Chapter 24: Daniel's Paper

Daniel's paper was accepted on a Thursday, at four in the afternoon, by email.

He read it standing in the middle of room fourteen with his phone held out in front of him like a hot coal.

"It's in," he said. "It's in the journal. Three pages on cortical response. First author. Me."

Nobody spoke.

"Say something!" Daniel shouted.

Javier hit him with a pillow.

Dante lifted him off the floor.

He did not mean to do it, and Daniel yelped and kicked and laughed into his shoulder.

"Put me down! I'm a published man!"

"Dinner," Dante said, setting him down. "Tonight. Anywhere. My treat."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere in the city."

Daniel narrowed his eyes in deep thought.

"The noodle place by the harbor with the one star and the great dumplings," he said at last.

"That's the cheapest restaurant in town."

"It's my favorite restaurant in town."

They went.

The noodle place was a long, steamy room with plastic stools and a cook who shouted orders at the ceiling.

They sat at the end of a bench, the three of them.

Javier's sling was finally gone, and the long pink scar showed at his collar.

Daniel ordered for the table, nine plates, and ate six.

He told them the story of the paper, from the night he had the idea in the bath.

He told them about the first rejection letter he had taped above his bed.

Dante listened the whole way through.

He thought of a man in the other life who had never known this boy.

Who had gone to a funeral for him, perhaps, and never learned his name.

"To Daniel," Javier said, and raised his tea. "The best neurologist in the country."

"Second best," Daniel said. "You'll be the best at something else."

"At what?"

"Everything."

Javier laughed, and caught Dante watching him across the table.

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