The Darkness of Matter

The Darkness of Matter: Chapter 1

Sophie picked her way through the wreckage of the living room with a grimace. It looked as if a bomb had exploded.

"I'm fine!" Helen, sitting in the midst of debris like a lost explorer, threw up her hands in exasperation and knocked over her coffee mug. Her face was red and her fine blonde hair curled damply with the humidity. A tiny tropical lizard scuttled away over the windowsill into the safety of the banana tree outside. 

"Just take what you need, mom. You've done this before a gazillion times."

"It's a two month trip though this time," Helen fretted, "and the location is really remote. What if I run out of something?" 

Sophie bent to pick up some escaping pencils and patted Helen's knee. "You'll survive, Mom. And it's beautiful. You'll have a ball." She'd seen the photos: pristine greenish waters, breakers rolling up on coral beaches. Hardly a penal spot. 

"You're right." Helen smiled ruefully. "It's going to be amazing. I can't wait to see what new species we'll unearth this time. Oh, and I got word this morning that they've approved my request for additional scanners on the submersible! Finally! Some good news." 

"Sounds great." Sophie, who had no great love for adventuring, meant to be sarcastic, but the words slipped out more wistfully than she had intended and Helen caught on at once. 

"Oh, honey. I wish you could too. But you'll have a good time in Boston. Your father misses you." 

"Dad? He's all wrapped up with a new research project," Sophie objected. "You know how he gets." 

"I do," Helen acknowledged; it had been one of the principal reason for their divorce. "But I really think he's getting somewhere this time. Harvard is a fantastic place to be for that sort of thing. He's got the brains, they've got the facilities. He's right on the verge of a breakthrough. What he's found-well, I can't really talk about it but if he's right, it would be a game changer." 

Sophie grimaced. "That makes it even worse. He's going to be totally focused on his research. You know that and I know that." 

"Well, I'm sure he'll make time for you. And I'll have periodic email access. I'll write. Come on, that's a major improvement! Last time I could barely call out, remember?" 

"I guess." Sophie mustered a weak smile. 

The warm, clean smell of Helen's shampoo engulfed Sophie like a cloud as her mother hugged her. "I'll think of you every day. Don't think I won't." 

"Even in the dark? With the creepy crawlies?"  

"Especially in the dark!"  

                                                                                             *** 

Despite the late hour of their flights, the airport was crowded with holiday travelers, tourists and native Singaporeans alike. Sophie's flight left first. 

A faint drizzle was coming down, sending the runway lights streaking across the wet surface as the aircraft taxied into position. Sophie settled into her seat and tightened her seatbelt, leaning her forehead against the cold glass of the window as the stewardess went through the safety announcements and the captain welcomed everyone onboard the flight to Boston. Sophie swallowed.

It seemed unreal to be heading back after nearly a year away. They hadn't gone back at Christmas or Easter; Helen had been swamped with work in her new position and the US was a long way off, too far off to justify just a week's trip. Not that there was anything much to go back to anyway. Everything Sophie had known growing up there was gone, disbursed in the wake of her parents' split. Not that they'd ever had much of a home anyway, given the migratory pattern of their lives: six months in Chicago, a year in Switzerland when she was too young to remember, summer vacations spent on the lecture circuit.