Not him. He just closed his eyes and then he raised his hand. When I called on him, he walked to the blackboard and wrote down a completely stunning proof. In a second. With no effort. No thinking even, only doing. I could not believe it. Years, all my years of work, passed by in a second. And this thing he did . . . it was so beautiful, so elegant, I remember asking myself, What is this? This boy . . . What kind of a boy is this? I still don’t know, but after that, I was afraid of von Neumann.
