The Opposite of Geek (12 page)

1 3/4 cups (430 mL) butter

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) dark chocolate chips or chunks

6 eggs

1 tablespoon (15 mL) vanilla

2 cups (500 mL) sugar

1 3/4 cups (430 mL) flour

1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt

2 cups (500 mL) white chocolate chips or chunks

1 cup (250 mL) dried cherries

Put the cherries into a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil on the stove. Turn the heat off and leave the cherries to get plump in the water, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 °F (160 °C). Line a baking pan (about 13 x 9 x 2 inches/33 x 23 x 5 cm) with baking parchment or foil.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in the microwave. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla. Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.

Add the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and combine well. Then add the flour and mix to get a smooth batter. Add the white chocolate chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth, making sure it’s even all over.

Drain the cherries in a colander and press to get some of the water out of the fruit. Sprinkle the cherries over the brownie batter.

Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Watch them closely and check to see if the centre is just solid, but not fully cooked; you want moist brownies, not dry ones. They will keep cooking as they cool.

Let the brownies cool completely before carefully using the sides of parchment as handles to lift onto a cutting board. Cut into squares. Find some friends to help you eat them.

Thank you

to those who helped this story grow

from a little idea to a bigger idea to a novel-sized idea:

Rachelle Delaney, Sheryda Warrener, Claire Tacon, Alison Acheson, Keith Maillard, and to the Canada Council for the Arts for their financial support

and those who generously shared their expertise

to make the story stronger:

my agent, Louise Lamont and editor, Anne Shone

and those who made sure the medical nitty was gritty:

Christina Mavinic, Kirsti Ziola

and those who have supported me from the very

beginning:

my mother, father and sister

and those who live with me every day

as I try to write the best things I can,

and whom I love with all my heart and both big toes:

my husband, Daryl, and daughter Elodie Pearl.

Ria Voros is most definitely a poetry geek and a foodie. She is also a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing MFA program and has published fiction and poetry internationally. Her first novel,
Nobody’s Dog
, was published in 2012. Ria also teaches courses in fiction, poetry, literature and writing for children. When she isn’t writing, Ria can be found cooking, hiking up mountains and gardening. She lives in Nanaimo, B. C., with her family.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Voros, Ria

The opposite of geek [electronic resource] / by Ria Voros.

Electronic monograph in HTML format.

Issued also in print format.

ISBN 978-1-4431-2853-7

I. Title.

PS8643.O76O66 2013 jC813’.6 C2013-901809-3

Text copyright © 2013 by Ria Voros.
Cover photo copyright © Phatic-Photography/Shutterstock.com
Lost poster #1, background © Petr Vaclavek/Shutterstock.com; Lost poster #1, atom symbol © MrJafari/Shutterstock.com; Lost poster #2, background © 89studio/Shutterstock.com; Lost poster #2, t-shirt © mimon!/Shutterstock.com; Lost poster #3, background © Natalia Barsukova/Shutterstock.com

All poems credited to Bashō, Buson and Issa are from
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson & Issa, Edited and With An Introduction by Robert Hass
. Introduction and selection copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Unless otherwise noted, all translations copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

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First eBook edition: September 2013