“She’s liking her roommate a bit more than she did initially,” Randolph reported, skimming the page as Rose set the table for their evening meal. “Though she’s still cautious. I confess to not being terribly surprised about that,” he added, smiling at Rose. “And here, darling, listen to this.”
Rose could hear Lily’s voice tangling with Randolph’s as he read.
I know, Mom, that we didn’t agree on many of the issues, but I’m sorry that you didn’t win the election. I really am. I know how hard you worked and how important this was to you. I hope you’ll be able to find something else to work toward.
The truth was, Rose had so expected to win that she had in no way prepared herself for the possibility that she wouldn’t. Once the collider had been defeated, it had seemed so certain that she would take Mayor Callahan’s place. That this would be the beginning of a new era in Nicolet.
Now what? she’d found herself wondering the day after the results. It was the first time in her adult life that she’d been without a plan.
Before, Rose would have wondered whether she and Randolph might not again take up their adventures together — Lily off at school and there being nothing to tie them to Nicolet. But just now Randolph seemed so happy there at home, content in a way she had never seen when he was not traveling. No, she realized, those days were in the past.
She wondered, though, her thoughts drifting back to her political ambitions, if she had perhaps not set her sights too low. If her loss was in fact best seen as a nudge toward something larger, as an opportunity.
She called a meeting of her campaign team.
Abhijat, who had never permitted himself much time for pleasure reading, had allowed himself to sink happily into Randolph’s drafts, finding himself captivated by the world Randolph had conjured. Often, Abhijat would sit down in one of the comfortable living room chairs to read and would find, upon looking up at the end of a section, that hours had crept by and that it was now long since past time for him to begin preparing dinner.
He had begun assembling his own box of recipes — something he planned to give Meena one day. He’d bought a new wooden box, this one decorated with a wreath of hand-painted flowers, and a set of cream-colored index cards on which he kept track of the meals that became their favorites:
For when you have forgotten to see the loveliness around you, he wrote. And here his recipe for a simple dal.
For when one must be reminded of one’s own good fortune. Then Meena’s favorite — chicken prepared on their new barbecue.
For when you wish to thank the world for your happiness. And here, Sarala’s favorites — Kraft Dinner, Rice-A-Roni, green bean casserole.
Sarala made her way home from the evening’s party. She’d done well that night. Indeed, she’d been surprised by how easy it seemed, how effortless, how fun. She wondered if this was how Abhijat had felt among his theories and equations. At home. Where he belonged.
Now, she often passed her neighbors, returning from work just as she was setting out. She thought of this as her reverse commute, and she waved to those she recognized. Her first night, she’d felt as though she were setting off on a great adventure.
It was almost always dark when she returned home, and Sarala loved peeking into the houses with the curtains left open as she drove, loved catching glimpses of families in the midst of their evening rituals.
In front of the elementary school, she slowed for the stop sign. There on the corner was her home, light glowing out from the kitchen windows where she could make out her own family inside, Abhijat preparing a late dinner so they might all share their meal together, Meena at the table, bent over her schoolwork.
Postscript
The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was a real project. Those readers who remember the SSC will recall that, unlike in this novel, it was not a matter of whether it would be built, but of where. For the purposes of this story I have simplified this, making Nicolet the only site under consideration, but the conflict illustrated in this novel played out in many locations around the country. The Department of Energy conducted studies of a number of potential sites, finally settling on Waxahachie, Texas. There, construction of the super collider began, but the project was canceled before it was ever completed, the site abandoned for years.
Notes
The idea for Abhijat’s chart in chapter one comes from The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo.
For the sections on Randolph’s expeditions, I’m indebted to the following books for inspiration: I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson, The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist by Carol Grant Gould, and Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure by Bartle Bull.
The quote from the farmer’s letter in chapter two comes from Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience by Lillian Hoddeson, Adrienne W. Kolb, and Catherine Westfall.
The captions and quotes from The Secret Museum of Mankind in chapters two and ten come from The Secret Album of Oceana and The Secret Album of Africa.
The blessing in chapter three comes from The Hindu Woman by Margaret Cormack.
The mosquito analogy in chapter four is paraphrased from To the Heart of Matter: The Superconducting Super Collider, 1987, Universities Research Association.
The title of chapter seven comes from a quote by Francesca Nessi-Tedaldi in an article titled “Crystal Gazing,” hosted on the CERN website.
For the details of Lily and Meena’s report and presentation in chapter eight, I’m indebted to Pat Shipman’s To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa.
The quote Sarala remembers from her schoolbook in chapter nine comes from Women and Society in India by Neera Desai and Maithreyi Krishnaraj. The quote in chapter nine about turning coffee into papers comes from a personal interview with Adrienne Kolb, Fermilab, 2010. The list of questions Sarala finds on Abhijat’s desk in chapter nine comes from Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience by Lillian Hoddeson, Adrienne Kolb, and Catherine Westfall.
Quotes from the glossy reports produced by the Lab come from Siting the Superconducting Super Collider in Illinois: A Report to Governor James R. Thompson and members of the 84th General Assembly, 1985 and from To the Heart of Matter: The Superconducting Super Collider, 1985 and 1987, Universities Research Association.
The title of chapter fourteen comes from a letter from W. E. Gladstone to Roderick Murchison regarding Lady Florence Baker.
In preparing the chapters on the letters to the editor and the public hearing, I drew heavily on the Environmental Impact Statement and the records of the public hearings held in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Illinois in October 1988, in some cases reproducing bits of text verbatim. Much of the text of the public hearing comes from direct quotes from transcripts of the Superconducting Super Collider hearing held in October 1988 at Waubonsie Valley High School. Names and descriptions of the speakers in the hearing are fictional.
The quote from chapter twenty-two: “Very big projects don’t always have happy histories,” is from a personal interview with John Peoples, former director of Fermilab, 2010. The quote from the same chapter: “Now I’m going to have to wait until I’m fifty to understand what breaks electroweak symmetry,” comes from a personal interview with Andreas Kronfeld, Fermilab, 2010.