The Science of Breakable Things

On Thanksgiving, Natalie is surprised to find her mother awake early in the kitchen, cheerfully insisting that she will make the pie after all. Natalie’s father is picking up his mother, who visits every Thanksgiving, at the airport. Natalie’s mother’s parents are dead. She usually works hard to prepare for her mother-in-law’s visits, but not this year.

Grandma arrives with gifts from Korea, where she is from and lives half the time. She spends the rest of her time in California with her boyfriend, “Uncle Gene.” Grandma loves Korean food and traditions, but her father doesn’t, having grown tired of them while he was growing up. During the visit, Natalie’s mother acts friendly, and Natalie almost forgets about the “situation.” However, her mother won’t leave her bedroom the next morning, even though the family planned to go out for brunch. Natalie then goes to her own bedroom and refuses to leave.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Natalie is thankful to escape her home and go to school. Twig had a great time visiting her dad, whom she claims to love more than her mom. This seems backward to Natalie because Twig’s mother is always present and tries hard, but her dad is barely around. Natalie used to be unable to imagine what having a parent “disappear” would be like, but now she can.

Dari’s usual partners are absent, so Mr. Neely has him join Natalie and Twig for an experiment about magnets in class. Dari doesn’t seem to care if people think he is silly, nerdy, or too cheerful; he simply is who he is. Natalie seems to admire this. Dari gets in the zone and completes the whole assignment early by himself. He apologizes, explaining that his regular partners don’t like helping him. Natalie and Twig normally take the entire time allotted to finish their assignments. The three conclude that they make a good team.

In the science experiment, the cold magnet works best. Natalie reasons that this is similar to perennial plants: They seem to die in winter, but they’re just waiting it out. This tells her there’s strength in cold and in knowing things will be all right again someday when the sun comes back out.

Natalie tries to talk to her mother about whether she should make friends with Dari, but she’s too vacant to focus on her daughter’s words. Natalie goes to her room, where she reflects that her mom put on a happy face at Thanksgiving for her mother-in-law but doesn’t care enough to do the same for Natalie. She decides that she simply doesn’t care about her mother anymore, since her mom doesn’t care about her. She hates this person who is not even her real mother but an imposter in her mother’s skin.

At school, Twig gets in trouble for stealing coffee from the teachers’ lounge. Natalie doesn’t want to go home yet, so she waits for her and runs into Dari. He sees Natalie’s drawings for the competition and suggests they team up. She asks why he would want to team up with her and Twig when he could probably win alone, but he still wants to work with the two of them.

After Dari leaves, Twig is mad that Natalie agreed to let him join their team. She doesn’t care about winning money, partially because she doesn’t know why Natalie wants it. She doesn’t even know her mother is sick.

At home, Natalie’s mother locked herself away in her bedroom again, so Natalie does the same, not even speaking to her father.

Dari’s regular partners return to science class, but he keeps working with Natalie and Twig. Natalie worries that Dari will replace her as Twig’s best friend. However, they nominate her as their team captain, which makes her feel safer.

Natalie’s dad takes her to a therapy appointment with Dr. Doris. Natalie is angry because she feels like this was sprung on her. She’s cold toward Dr. Doris but feels bad about this because the therapist is nice and isn’t the person who forced Natalie to come. Natalie worries that everything she does is a “Therapist Trick,” and she tries to resist. She refuses to talk about her mother or her family and talks about school instead.