Mathias laughs, trying to imagine having grown up hearing thoughts all the time, thinking that everyone could hear it. He understands it, it makes the most sense. If there's nothing to compare to, there's no reason to think that not everyone is capable of such a thing. It isn't that it's funny, necessarily, but that he can still remember discovering for the first time that not everyone spoke German. Hearing a different language come from someone else's mouth and realizing that there's other ways to communicate in the world.

"When did you realize not everyone could do it?" he asks. "Were you still quite young? Did your parents realize?"

He's still asking lots of questions, more than might be appropriate, he realizes, but he thinks Sookie will tell him to stop if he takes it too far.