First Do No Harm opens with the pro­tag­o­nist, Rainier, reflect­ing on the unusu­al vis­it of his friend Labri­no, who appeared at his doorstep one stormy spring evening. Labri­no, a famil­iar pres­ence in his life, had been com­ing to him more fre­quent­ly, often with­out warn­ing, bring­ing an air of unease with him. He had a ten­den­cy to arrive at the most unex­pect­ed times, usu­al­ly at the back step, where he could qui­et­ly slip in with­out knock­ing, cre­at­ing a sub­tle but unde­ni­able ten­sion. On this par­tic­u­lar night, Labri­no brought up some­thing that had been weigh­ing heav­i­ly on his mind: the impend­ing arrival of the Tashi Comet, which was sched­uled to pass Earth in thir­teen months. To Labri­no, comets were not just celes­tial events—they were omi­nous, har­bin­gers of dis­as­ter. He recalled trag­ic events from the past, like the Chal­lenger explo­sion and the Cher­nobyl dis­as­ter, and con­nect­ed them to the appear­ance of comets in the sky, which only deep­ened his sense of dread.

Rainier, how­ev­er, didn’t share Labrino’s skep­ti­cism. He found the idea of the comet excit­ing, an oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness some­thing extra­or­di­nary in the night sky, not a sign of impend­ing doom. In prepa­ra­tion, he had already pur­chased a set of binoc­u­lars, eager to expe­ri­ence the won­der of the comet as it passed through the cos­mos. While Labri­no was caught in the storm of his per­son­al anx­i­eties, Rainier couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at the beau­ty and rar­i­ty of the event. The con­ver­sa­tion between the two friends revealed a stark con­trast in how they viewed the world. While Labri­no was haunt­ed by past trau­mas and fears of the unknown, Rainier looked to the future with curios­i­ty and won­der. This dynam­ic cre­at­ed a ten­sion between the two, as Labrino’s fears began to shape the con­ver­sa­tion, pulling it into dark­er realms of thought, while Rainier tried to anchor it in excite­ment and hope.

Despite their dif­fer­ing views on the comet, Rainier could sense that Labrino’s trou­bles went far beyond a fear of celes­tial events. His friend car­ried the weight of deep per­son­al pain—fragments of a bro­ken fam­i­ly and unre­solved trau­ma. The scars left by these expe­ri­ences had made Labri­no feel dis­con­nect­ed from the world around him, and the comet, in his mind, sym­bol­ized anoth­er poten­tial cat­a­stro­phe. To offer com­fort, Rainier did what he knew best—he reached for his bass gui­tar. Music had always been his refuge and a way to con­nect with oth­ers, so he began to play, hop­ing that the sim­ple act of music would soothe Labrino’s anx­ious soul. The room seemed to calm as the melodies float­ed through the air, and Labri­no, who had been so tense moments before, began to relax. His breath­ing stead­ied, and his focus shift­ed from the loom­ing dis­as­ter in his mind to the gen­tle rhythms in the room.

Just as the music began to set­tle Labri­no, Lark, Rainier’s com­pan­ion, entered the scene. She brought a burst of ener­gy with her, and the mood in the room shift­ed once again. Lark’s light-heart­ed ban­ter and her abil­i­ty to engage Labri­no in friend­ly con­ver­sa­tion brought an imme­di­ate con­trast to the ear­li­er ten­sion. She coaxed Labri­no to join her in a play­ful dance, invit­ing him to for­get, if only for a moment, the heav­i­ness he had been car­ry­ing. Her pres­ence inject­ed joy into the space, and the music, com­bined with her live­li­ness, allowed Labri­no to momen­tar­i­ly escape the weight of his wor­ries. It was a sim­ple but pow­er­ful moment of con­nec­tion that demon­strat­ed the heal­ing nature of human rela­tion­ships. Lark’s instinc­tive abil­i­ty to lift Labrino’s spir­its through her kind­ness and joy was a reminder of the com­fort that com­pan­ion­ship can bring, even in the dark­est of times.

As the evening pro­gressed, Rainier observed the effects of both the music and Lark’s pres­ence on Labri­no. What had start­ed as an evening filled with anx­i­ety and dread had turned into some­thing much more hope­ful. Labri­no, who had come to them wrapped in his own fears, was now caught in the infec­tious spir­it of cama­raderie and joy. The music con­tin­ued to play, Lark danced, and for the first time in a long while, Labri­no smiled, allow­ing him­self to expe­ri­ence the moment of hap­pi­ness. The chap­ter encap­su­lat­ed a pow­er­ful mes­sage about the impor­tance of connection—how, even in the most chal­leng­ing times, human con­nec­tion can offer solace and heal­ing. Through music, friend­ship, and laugh­ter, the char­ac­ters found a brief respite from the weight of their indi­vid­ual strug­gles, reaf­firm­ing the heal­ing pow­er of togeth­er­ness in times of uncer­tain­ty. The chap­ter clos­es with a qui­et reflec­tion on the bonds of friend­ship and the del­i­cate bal­ance of emo­tions that make us human, leav­ing the read­er with a sense of hope and com­fort despite life’s unpre­dictabil­i­ty.