Chapter 4: Nobody Reads My Mail

Mattias did not come to the first partner meeting.

Linus sat in the library for an hour with two copies of The Lamp at Gull Rock.

It was a short novel about two sisters and a lighthouse.

He had a list of discussion questions written out in pen.

At six he gave up, put the second copy in his bag, and went looking.

The Pehrson Arena was empty except for one light over the far end of the ice.

Mattias stood alone in the glow with a bucket of pucks, shooting one after another at an empty net.

Each shot made a sharp crack against the boards.

Linus walked up to the glass and rapped it with his knuckle.

Mattias turned, saw him, and fired the next puck straight at the glass beside his face.

It hit hard.

Linus did not flinch.

He had grown up on the Iron Range, where pucks flew past his head every winter.

"You owe me a partner meeting," he said.

Mattias skated to the gate, took off a glove, and leaned on the boards.

He was sweating, and his hair was wet at the temples.

"I don't owe you anything," Mattias said.

"The professor will fail us both if we don't present," Linus said.

"Then I'll fail."

"You can't. It's a third of your grade, and from what Dag says, you've already taken this class twice."

Mattias's face went still.

"Dag talks too much," Mattias said.

"Dag is fine," Linus said.

"Get out of my rink."

Linus held out the book.

"Chapter one is nine pages," he said. "I'll read it to you. You don't have to do anything."

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