“So then why did I lie for you?”

“It was absurd to keep doing what we were doing. Everyone knew it was a lie.”

“Will you just thank me for doing it, though?”

“After I leave, we can keep paying.” Ahmed regretted saying this.

“That’s not why I represented you. You wanted to stay.” They were quiet for several steps. “And I don’t think St. James is going to seem worth paying for. For your dad.”

Ahmed didn’t answer right away, but then he nodded.

And so now, from up in the chapel ceiling, with Ahmed back in the dorm excused for the day while his punishment was read, Ben was going to witness the end for both of them, even if the end would come for him a little later. And once Aston read out Ahmed’s expulsion, Ben would climb back down to the carillon room and bring his hands down onto the giant keyboard. He wouldn’t stop the noise until they found another key, came up there, and kicked him out too. In his mind he could already feel the long vibrations hanging over the campus.

Another two turns of the tower clock bells and then the soft churning sound of voices roused Ben. He lifted his head and looked around at the attic-like place he was in and had a vivid image of living up here—disappearing from campus, withdrawing without any responsibility for anyone or anything, hoping that Alice would wonder where he had gone. He seemed to be in the supporting cast of Ahmed’s life now.

Ben went to lean out over the opening in the ceiling, but now along with his fear of falling came a fear that someone would look up and see him there. He tried to find where Alice was sitting but it was too far down the length of the building. He wondered what his face might look like; a little white polyp in space. For the first time in months, he heard the faint, familiar sound of a bulldozer beeping in reverse. Construction had resumed on Ahmed’s father’s pool.

The organ began heaving through some hymn that Ben didn’t recognize, but he couldn’t tell whether it was something he had never heard before or some familiar melody that was being muddled in the massive space. All the heads that had been moving around each other came to rest and formed into rows. The first organ piece closed and a new one began, and the sound of bodies standing up from wooden pews reached Ben. They began to sing, but Ben still couldn’t hear what the song was.