In this chapter, the protagonist is introduced to a new character, a young man named Alek, who is a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Alek tells the protagonist that he is a naughty man, and that he has skipped all of the classes he was supposed to take today. Alek asks the protagonist if he can see anything in the sky, and the protagonist replies that he can't, because his parents have told him that the sky is like the inner world of a person. The protagonist tells Alek that his dream is to become an astrophysicist, a scientist who studies the relationship between light and matter. He says that he wants to be an astronomer because he believes in the power of science to change