her watch. âIâll bring it up with him in the car.â
I had the impression that it somehow did Tonio good to show his concern for his fragile grandfather. Since leaving home, he lived life to the hilt, and his youth, not exactly overflowing with close family anyway, was vanishing rapidly in his wake. No, this wasnât just a casual social call.
âTonio, your masterâs degree, thatâs where we left off.â Miriam got up; it was her turn to go to the Lomanstraat. âDonât forget to tell Adri.â
After she left, Tonio explained to me that when the time came, he had decided to get his masterâs in Media Technology.
âHow about just getting your bachelorâs in Media & Culture first? Youâre hardly through your first year.â
He grinned. âCanât hurt to think ahead, now and then.â
Maybe that was his way of erasing the words âlack of ambitionâ, which had been lingering ever since our first and only real clash. Tonio spelled out what Media Technology involved, and told me the course wasnât offered by the University of Amsterdam. He found out he would have to alternate between Leiden and The Hague.
âThatâll mean moving,â I said.
âThatâll mean the train,â he said.
There was something different about him, but I couldnât put my finger on it. He dared to look deeper into his future, and there had to be a reason for it. More self-confidence, yes, but his shyness hadnât vanished. Perhaps to avoid having to lower his eyes, he looked up at the laburnum, where the green clusters were starting to show yellow buds.
âLate bloom this year,â I said.
âYeah, what do you expect,â Tonio replied, âwith such a cold May.â
It dawned on me that we seldom, if ever, discussed nature. At the Ignatius Gymnasium open house, a number of older students who were showing him around gave him a stick insect in a glass jar from the biology lab to take home. The gift thrilled him so much that Vossius and Barlaeus were directly out of the running; Ignatius was his choice. He installed a small terrarium around the stick bug, but not long thereafter asked our permission to let the ghost grasshopper loose in the Vondelpark. This was the extent of his yen for nature. His passion lay with physics. I remember when, at school, he and a classmate gave a demonstration of the internal combustion engine, complete with computer simulation. It was grand to see him so in his element.
When Iâd stoked up the fireplace one Christmas Eve and wondered out loud how the flames got their form and colour, the fourteen-year-old Tonio responded with a complete physics lecture, full of facts that had never occurred to me.
âItâs all about energy, Adri.â
And now, father and son were earnestly discussing, like a pair of oldies, the late bloom of the laburnum. Fortunately, Tonio soon switched to a topic more in synch with the physical sciences: his photography.
âAdri, a small favour ⦠Miriam has agreed, but Iâm supposed to ask you, too. Thereâs this girl, and I promised â¦â
âAha.â
â⦠Iâd do a photo shoot with her. For a portfolio. Itâs like this ⦠she wants to make extra money as a model or an extra, and needs a photo portfolio to take around to casting agencies and such. And, well, I thought ⦠this house, your house, it would be just the place for a photo shoot. Itâs tomorrow afternoon. Miriam doesnât mind going out for a couple of hours, but she didnât know if you â¦â
âOh-ho! You come here to badger me about whether Iâm doing my ten pages per day, and then chase me out of my study so you can take pictures of a cute girl. Without an audience.â
If I were to think back now on the slightly uneasy look he gave me, Iâd see his clear brown eyes, which radiated more vitality than a person needs for an
I had the impression that it somehow did Tonio good to show his concern for his fragile grandfather. Since leaving home, he lived life to the hilt, and his youth, not exactly overflowing with close family anyway, was vanishing rapidly in his wake. No, this wasnât just a casual social call.
âTonio, your masterâs degree, thatâs where we left off.â Miriam got up; it was her turn to go to the Lomanstraat. âDonât forget to tell Adri.â
After she left, Tonio explained to me that when the time came, he had decided to get his masterâs in Media Technology.
âHow about just getting your bachelorâs in Media & Culture first? Youâre hardly through your first year.â
He grinned. âCanât hurt to think ahead, now and then.â
Maybe that was his way of erasing the words âlack of ambitionâ, which had been lingering ever since our first and only real clash. Tonio spelled out what Media Technology involved, and told me the course wasnât offered by the University of Amsterdam. He found out he would have to alternate between Leiden and The Hague.
âThatâll mean moving,â I said.
âThatâll mean the train,â he said.
There was something different about him, but I couldnât put my finger on it. He dared to look deeper into his future, and there had to be a reason for it. More self-confidence, yes, but his shyness hadnât vanished. Perhaps to avoid having to lower his eyes, he looked up at the laburnum, where the green clusters were starting to show yellow buds.
âLate bloom this year,â I said.
âYeah, what do you expect,â Tonio replied, âwith such a cold May.â
It dawned on me that we seldom, if ever, discussed nature. At the Ignatius Gymnasium open house, a number of older students who were showing him around gave him a stick insect in a glass jar from the biology lab to take home. The gift thrilled him so much that Vossius and Barlaeus were directly out of the running; Ignatius was his choice. He installed a small terrarium around the stick bug, but not long thereafter asked our permission to let the ghost grasshopper loose in the Vondelpark. This was the extent of his yen for nature. His passion lay with physics. I remember when, at school, he and a classmate gave a demonstration of the internal combustion engine, complete with computer simulation. It was grand to see him so in his element.
When Iâd stoked up the fireplace one Christmas Eve and wondered out loud how the flames got their form and colour, the fourteen-year-old Tonio responded with a complete physics lecture, full of facts that had never occurred to me.
âItâs all about energy, Adri.â
And now, father and son were earnestly discussing, like a pair of oldies, the late bloom of the laburnum. Fortunately, Tonio soon switched to a topic more in synch with the physical sciences: his photography.
âAdri, a small favour ⦠Miriam has agreed, but Iâm supposed to ask you, too. Thereâs this girl, and I promised â¦â
âAha.â
â⦠Iâd do a photo shoot with her. For a portfolio. Itâs like this ⦠she wants to make extra money as a model or an extra, and needs a photo portfolio to take around to casting agencies and such. And, well, I thought ⦠this house, your house, it would be just the place for a photo shoot. Itâs tomorrow afternoon. Miriam doesnât mind going out for a couple of hours, but she didnât know if you â¦â
âOh-ho! You come here to badger me about whether Iâm doing my ten pages per day, and then chase me out of my study so you can take pictures of a cute girl. Without an audience.â
If I were to think back now on the slightly uneasy look he gave me, Iâd see his clear brown eyes, which radiated more vitality than a person needs for an
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