Elias raised one eyebrow ever so slightly. After taking a sip of his tea, he set it aside to cool a little more. "And if someone mistakes you for a 'seventeen year old punk,' perhaps you should consider yourself as to why." After a second to let that casual reminder settle in, his face softened again. Breaking off the corner of one wafer, he ate while considering the gentle waterfall that rolled along the rocks from under his porch. Scenic, but a contrived man-made effect. A gutter ran under the porch's boards to carry water downstream. It went dry in the summer months.

"Or perhaps I'm just getting old. You remind me of the children I teach." Energetic, full of a bright future, not him. "What job did you move here for?" he asked, changing the topic back. He was beginning to find the kid--he couldn't stop thinking of Barrett as one--interesting.