She raises her head from my chest to look at me. “Have you?”
I nod.
“I’m very confused, Ransom.”
“I know.”
“Then help…ah…un-confuseme.”
I smile at her, stroking her hair, touching her, thrilled to have that right. “Do you know that every time I came to Boston, I came by your apartment?”
She frowns. “How did you even know where I live?”
“I…I got your address from my mother’s Christmas mailing list.”
She grins at that. “Your mother sends some unhinged postcards.”
My parents are both retired particle physicists with an eccentric sense of humor.
Last Christmas, their card featured a photo of a beaker filled with eggnog, labeled “C2H6O + Nutmeg.” Inside, it read:
“Season’s Greetings from your favorite controlled experiment.
Results: Mildly tipsy. Highly festive.
Merry Christmas from the Marchands—still mixing science and chaos!”
The year before that, the card showed a chalkboard covered in complex equations, with a doodle of Rudolph prancing in the corner. The message inside said:
“Proof that Santa can achieve Mach 10 in one night: still unsolved.
But we’re working on it.
Happy Holidays from your favorite theoreticians.”
This year’s card might be their most unhinged yet.It arrived in a shiny, red envelope with a return address labeled simply as: The Lab.
The front featured a carefully staged photo of their cat wearing a tiny lab coat, sitting next to a stack of physics journals and a menorah made out of test tubes. Inside, it read:
“2025 Hypothesis: Feline assistants increase holiday joy by 72%.
Control group: No cat. Experimental group: Very grumpy cat.
Conclusion: Unclear, but morale is up and so is the glitter budget.
Happy Holidays from the Marchands—where the laws of physics bend for festive chaos!”
“I’m convinced PETA is going to reach out to them for what they did to Higgs.”
She lets out a breathy laugh. I love hearing it.
“Your parents are so obvious that it’s cute.”
“You mean because they named their cat Higgs Boson?”
“Exactly.”
We become silent again for a while. The hut is warm, and I like holding her as we lie on the floor.
