Starfish

23.2

"You crumbled?"

He gave her a look. "I have not always been the stoic, even-keeled man you know, I was once a headstrong, wild-" He sat forward suddenly, shaking the griddle in the coals. "I believe these are done. Perhaps we should eat?"

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Nina listened as Ardus chattered on, slurping packaged seaweed soup and chewing one of his fluffy, moist kelp cakes with fish and vegetables pressed into the dough. He spoke animatedly of Timam, the biologist who had taken over the position of department head when Ardus was younger and became the woman of his life. Nina tried to imagine a younger Ardus, without the fine lines around his eyes and mouth. It couldn't have been that long ago, he talks about her like it was yesterday. He did seem more relaxed, however, as though finally breaking the seal had snapped whatever threads still kept him tense. He's comfortable talking to me about her now, I think that means he trusts me. The revelation had answered many questions, and Nina was putting the pieces together as to why Ardus did not glow like other Dreen. He had loved Timam, that much was apparent, and her loss had damaged him deeply. "So, what about this place? I saw your name on the door, and now I realize hers is there too."

Ardus looked up, finishing his bite of kelp cake. "Yes, we spent much time here. The camera traps were her project, and I assisted her with collecting and processing the footage for data. Aside from working, we would go on night swims and walks through the forest and grasslands," he sighed. "Those were wonderful times. Some days we would wake before dawn and sit on this very spot and watch the world come alive with the sunrise. She loved it here, would have lived here if the university would have allowed it. We talked of staying, of building a research base and staffing it ourselves. She taught me everything I know about living up here, staying for weeks at a time and living off of what we could find in the forest and the sea. But we had obligations, careers, a family to attend to."

Nina sat up. "You have children?"

"She did, a son from a previous relationship, but I would consider him my own."

"Where is he? Do you still talk?"

Ardus gave her an odd look. "You know him, he works for me."

"Athe?" Nina frowned. "Athe's your stepson?"

"Pardon?" Another word he didn't understand, probably not part of the Dreen vocabulary in the same way 'married' wasn't. 

Nina elaborated, "The child of your partner, but not your biological son."

"Then yes, I suppose you could call him that."

"But, that means..." Nina suddenly realized, "Oh! Athe's mother was your mentor!" It was so long ago she'd nearly forgotten, but it explained why Athe had been so reticent to speak of her. And why his name had appeared in the cabins. He must have come up with them a few times as a kid. "Wait, Athe's your age, isn't he?"

"No, he is..." Ardus thought about it. "He is twelve years younger than I am."

"Oh, so Timam was a young mother."

That made Ardus laugh. "Hardly, she was sixty-two when we met."

"Sixty-two? Is that how old she was in the picture you showed me?"

"No, no," Ardus smiled in fond memory, "Timam was seventy-six in that image. We had been together nearly fourteen years by then."

Nina's brain scrambled to do the math. "Hang on, if she was sixty-two when you met, how old were you?"

"Twenty-five."

Aha, a cougar! She had good taste. "Okay, so, if you don't mind me asking, how long has it been since she...passed?"