Sandrine replied, “It’s a trust, Colin. The trust makes these decisions. We assume the lady herself knows. But we can’t say for certain.”
“The trust has committed to covering the cost of your education,” Arnold agreed. “Accept it and move on.”
When he looked ready to argue, Celeste said, “Wait until you’re done, then donate to the trust.”
“Now there’s an idea,” Sandrine said.
“Or directly to the school,” Arnold said.
“I don’t feel comfortable with that,” Sandrine said. “It might seem like we’ve been pestering him for money.”
Colin watched the argument flow back and forth, all three of the adults involved now. Talking about the most ethical way for him to remain involved with the academy. A future link that would last. Without damaging the personal side of their relationship.
Friends.
CHAPTER38
It felt better than good, having a daily reason to ride the market’s roller coaster. It took Colin’s mind momentarily off the ongoing struggle with his studies. He had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed formulating his algorithms, keeping tabs on all the news feeds, inserting the raw data into his foundational structure, watching the computer generate a predicted outcome. He held himself to the one investment. A quarter of his total savings. The stock became trapped inside the summer doldrums for what seemed like forever. Even so, he remained content.
Another portion of those summer nights was given over to cartoons. Sort of.
He upgraded his television, hooked it to his sound system, took subscriptions to the paid channels, and watched every CGI animated feature from the previous six years. The Pixar projects in particular he found fascinating on a multitude of levels. Liam, the salesman who had helped Colin select his sound system and now introduced him to the latestjazz albums, turned out to be an online game freak. Colin bought all the games Liam recommended. Playing them proved only mildly entertaining. He never fully engaged with the imagined worlds, especially those created as battle zones. But the conceptsbehindthe games he found fascinating. He joined several online chat rooms dedicated to the games’ software designers. He became comfortable with their terminology and specialized methods: real-time rendering, immersive scene building, complex imagery, virtual reality, using stacked computer power backed up with cloud access to accelerate the creative process, building a rendering farm, twenty-four frames per second and what that meant on the engineering front. He especially loved the concept of interactive imagery, which relied on the gamer’s choices to fully develop both scenic structure and point of view. The need for speed, both online access and the gamers’ computing power.
He went to bed most nights almost happy.
Later that month, Colin returned from his morning swim to find Sofia Hernandez seated on the house’s front steps. Beside her was an Asian girl. Because of her diminutive stature Colin first thought she was a child Sofia’s age.
“Hi, Colin. This is Tiana.”
The way the girl studied him, Colin realized with a start she was a teen. And despite her size, quite possibly older than he was. “Hi.”
Tiana tilted her head, allowing a dark and silken river of hair to flow over one shoulder. “I’m waiting.”
With that gesture, Colin realized she was also beautiful. “Excuse me?”
“The way Sofia talks about you, I want to watch you walk on water.”
Sofia said, “Tiana studies history with me.”
“Correction. I race to catch up. Which I hate.”
“No she doesn’t. Tiana starts at Duke in January.”
“Congratulations.”
Tiana surveyed his form: sandals and gym shorts and stained T-shirt and towel draped over his backpack. “Sofia also said you dressed so nice. No water walking, no elegant attire. How utterly disappointing.”
“No it’s not,” Sofia said. To Colin, “She’s been wanting to meet you since forever.”
“Nice thought, terrible syntax.”
Sofia leaned back. Happy. “Tiana is Hawaiian. Which is so cool.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Tiana said. “It’s a long way to commute. Wow. So funny. And original.”
Sofia said, “She lives with her aunt and uncle. They’re nice, too.”
“Actually …” He felt compelled to speak. But could only come up with, “Nothing.”
