The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black Read Free Page A

meal. Their mother and father were frightfully busy. But they assured their children that their work was helping to make the world a better place and, therefore, their children were (almost) always in their thoughts during the long hours... days... weeks that Isabelle and Tobias Modest were away. Jasper and Lucy knew they were loved because their parents had told them. How this love worked, however, was rarely shown.
    Approximately one Sunday per month, the whole Modest family would spend time together, as a family. They would sittogether quietly in the salon, reading to themselves from their scientific journals. Or perhaps they would listen to recorded lectures on the phonograph. They would even take the occasional walk in the park, on weekends when both parents were in town. And they had the time. And they chose to spend that time walking in the park. Often, this meant that their parents would walk together, deep in conversation, and Jasper and Lucy would follow behind.
    Sometimes, Jasper would bring a small boat he’d built, with a little propeller—he was very keen on designing propellers. He’d place the boat in the pond and let it run. Or sometimes, he would make a helicopter and let it whirl, the string-triggered propeller keeping it aloft. Jasper had designed a slow release that still allowed a strong twirl. He also designed a reverse-pull mechanism so that the propeller could maintain power for a very long time.
    During their walks in the park, Jasper saw other families walking together. The other families often held hands or flew kites or walked dogs. And these families did these things, all of these things, together—mothers, fathers, children, dogs. Other families had a slightly different concept of together, he noticed. But still, walking in the park was surely a normal thing for a family to do, and it was something the Modest family did as well. This made them somewhat normal. Somehow, this was important to Jasper. He liked to think his family participated in things that other families did.
    Jasper’s sandy blonde hair was like his father’s, and Lucy’s thick dark hair was like her mother’s. Both children had freckles on their noses that didn’t seem to come from anyone in particular.Their house was nice. Jasper and Lucy had comfortable rooms, wholesome food and, most important, each other. On the whole, home life did not present any hardships.
    School life was a different story, though. Clever as the Modest children were, no teacher had ever cared much for either one. Yes, at a very young age, Jasper had discovered that teachers—at least all teachers Jasper had encountered—were not terribly keen on being shown how to do things by undersized little boys. He also learned that teasing, cruel pranks, and bullying were part of everyday life, in the classroom and out.
    Jasper was always prepared to run at a moment’s notice. He was good at running and found many opportunities to practice. When he tried to explain the physics of a marble in motion, all while making an excellent shot, he had been pelted with marbles by the boys in his class. The boys hadn’t a clue what he was talking about and hated him for it. Jasper had been forced by a very large and nasty girl to eat an earthworm he’d brought to class to show how the creature could turn and fertilize the soil. The girl did not understand a word he had said, except, finally, “fertilize.” When a group of older boys tried to get him to drink mercury after he’d explained it was the only metal that retained its liquid form at room temperature, his teacher did nothing.
    Jasper had gotten into trouble when three boys in his class had chased him up a tree and then smashed a Chinese puzzle box he had opened. The teacher had been quite upset with the boys, but also with Jasper. All four of them were given detention. The boys were in trouble for breaking the Chinese puzzle box, which belonged to the teacher. Jasper was in trouble for opening it.
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