness Ben beat his dad, and then beat him while hardly ever losing control of a point.

But the sadness was only ever on Ben’s side. Harry had never strived with such pleasure as when Ben finally pulled away from him. His son’s play became so much more complex, more creative and surprising. It was to Harry as though he had been paddling on a shallow river by unremarkable trees in midday light, and then that river had begun to deepen, and it deepened and deepened until toward dusk its movement had gained an ancient living gravity. Ben had sort of forgotten how much delight he had felt from his father on court.

“All right,” Ben said. “Hit twenty more like that. Right, that twist. Good.”

Ahmed felt his body moving in this pattern, and he felt some of the gratitude and belonging that he had always expected to feel with Ben. But he also tried to sense whether Ben was trying to move him away from Tommy, to take that from him.

They switched sides back to the forehand.

“What if you took the racquet straight back.”

“Straight?”

Ben held Ahmed’s racquet and moved it into the right shape. “Just quicker, simpler. See?”

“I think so.”

“Hit a couple.”

He did, but this one seemed not to take as easily, and Ben could sense Ahmed getting slightly frustrated. Pushing him through this would maybe feel like getting even, but he tried to resist.

“We’ll work on it next time.”

“Next time, yes.”

*  *  *

The next day after fifth period, Ben caught sight of Tommy’s loose-knit rust-colored winter hat heading down the stairs of the Schoolhouse and went down the same stairs after him. Tommy was by himself, pushing through the heavy outside doors, and without really knowing what he was doing, Ben went through the same doors and started following him from a distance through the slush.

Ben wanted to walk up beside Tommy and say something, but he had never spoken directly to an upper-former without being spoken to first. So he kept following. As he passed the Den, he saw Helena Rusk coming toward him, and he realized that she was one of the cusp-beautiful girls he had seen the first day, but now he knew her name, knew her reputation as really good at the oboe but not so bright otherwise. Very clearly she now knew more about how to regulate the attention that she acknowledged and paid out.

Tommy walked behind the quad past the squash courts (already the Dragon was developing a patina over its bright grinder marks), and it was clear that he was heading along the tree-covered path back to Gordon, where he lived.