Ben looked at that correct jacket, hanging there in all its authority, in hunter green, his favorite color. With those square shoulders and the pipe-shaped hood, the North Face jacket looked like a sentry, like you would have no choice but to be ready whenever you put it on. The EMS one was like a plastic bag.

“I’d rather just wear a fleece than have something that’s not serious.”

“I don’t understand the need to be serious.”

Ben started to walk away toward the hiking boots section, to the sloped plastic ramp molded into rock shapes.

“Ben, stop.”

Ben had been very near tears, both struggling not to cry and letting himself verge over. He tried to remember whether his dad’s eyes had looked scared about actually giving up the money that the jacket cost. There in EMS, Ben had thought it was just about the principle of frugality, of not spending too much on a piece of clothing. It had never once occurred to him that $385 could meaningfully subtract from the total amount of money his father had.

But those thoughts must have been there. His father must have been having those thoughts all during the drive, as they carried bags up to the room, as they went to see the squash courts—

—and as they walked to the courts that first day. Ben had put his hand on the Dragon’s side for a moment and looked up. His father should have been wearing a calm smile, suppressing delight at this beautiful thing he had brought into the world, his own thing that he wasn’t going to name after himself. But Ben instead knew he would see a tautness across his father’s face.

No landscaping had been done yet, and so the earth around the long, low brick building was still yellow mud molded into the shape of bulldozer treads. Stacks of bricks were covered in partially tied-down Tyvek sheeting, and dusty tree roots stuck up from the mud at hectic angles.

They passed the Dragon and walked through the soft dirt to the building’s entrance. The courts would probably be locked, but Ben decided to try anyway, and the door’s thumb latch gave. Ben pulled the door open and the two of them smelled the off-gas of new carpet and fresh paint. They stepped inside, first Ben and then his dad.