And it stopped being funny to anyone.” My father was quiet a moment, remembering.

“That is the thing people never understand about a man like Julian,” he said.

“Everyone assumes the danger comes when you start making noise.

It doesn’t.

The danger comes the moment you start being right.

As long as he was just a kid with questions, they let him be, because a kid with questions is harmless, even a little useful, something to point at and laugh.

It was when the questions turned into answers, when the answers turned into proof, that the mood changed.