Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card

comprehension, the kid shook his head and went on. “I understand you’re going to be doing kind of quality control for us.”
    â€œFrom what Dicky said this morning,” said Step, “I have to get him to unzip my fly when I pee.”
    The kid giggled. ‘That’s Dickhead for you. No, Ray told me that you’re a precious resource. The only way he could get Dickhead to accept the idea of hiring you was to promise that you’d have nothing to do with programming, but in fact he wants your fingers in everything. He thinks of you as the computer wizard of the universe.”
    â€œWell, I’m not,” said Step. “I’m a historian who taught myself programming in my spare time.”
    â€œAll good programmers are self-taught, at least in the home computer business,” said the kid.
    â€œLook, what do I actually call you?”
    â€œAround here they call me Roland and you probably should, too,” said the kid.
    â€œBut what would you prefer?”
    He grinned. “Like I said, I think of myself as Saladin Gallowglass.”
    â€œSo is Gallowglass all right, or Is that too formal?”
    â€œGallowglass is great, Mr. Fletcher.”
    â€œCall me Step.”
    â€œHey, Step.”
    â€œMind if I ask, how old are you?”
    â€œTwenty-two.”
    â€œAnd if you’re just a common ordinary programmer, how come Ray Keene tells you stuff that he doesn’t tell Dicky?”
    â€œOh, I suppose because he’s known me longer. I used to hang around his house and I learned programming on his Commodore Pet when I was, like, sixteen.”
    It dawned on Step: In all his interviews and meetings, no one had ever mentioned the existence of this wunderkind, and no one had ever told him who it was who actually coded the original software that had earned Ray Keene a Mercedes and a power office.
    â€œYou wrote Scribe 64, didn’t you?”
    Gallowglass smiled shyly. “Every line of it,” he said.
    â€œAnd I’ll bet you’re the one who keeps doing the upgrades.”
    â€œI’m working on a sixty-character screen right now,” he said. “I have to use a sort of virtual screen memory and background character mapping, but it’s going pretty well. I have this idea of using character memory as the virtual screen memory, since that means that I’m not actually using up RAM for the mapping.”
    â€œI don’t know enough about 64 architecture yet to know what you’re talking about,” said Step. “But I hope I’m not too nosy if I ask you, since you are the person who actually created Scribe 64, how come you aren’t vice-president of something?”
    â€œRay takes care of me,” said Gallowglass. “I kind of make more money than God. And I’m not exactly management material.”
    â€œI’d be interested to know how much God makes, someday,” said Step.
    â€œAnd someday maybe I’ll tell you.” Gallowglass grinned. “What about you? Got any kids?”
    â€œThree, with a fourth on the way.”
    â€œHow old are they?”
    â€œStephen’s almost eight, Robert is nearly five, Elizabeth is two, and the new one is negative five months now.”
    â€œI’ll tell you, I really get along great with kids,” said Gallowglass. “If you want me to tend the kids for you sometime, let me know.”
    â€œYeah, right. A programmer who makes more money than God, and I’m going to call him up to babysit for me.”
    â€œI mean it, I really like kids, and I get kind of lonely sometimes.”
    â€œYou don’t live with your folks?”
    â€œDad hates me,” said Gallowglass. “I live by myself.”
    â€œ Hates you? Come on.”
    â€œNo, I mean it, he says it whenever I go home. I walk in the door, he says, ‘Damn but I hate you, do you have to keep coming back here?’ Mom’s OK though. Hey, we’re just a good