Independent Transfer

Text B · The Unanswered Question

Niko liked questions with clean endings. In mathematics, an answer could be checked. In a map, a road either reached the river or it did not. But the note on the classroom board bothered him because it had been left there after everyone else had gone: What would change your mind?

He assumed it was unfinished business from another class. Still, while packing his bag, he began inventing answers. More information, he thought. Better evidence. Proof. Each answer sounded sensible until he noticed that all three meant nearly the same thing. He was imagining evidence that would change someone else’s mind, not his own.

On the walk home, Niko replayed an argument he had made that morning about a story the class was reading. He had insisted that the main character acted out of fear. When Amara pointed to a sentence that suggested pride, Niko had answered quickly: “That doesn’t count.” At the time, the reply felt like defense. Now it sounded like a locked door.

The next morning, the question was still on the board. Niko opened his notebook beneath it and copied Amara’s sentence. Below the quotation he wrote two headings: What supports my idea? and What makes my idea harder to defend? He did not cross out his original interpretation. He placed it between the two headings and waited to see what the text would make him do.