I thought about that, off and on, for the next couple of days, and about Lan. Even though we were twins, he’d always been the one to look out for me. We’d been growing apart, though, ever since I had rheumatic fever and got behind a year at school. And for the past four years, he’d hardly even been home summers. I could see that he wanted what was best for me, but I wasn’t sure that he knew what that was. Especially since I wasn’t sure myself.

I was still thinking when William came around to say good-bye. He still had a year of preparatory school before he went to college, and he was going back early to meet up with a possible sponsor.

“What’s this I hear about you coming East to school next year?” he asked.

I scowled. “That Lan! I told him not to talk to anyone about it until I was done thinking.”

“You’ll never be done thinking,” William said. “And he didn’t actually say much. So what is it about?”

I glared at him, but I knew there’d be no point to not answering. William didn’t look like he’d be difficult about anything — he was thin and sandy-haired and already wore eyeglasses like his father. Most of the time he didn’t say much. But when he was curious about something, he was stubborner than a bear after a honeycomb. He’d pay no heed to glares or hints or scowls or much of anything else until you told him what he wanted to know. Sometimes he’d listen if you told him straight out that you didn’t want to talk about it, or that you didn’t want to tell him, but I knew as sure as anything that this wasn’t one of those times. So I said, “Lan thinks I should go off to college when I’m done with upper school.”

“So it was his idea.” William didn’t sound surprised. “What do you think?”

“I —” I looked down at my boots. “I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t!” I said. Then I sighed. I had no call to go snapping at William just because I didn’t know what to make of Lan’s notions. “It’s a completely new idea. I never once thought about me getting schooling past upper school.”