“You’d never be asked to leave. Your dad…” Price looked around at the room they stood in and held his hands out to all of it.

Ben shook his head. “It’s the rest of the family knowing.”

“Russell Weeks is the same—?”

“My uncle.”

“Ah ha. Quite the i-dotter.”

“And he and my dad…”

Price let there be silence between them.

“Don’t blame your father too much. Sometimes people trying their best do things we couldn’t have imagined. But you’re fine here, Ben. You’re part of the Tide. When I ask for money, it comes with exactly no questions attached to it. We can part the seas.”

Ben suppressed a shudder.

“And think about it this way: this problem can feed you. It can help you go to the inside. All the kids from those other schools, they’re just playing because it’s something to do. For you, you’re playing to survive, to cling to your home, to keep existing in the form you recognize. They don’t stand a chance against that.

“Now go shower and get some sleep.”

7. Landscaping’s Edge

7. Landscaping’s Edge

FALL ADVANCED INTO LATE OCTOBER. EVERY DAY WHEN THE school woke up the foliage had become even more intense, making clichés about fire and explosions seem meaningful again and then inadequate. The ground became cluttered with leaves. There was mist some mornings that reduced everything else to blacks and hunter greens. A single young maple in front of the chapel screamed calmly all day and into the electric lamplight at night.

The second tests that counted came and went, the first major papers. Fifth-formers sat in the college advisor’s office, nodding as they were told to consider some schools other than the top few, and sixth-formers started second and third drafts of their application essays.

Ahmed joined the yearbook staff and found a study group of other international students. When Ben’s absorption in classes or soccer fled he worried that his name was now on a list that would be seen by a few people, and then a few more. And then it was time for Parents’ Weekend.

Ben’s mom had called and said that Kenyon Family Weekend fell on the same date, and they thought Teddy needed them to go out there.

“Let’s just say he could use the supervision,” she said with a failed laugh. She explained that she wanted to let his dad go to Kenyon alone so she could come up to SJS, but Harry had hurt his hand and needed her to drive. Ben decided to believe her.

“Say hi to Dad for me,” he said.

Helen covered the phone receiver with her palm and was saturated by her anger with Harry.