Grasp Heart

Chapter 26: Old Souls

Claire perched at the bar of the Streamside Cafe while Mason and I sat outside, enjoying the temperate but cloudy weather. He popped a fried clam into his mouth as I watched, curious.

"We can taste more due to our diets," he explained shortly, smiling at my confusion.

"Huh." I took a clam for myself. "What is your favorite food?"

With a crooked smile, he opened his mouth, but I cut across him.

"After you dropped the, uh, carnivorous, diet," I qualified.

"I knew what you meant. High-altitude prey; mountain lions, goats, and the like. Better circulatory systems."

I nodded, remembering our meeting on the mountain.

"I've seen lynxes in person, but never mountain lions before."

"Hmm..." he pondered, tilting his head, his eyes glittering, "For someone who's a hunter from Los Angeles, I feel that you should've..."

I grimaced, eyes flicking toward Claire, and he chuckled.

"Do you have any hidden talents?" I whispered, glancing around at some of the other couples and interlacing my fingers conspiratorially. "You're too old not to have cultivated a few."

He glanced out over the river-water with a small smile, "I have a pilot's license."

"Would you take me flying sometime?"

"Of course."

"That can't be all, though, can it? One hundred years or so..."

He raised his eyebrows at my accurate guess and I tapped my nose in an ambiguous explanation.

"I've achieved three PhDs."

"In?"

"Criminology, Neuropsychology, and, at the beginning of this century, Computer Science."

"Really? Computer Science?"

"Kira, Samuel, and I sought that one together," he said, eyes reminiscent, "Though Samuel went for Cybersecurity and Kira for Bioinformatics. We saw the turn of the century and took initiative."

"Smart," I smiled fondly, "A few of my young cousins pursued degrees in the computer sciences."

He regarded me curiously for a moment, then, "Enough about me - "

"No, no, let's go back and forth."

"How many cousins then?"

"Oh, uh, more than I can count. Big family, but thirteen I interacted with regularly. What did you do with the computer science degree?"

"Computational finance, mainly. I wanted to understand the stock market and trading better, having once lived through its crash. The likelihood that I could live through yet another is high, in my estimation - " he smirked sarcastically "- so I wanted to understand predictive models and risk. It was not my main area of interest, but our stocks are now optimally invested so I consider it worthwhile."

"Huh, yes, numbers sort of... go over my head."

"Your calculus grade isn't that terrible."

"High school calculus is hardly the epitome of math."

"Touche," he conceded as the waitress approached.

I'd ordered a greasy-looking burger with extra sides while he'd simply ordered another appetizer as his main course. I didn't miss the dirty look the waitress gave me as she set the contrasting-sized plates in front of each of us. I pasted a polite smile on my lips.