The news seemed to please her. “In that case, I will make the necessary introductions at their schools for music and software engineering—”
“Can you please not tell them what I want to do?”
She looked up, her gaze tightening to laser intensity. “Something tells me you are far more advanced in your aims than you let on.”
Colin decided not to respond.
“I see. Very well. Fremdt will remain your supervisor. Be forewarned; as you continue, Chapel Hill may insist you be counted among their own graduate students. But for the moment we will adjust your records to show you are now working toward two degrees simultaneously. And I hereby offer a provisional approval to your multidisciplinary thesis.” Another flash of ferocious intensity. “We are granting you a highly unusual level of autonomy, Mr. Eames. Not to mention bending any number of rules. Do not let us down.”
That winter and spring passed in a series of overlapping experiences. Colin held to his morning swims, at least twice each week, sometimes three, rarely four. He grew taller, but not by much, and held to a slender build that most resembled his mother’s. He would never develop his father’s bullish strength. But he could feel his body growing stronger and fitter. Every time he needed to buy new clothes to suit his changing body, Colin took it as a minor triumph.
His monthly chats with Celeste were often little more than perfunctory hellos. He spoke occasionally with Mira, but she seemed perpetually distracted. Stressed by matters she did not want to discuss. She claimed to be busy with a project and too overwhelmed to see him, even talk for long on the phone. Roland became involved in a major court case, and they only managed a few rushed phone calls. Finally, one Saturday in late May Colin found Regina sunning herself at the pool and asked what was going on.
But the woman gave Colin a Latina’s version of a sphinx. “There are times,” she replied, “when a mother is obliged to say nothing. Mostly because that’s the best description of what she knows for certain. Nothing.”
“Where is Lucas?”
“That is part of the nothing I’m not going to talk about.” Regina smiled. “See how easy that is?”
“I don’t like being shut out like this.”
She laughed. “Mi querido chico, you and I have that much in common.”
The drive to and from Chapel Hill formed an unexpected pleasure. He left before dawn on Tuesday and came back Thursday after his final class. Through the student office Colin found what the owner called a studio but in truth was a large bedroom with a makeshift kitchenette in one corner. The prewar house stood two blocks off Franklin, the center of student life. The nights he spent in Chapel Hill felt likestolen glimpses of a new phase. He did not want to call it adulthood. He had no idea what the word meant. Only that it unsettled and appealed in equal measure.
The studies required for his new directions threatened to overwhelm him. The software engineering course was a near-constant grind. He made progress simply by focusing on the math, the formula, and temporarily setting aside all the issues needed a more detailed study.
UNC Chapel Hill was totally different from the Wilmington campus. For one thing, it was huge. Over thirty-five thousand students were enrolled. The level of classwork, the intelligence of his fellow students, the demands made by his professors, everything about the place was several grades above what he had experienced thus far.
The music theory class was so difficult he feared for a time that he might even fail the course.
Even so, by the end of the term he began to see a way ahead. Not a clear compass heading. Not by any means. But there was at least a glimmer of light, a reward for four months of dark slogging.
Fremdt wanted him to stay on for summer classes. “Econometrics,” he barked. “Econometrics is the ticket. You want to see your math applied, yes? So study how it works with money and how money rules the people out there.” He waved his hand at the sunlit window. “See if you can make smart interpretations of all their foolishness.”
Colin knew his professor disapproved of him moving away from pure maths. Even so, there was a certain appeal to the man’s suggestion. “Maybe next year.”
“No, no, not with econometrics. You can’t see the depths of this when you mix it with other elements.”
“That’s just it, you see. I already feel like I’m just skimming the surface in music theory. And maybe the software courses as well.”
That stilled the big man. “You received an A in both.”
“I gave back what the teacher expected. That’s not enough. I need to see where this is going. I need tounderstand.” He shrugged. “That’s as clear as I know how to make it.”
Fremdt examined him a long moment. “So. This summer, you do what, laze by the pool? Count the clouds? A new drug of choice, perhaps. Or maybe there is a woman.”
Colin felt his face burn. His body was going through changes that at times threatened to overwhelm him. Alien urges that had nothing to do with his mind. He wasn’t ready to talk about them. Especially not with Fremdt. “I’m going back over the course materials. Really study them. See what directions open up.”
“Software design and music theory. Together.”
“And the problems you gave me in calculus. They’re not together yet. But maybe they will be.”
Eight days later, a new Sojourn House resident entered Colin’s life.
Sofia Hernandez lost her mother at birth and her father at nine, the same year she entered Outer Banks Academy. She had an uncle, but nothing was said about him except that Sofia would be spending the summer in residence. She and Consuela had formed an immediate bond, which was very good, because that spring Sofia had begun having problems with her eyes.
All through the last of May and into early June, Colin watched the two of them go off to numerous doctors’ appointments. Then Consuela’s youngest came down with chickenpox, and out of desperation she asked Colin if he would help out. “The girl is an angel, and the situation is terrible.”
