Charmed Particles (32 page)

The next woman paused before speaking, allowing herself a moment to smooth her cardigan over her waist in a slow and deliberate way that suggested she wasn't a person to be rushed. “You scientists tell us that this collider is going to help you understand the Big Bang and the creation of the universe, but I think many of us prefer the version of that we can read about in Genesis. You experts should remember,” she continued, “that not all of us care to know what happens when protons collide with one another.”

Rushing through the center of the village, carried along by the wild, churning water, now full of detritus, Randolph caught site of a large tree approaching.
Could he reach it? Would it stand against the water?
The ocean rushed on, sweeping him with it. He reached up, caught hold of a branch, and wrapped his arms and legs around the trunk, clinging to it as he pulled himself up slowly. He climbed, wet and shaking, into the highest branches of the tree that would bear his weight and watched, below him, the dark, feral ocean rising.

As the parade of state officials continued, Rose, from her seat on the opponents' side of the auditorium, was paying careful attention to each of their performances.

The director of the state Department of Agriculture had, she noted, been persuasive, arguing that construction of the collider could result in positive developments. “We see the collider as a mechanism to protect farmland from residential, commercial, and industrial encroachment,” he explained.

She was concerned to hear this opinion echoed by another speaker, a man she recognized as a longtime resident of Nicolet, who asked, “Have you all considered what might become of this land if it's not acquired for the collider? Maybe we'll build more $400,000 homes that none of us can afford to live in. Maybe a couple more shopping malls. That's just wonderful. Make no mistake,” he warned, “change and growth are coming. I believe the collider will give us a way to control that change.”

Rose thought of what had become of the farmland of the Nicolet she remembered from her girlhood. He was right to note that not much of it remained. Not much of Nicolet looked, anymore, like the small farm town of her girlhood.

Next had come the Lab director, Dr. Palmer, and then Dr. Cohen—Abhijat and Dr. Cardiff exchanging wary looks as he took the podium, both of them knowing him to be short-tempered and already long past exasperated on the matter.

Missing from Dr. Cohen's speech had been any note of empathy, of sincerity, Sarala thought, listening as his tone shifted into one that might be used with a group of unruly kindergarteners. Predictably, the audience began booing, someone yelling out, “Quit patronizing us!”

“Look, I'm one of you,” Dr. Cohen continued, looking back at the audience. “I'm not some evil scientist. I live in this community. I raise my family here. If I thought this accelerator would be a danger to the community, do you think I would support it?” He turned back to the panel behind their long table. “Do not be misled by the shrill voice of opposition.” He turned and made his way back to his seat.

“Thank you, Dr. Cohen, and our thanks to all of you who shared your comments this morning,” the moderator said, beginning to gather his papers. “At this point we will adjourn for lunch,” whereupon the panel recessed, to reconvene at two o'clock that afternoon.

Many of the audience from the hearing made their way to the Cozy Café and Diner, where the restaurant's three harried waitresses scurried from table to table in an attempt to serve everyone within the two-hour recess.

Sarala had invited Lily, Rose, and Dr. Cardiff to join them, and Rose, though conscious of the potential for awkwardness, had been so hungry for a glimpse into Lily's life, having felt, since their argument about her letter, so entirely closed off from her own daughter, that, much to her own surprise, she found herself accepting the invitation.

The conversation at their table, like most of those throughout the diner, concerned how the hearing seemed to be going so far. Abhijat felt it was impossible to tell. Dr. Cardiff thought it would be important for the Lab to make a better effort to acknowledge the opposition's fears. Both felt that Dr. Cohen's comments had done them no favors, but Lily said that she didn't think it was fair to expect the Lab's representatives to be evenhanded when it seemed to her that the opposition was relying on hyperbolic scare tactics.

Perhaps, Sarala suggested gently, if they hoped to stand up against the heartfelt, emotional appeals of the opposition, the supporters might rely less on dry testimony from the directors of state agencies and a bit more on some heartfelt, emotional appeals of their own.

But wasn't that, Lily argued, precisely what Dr. Cohen had been doing?

Sarala and Rose exchanged a look, which Lily caught and found at once both perplexing and exasperating.

Sensitive to Rose's presence at the table, Sarala suggested that perhaps they should refrain from discussion of the collider over this meal among friends.

“An excellent idea,” Dr. Cardiff agreed.

The waitress circled their table, setting plates before each of them, and Meena began to pick at her French fries. There was a long, awkward moment as they all tried to come up with another, more suitable topic of conversation.

“Perhaps we might talk about the girls' opportunity at the Academy,” Rose suggested. “That is certainly a happy turn of events.” Rose smiled, first at Lily and Meena, then at Abhijat and Sarala. She wondered why her smile seemed to be returned only by her daughter, who had, over the last few weeks, expended a considerable amount of energy in pointedly avoiding doing any such thing.

Abhijat and Sarala looked first at Rose, then at Meena, who sank down into her seat, as though willing herself to turn invisible.

Sarala spoke first. “I'm afraid we must be, as you say, out of the loop.”

“The Math and Science Academy,” Lily explained. She looked at Abhijat and Sarala, Abhijat's brow furrowed, Sarala still looking pleasantly expectant that soon someone would explain this to her. Then Lily turned toward Meena, her own brow furrowing.

Meena had decided that, of the limited remaining options, the best plan was to take charge of the conversation and to steer it as determinedly as she could away from the topic at hand. “We haven't had much time to discuss it yet,” she explained to Rose and Lily. Then, turning to her parents, “I'll fill you in later. I didn't want to bother you with the hearing coming up.”

Abhijat, still frowning, had the sense from Meena's voice that something strange was afoot. “I look forward to our discussion,” he said.

Dr. Cardiff, perceptive enough to sense that something unpleasant was stirring beneath the surface of the conversation, took charge and turned toward Rose. “I understand, Mrs. Winchester, that you grew up in Nicolet when it was quite a different town?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, turning her attention toward Dr. Cardiff. “I suppose it was just your typical small farm town then. Everyone knew one another.” Indeed, some people still did, Rose thought to herself, as the waitress, a classmate from her school days, set a cup of coffee in front of her.

“And what was it like to return from your travels to find it so changed?” Dr. Cardiff asked.

“Well,” Rose thought for a moment. “To be honest, I found it exciting. The whole place had such a sense of—” she looked up and around the diner “—such a sense of possibility.”

Back at the high school, a crowd of participants made their way back into the auditorium. Sarala had expected that the room might thin out a little after lunch, but it seemed just as crowded as it had before the break. She, Abhijat, and Dr. Cardiff saved seats for Lily and Meena, who made their way to the restrooms before the hearing reconvened.

“You haven't even mentioned the Academy to your parents?” Lily asked, incredulous, as they walked through the empty halls of the high school. “And Mr. Boden says you still haven't asked him for a letter of recommendation. What's going on?”

Meena shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Nothing. It's just been busy and kind of stressful around our house lately. It hasn't felt like the right time to bring it up.”

Lily eyed her strangely. It felt, to her, much like the conversation they'd had weeks earlier about cheerleading. But Meena seemed determined to ignore this strangeness between them. She ducked into the ladies' room, Lily following behind.