“Um, it’s pretty strange.” He laughed and expected everyone else to laugh, but they didn’t. Ben wanted to describe how Ahmed smelled but he thought that would sound racist. He wondered what Ahmed would do if he were in this room with alcohol around him. He realized he had never seen Ahmed pray. Weren’t Muslims supposed to pray all the time?

“He’s a happy person, I’ll say that. He keeps asking me questions about how to act here. Sometimes it’s like I’m his sherpa.”

“Huh,” said Ennis. This seemed to have lost them, and Ben wanted them back.

“I just want to show him how to be easy. You know?” Ben took a breath. He wanted to have easiness. He wanted the older guys to need him.

“But I can’t believe he just walked out of newb boxing…” Their eyes moved with discomfort, and some small power returned to Ben. “Did Phelps have you guys in to talk?”

“Yeah, it was fine,” Ennis said, and the rest of them nodded and kept nodding. All of them had sat in Phelps’s office and wondered aloud how the rumor could have started that Hawley had done newb boxing. They had all listened to the same talk about you think it brings everyone together, culture of fear, St. James stands against that.

“It is bullshit, though,” said Ian. “You don’t just walk out.”

“But just,” started Jed, “Ahmed just seems completely clueless, you know? Even just like getting food at the Dish. I saw him talking with the dining hall lady who puts chicken patties on buns, and like twenty people are piling up behind him. It’s not that he’s trying to go against anyone, he’s just like…like an absolute beginner. He doesn’t know anything about how to act.” Jed looked like he was advertising cereal as he said this, his dark buzz cut over his ruddy face and the cliffs of his forehead and cheekbones.

“I guess,” Ben went on. “It’s just, how do you learn that stuff? How are you taught to handle yourself?”

Fitzy rolled his face over to Ben. “Totally.”

“It’s true,” Ennis said. “It’s total bullshit. Newb boxing was going perfect until he pulled that shit.” He stared at Ben and Jed, bulling his face at them. “Right? You fuckers were terrified.”

Ben nodded emphatically. And he was close, he almost had something. “And I guess it’s just, like, how would Teddy handle that, you know?”