‘Thanks, man.’ I stood and set a hand to his shoulder as he got up beside me, ready to go. Simon surprised me then. He broke the habit of a lifetime and, as though trying to speak an alien language for which his tongue had not been designed, he opened his arms and clamped me in a hug that felt more like an act of violence, but which was obviously well intentioned. He left with a cryptic quote that I was still nerdy enough to identify as coming from The Search for Spock. The one about weighing an individual’s needs against those of everyone else.
