Page 84 of The Session

“We’ve been following the mission reports, and everybody’s really proud of you,” she said.

“I’ve just been a passenger. The closest thing I’ve seen to action is when one of Captain Renard’s police officers got a little frustrated and opened up some tear gas. Unfortunately, the closest vehicle was running the air conditioner at full blast and not on biohazard mode, so I had to help them wash that out of their eyes.”

“Yikes. Well, the good news is that you’re on target for Valor by the end of the month. The bad news is you still have the exams and Session. As you probably know, with Session, you can jump ahead several levels, which normally we don’t recommend, but given that time matters, it’s the best course of action.”

Mark had been studying the Supernova course book Tru had given him before he left. Along with it came a credit card–shaped audio player loaded with lectures by Max Lightman.

He’d found other quirky little formatted devices like that in the backpack prepared for him. It would have been easier to put it all on a USB stick—or better yet, as a download. But he guessed presentation mattered. And, to be honest, although the cheap earbuds didn’t have the same noise cancellation as his AirPods, there was something cool about holding a single-purpose device in his hand as he listened. It somehow made it feel more real.

The Supernova course covered everything from managing your emotions to ways of describing geopolitics in a neutral manner. Some of it seemed obvious. Other parts made Mark question their usefulness. But a good chunk of it he found pretty interesting. It was like a fifth-grade teacher had decided to teach students how to function in life outside the classroom.

There was a lot of jargon, and sometimes the same thing was described with different terms. But it did teach how to be analytical about the world, especially for anyone who’d never engaged with deep questions about how things worked.

Of course, Mark also understood that anybody reading it, including himself, was experiencing a bit of the medical-drama effect—where exposure to medical terms in a convincing theatrical way makes people think they’re as smart as their doctors when it comes to medical procedures.

On more than a few occasions, Mark had to endure bystanders second-guessing him and telling him what they thought he should do based on what they’d seen on television. He could imagine someone reading Supernova’s coursework and feeling prepared to walk into a university classroom and debate department heads in psychology, economics, and physics.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make the exam in time. I’m only about ten percent through,” Mark said, holding up his copy of the Supernova textbook and showing her where he’d placed sticky notes.

Tru laughed. “Did you read the preface to the textbook?”

“Maybe,” Mark said hesitantly, the way someone says it when they absolutely didn’t.

“Supernova combines everything from Max and my dad going back to when they started. The original course, Nova, was the condensed version, but then, like a supernova, it exploded,” Tru explained. “And then when they revised it, they called the new version Supernova. The point is, this is the only textbook that matters right now. Anything you’re going to get on the exam is going to be in here. But you don’t have to remember everything. Your dad liked to leave clues. Go ahead—read the preface out loud.”

Mark read aloud, “If you ask any good student how to get ahead, they’ll usually tell you that rather than making note of every long-winded speech given by a professor, pay close attention to the example questions they give at the end of each lesson. These, they will tell you, are the outlines of what you will find in the final exam. It’s the professor’s way of signaling to the student that something is important.

“I, on the other hand, take a different approach, because my job is not to get you ready for the exam but to prepare you for life. And while you will find practice exams in this textbook, those are more for the people who tend to like that sort of thing—textual sadists, if you will.

“The real truth came to me when I visited Graceland, Elvis’s home and final resting place. The King had only passed away a few months before, yet there were still throngs of people lined up to pay their respects, hankies in their hands, albums under their arms, tears flowing freely.

“As I walked around the grounds on a private tour, I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t impressed. A man as outsized as Elvis Presley deserved a monument on par with the Taj Mahal. Whereas this was the kind of second-rate roadside attraction you would find between two much more interesting places.

“But then I realized the genius of it all: The King, dead as he was alleged to be, was secretly telling us the real story he wanted us to know.”

Mark lowered the book. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s a ‘Maxism.’ Describe to me what he just said.”

“He was telling us that while professors use exam questions to tell you what’s going to be on the final, he was inspired to do it differently. And then he tells us a story about Elvis and how Elvis left secrets in Graceland,” Mark recounted.

“And what does that tell you?”

He sighed. “Why can’t he just say it?”

“What is the one thing Max is known for?” Tru asked.

“Packaging things and stories, I guess. But that story didn’t seem to go anywhere,” Mark replied.

“Max would argue that story went exactly where it was supposed to.”

Mark stared at the image of his father on the book’s back cover.

“Goddamn it. Stories. He starts to tell us what the secret is, then he tells us a story. It feels like there’s something inside it. But the story was the point, right?” He flipped through the pages. “This is filled with stories.”

“Exactly. Highlight those. That’s what’s important to him. If he spends enough time to come up with a story to tell you about something, it’s an important detail. If he takes the time to tell you how he came up with a mnemonic or some way to remember something, that’s important too. But the stories are the best way to get the most points on the exam. Start there,” she advised.

“And the whole point of the story is so we will remember it. ‘The fractal nature of narrative reality,’” Mark said, quoting Lightman.