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Chapter 79 - Family Thanksgiving

Dr Chakraborty spoke into his mic, trying to get the audience’s attention. When he did, he said, “Thanks very much, Miss Alexandre, for that excellent introduction. Dr Clarke, would you like to add anything?”

Emma looked at Tamara and grinned. “You inspired me, so I’ll give it a go,” she whispered.

She picked up her mic. “I only have one point to make since Miss Alexandre was so eloquent in her comments. I wasn’t as lucky as she was... she got three and I only scored one.”

Laughter.

“Our research, as Miss Alexandre mentioned, was for improving battery technology. I had some general thoughts about electron storage in superconducting molecular matrices, where my calculations seemed to imply that electrons could be stored in a way that on the surface, appeared to violate one well known principle in physics. My maths showed that a true violation didn’t occur when the matrix was designed in a particular way. But there’s a big gap between showing something in a mathematical way and making a device to demonstrate the maths.

“When I gave Miss Alexandre her project, I had intended that it mainly serve her as a method to accustom her to formal scientific research, as she had recently joined my lab as an undergraduate student. In my experience, undergrads need careful mentoring to guide them in developing scientific discipline, but as it turned out, Miss Alexandre had already honed a considerable amount of discipline whilst a high-school student, working in a neuroscience lab at the University of Miami’s Medical School. So she was well prepared for her project with me and, as history confirms, did a smashing job in completing her project.

“I don’t have much more to add to the technical summary she gave, other than to say that the device she invented isn’t a true battery; that is, electricity isn’t created or stored through the mechanism of a chemical reaction, but that electrons are directly sequestered in an atomic or molecular matrix in such a way that they can be stored and extracted with virtually zero loss and very close to a hundred percent efficiency. Miss Alexandre’s demonstration of the flow of electrons against a charge gradient is the principle behind that device, which we’ve called an accumulator. That’s all for me, Dr Chakraborty.”

There was applause.

“Thanks, Dr Clarke. Let’s go to the questions already submitted and of course there’s the one that every laureate at Johns Hopkins has been asked—and we’re honored to actually have a significant number of laureates at our university—and that question is: ‘What were you doing when you heard you had won the prize?’”

Tamara grinned and raised her hand. “My boyfriend told me when I returned from my retreat. It was a week after the announcement that I found out.”

Laughter, and then Emma spoke, “At 5:50 in the morning? Please. Sleeping. Didn’t get much sleep after that.”

Question: “What was your reaction to hearing that you won a Nobel Prize?”

Emma responded, “So this was the second time for me and an early-morning phone call during the week that the Nobels are announced is typically a giveaway. But it occurred to me that I might be being pranked. Sometimes physicists can be quite childish in their pranks. Of course I was delighted, particularly for Miss Alexandre, because I was still celebrating her getting the Physiology or Medicine Prize the day before, and was amazed to hear that she had won the Physics Prize as well.”

“Me?” Tamara asked. “You won’t believe it when I tell you that I was totally speechless, would you? Me, speechless? Not possible.”

Laughter.

“I was so excited by my retreat experience that I wouldn’t let my boyfriend say a word. He finally got to tell me, but that was only about a half hour after I got home. And finally stopped talking to take a breath.”

Laughter again.

“Yes, I couldn’t believe it. The news didn’t become real until I played the voice-mail message from Stockholm.”

Question: “Did you know that you had been nominated?”

Emma answered, “Nominations aren’t ever announced. But I had no reason to suspect that I, or Miss Alexandre, were candidates.”

“A Nobel Prize was never on my radar,” Tamara answered. “I was just having fun doing research and learning new stuff.”

Question for Dr Clarke: “You’re in an elite group, winners of two Nobels. How do you think your work compares to those other scientists?”

“That’s not something that can be answered easily. Not to be glib about it, but I don’t think there’s any comparison that can be drawn. The varied work that led to the Prizes was so different, even for the four scientists who got multiple Prizes, that there’s nothing useful to compare.”

Question for Miss Alexandre: “You’re being proclaimed by many as this generation’s Einstein. How do you feel about that?”

“Unhappy and unworthy. Einstein was a true genius. His ideas about space-time and the connection between mass and energy, although they were based on current thought in the physics of that period, were simply stunning. And the predictions made by his theories, by and large, have withstood the test of time for over a hundred years. The public just knows his accomplishments because of his proof of the matter-energy equivalence, an equation that almost everyone can quote. My own work was nowhere at that level of creativity.”

Question for Miss Alexandre: “As a physicist, how did you get into neuroscience and brain anatomy research?”

“Actually it was the other way around. In my opening remarks, I mentioned that I became interested in magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, early on. I’ve always had an affinity for electronics; even as a child, I read and understood college electrical engineering texts. That affinity allowed me to become knowledgeable about radio frequency energies and the circuits needed to generate them. MRI devices employ RF together with large magnets to allow them to work. So I was studying, at first, electrical engineering topics as applied to a medical diagnostic device. My objective was to make the device see better so the doctors could get better results.

“With the higher resolutions I was able to obtain, it became possible to image structures in the brain that had never been described before. That became interesting to me, so I set out to see what those structures did. The brain is essentially a collection of nerve cells organized in a particular way and simplistically, each region performs a specific task. The nerve cells connect to each other in ways that closely resemble electronic circuits and remember, I said I had an affinity for electronics. So it was a logical step to learn how those new brain structures worked.”

The questions continued for the next hour and covered a wide range of topics, including questions about Tamara’s education, her knighthood, Draper Prize, Medal of Freedom, and her Harry Potter skit in Cambridge. She was asked about being a Clarke scholar and for her recommendations to high-school students for their own success. Several reporters had uncovered information about her development plans in Haiti and asked questions about that.

Emma was quite happy that most of the questions were directed to Tamara; plenty of information about her was available while information about Tamara was about as plentiful as chickens’ teeth, as one questioner mentioned. After an hour and a half, the provost declared the conference to be ended. He asked that members of the media who wanted their additional or followup questions to be addressed, to send them to the University Relations Department and they would receive appropriate attention. Tamara would not give any personal interviews; her student and research schedule would not permit it.

“Thank you all for coming today,” he finished. “We hope you found the conference productive and you will allow us at Hopkins to return to our quiet academic life. I do believe that at one point, we had more media people on our campus than students. Farewell, and any further contacts, remember, it’s University Relations.”

Some press people tried to hang back to speak to Emma or Tamara, but security quickly ushered them out. As the hall emptied, Chakraborty came over to Emma and Tamara.

“Thank you for your outstanding presentations, both of you,” he said. “Emma, you were spot on in your prediction that Ms Alexandre...”

“Please, sir. I prefer ‘Tamara.’”

“Tamara it is, then. My goodness, you had them eating out of your hand at the end there. And the way you showcased Hopkins while essentially minimizing your work... and your gentle self-deprecation was completely endearing—it was a stunning achievement. Just like your own research, I hasten to add.”

A campus officer came over to them when the provost finished speaking.

“Professor? And Ma’am? If you can follow me, we’ll drive you over to the JH Club now. Your companions, Miss Alexandre, have been told to meet you there.”

They left the hall using the stage entrance and Tamara saw that the need for the media van was gone; very few people were nearby and none were taking any notice of her. At the JH Club, though, she was certainly noticed as she was swarmed by her physics friends, faculty, staff, and students. When she saw Terence, she ran to him and hugged him.

“Damn, girl,” he said when she released him, “y’all don’t ever do stuff small. Ah’m definitely proud to know y’all and can’t wait t’see what y’all do for an encore.”

Tamara brought Winnie over to meet Terence.

“Winnie, Terence is one of the family too. He’s Barbara’s boyfriend—Peter’s sister—and a fellow Clarke scholar in Emma’s lab. Terence, Winnie is a new member of our extended family; I just became her guardian after she had a series of unfortunate incidents. I’ll tell you more when we have time, okay?”

While Tamara was being greeted by her colleagues, Winnie was hanging on her arm, whispering intently in her ear.

“Your conference back there was wicked awesome, Tamara,” she gushed. “The people were hanging on every word you said. It was so quiet I could almost hear people breathing. And the emotions in the audience were so positive, it almost made me cry; I’ve never felt a large group of people feel so good all together like that.”

Peter had been listening and chimed in. “She’s spot on, honey. I felt it too; you won the hearts of an awful lot of people there. So I’d expect that they’ll say lots of good things about you now. We’ll have to see what they say on the news shows later.”

While they were circulating, Emma found Tamara and gave her the latest tidbit.

“Chet got some phone calls from several talk-show producers. It’s like it was in Cambridge; they want fodder for their viewers,” Emma told her.

Tamara groaned. “Okay, Emma, are there any gimmicks?”

Emma shook her head. “Straight interviews, mostly. But naturally, they’re out of town. Two are taped in New York—Manhattan actually: The Late Show and The Tonight Show. And the last one, Real Time, is taped in LA.”

“When we got that offer to appear in England, the host wanted us for entertainment, not for any news value,” Tamara reasoned. “What kind of interview could we possibly do about our work—my work too—that a lay audience would care to listen to? Oh, here’s a thought. Has a Nobel laureate ever appeared on a talk show?”

“Good point. Something to check, innit.”

On investigation later, Tamara discovered that no science Nobel laureate had appeared on a talk show and she and Emma responded with their regrets.

The dinner that evening with Tamara and her collaborators was a happy affair. When the TV news came on, Tamara and a group of her colleagues watched the program and the coverage of her joint press conference was positive and upbeat.

Tamara spent most of the following day receiving congratulatory phone calls from Barbara and the rest of Peter’s family. Denise called and they spoke for a while and then she heard from Cindy. Abi called and even stopped by Tamara’s apartment in the afternoon, since she lived fairly close by.

Winnie had been using the Khan Academy website and spent the day on line reviewing the topics for which she felt less secure.

Later in the day, Tamara received an email message from the University Relations Department. They had been getting numerous interview requests and wanted to know if Tamara would be willing to be interviewed. Tamara wasn’t too thrilled about giving interviews because once you open that door, whom do you allow and whom do you deny? So she decided to prepare a briefing document containing a short biography and a general description of her research. University Relations would provide the document to those journalists who requested an interview, telling them that her student schedule couldn’t accommodate the time for a face-to-face interview.

~~~~

On Thursday afternoon, Winnie took her high-school entrance exam and learned on Friday that she did well enough to be admitted. The documents from her West Virginia schools hadn’t arrived yet but she was told that she could start going to classes on Monday. And Tamara’s having Marks as her security proved to be a good choice because, on two occasions, Marks almost had to forcibly restrain an overzealous journalist who confronted Tamara, demanding time for an interview, and when she declined, threatened to become aggressive.

When the weekend arrived, Tamara visited her mother and told her in detail about her kouche experience.

“It was totally awesome, Mom. In a way it felt like the lwa when I sense their presence. But Mom, when I tried following the filaments of force in the air—I think I was sensing electron flow, actually, it was like being inside the MRI images. And the voice in my head was indescribable. It wasn’t a voice, really, but I’m sure that my mind interpreted it that way to separate those thoughts from my own thoughts.”

“This is really amazing, darling. Did you detect any trace of the kinds of personalities that the various lwa possess?”

“In some ways, yes. But that experience answers a number of questions I’ve always had about my abilities. If that energy structure has an organization anything like a brain—and the patterns I sensed seem to have structure—then the energy matrix could indeed somehow contain the combined memories of people. I got a whole philosophical lecture,” she giggled, “with references to Plato and Augustine. And a lot of Descartes. The entity in my head communed with me for what seemed to be hours, but Descartes’ first principle, ‘Cogito, ergo sum,’ summarizes that whole session. The entity is definitely pure thought and, as Descartes maintains in his writings, thus the entity exists.”

“What an incredible experience, Tamara. So the entity has the life forces of the people of the world?”

“That would explain some of what I’ve experienced. He—for the purpose of discussion, I’ll say ‘he’—explained that the gwo-bôn-nanj of people, what others would call the ‘soul,’ is an indestructible energy construct; it’s basically the person’s immortal aspect. This must be how Granmanman came to me and left her memories and how I can translate languages. Somehow my brain knows how to access the energies of the gwo-bôn-nanj.”

“Tamara... can you do this at will?” Nadine wondered.

“No... I was in a deep meditative state when I ... um ... connected. It all seemed very dreamlike. It could have been a hallucination, but one doesn’t hallucinate knowledge that one didn’t know previously. I had to look up Descartes’ writings to confirm what I learned in that encounter. I also can’t simply call up someone else’s memory. There has to be an affinity, I learned. But about my language ability, I’m sure that it comes from some kind of access to a communications exchange in that energy construct—an affinity with a being I associate with languages. Since I associated that ability with Papa Legba, that created a special affinity, and the entity in my head agreed that this was one way of thinking of the ability.”

“Does this mean that our lwa aren’t real?” Nadine asked trepidatiously.

“Oh, no, the opposite is actually true, Mom. The energy of the person’s gwo-bôn-nanj interacts with the energy of the entity I communed with and creates a construction that takes on the identity of a lwa, or in other belief systems, with the spirit that those people venerate. Vodou is not the only faith that venerates an entity in a spiritual way.”

Nadine was relieved by Tamara’s reassurance and then their conversation turned to the Haiti projects.

“We have a commitment in principle from the Benin and Togo governments to send a cadre of peace officers to Haiti to train the local police and evaluate the overall situation. Gerston worked out the arrangement and the State Department will be keeping tabs on the situation through the embassy,” Nadine told Tamara.

“Will there be enough people?” Tamara asked.

“For now, they’re concentrating in the cities. That’s where the worst situations have developed. Some policing experts have confirmed that the major cause of the problem is a lack of ‘boots on the ground,’ although there’s also evidence of a player behind the scenes. There’s an effort underway now to identify such a person and my Haiti contacts tell me that there’s progress. The key was getting the bad apples out of the ministry supervising the police and that was your doing. It’s working, sweetie, slowly, but it is.”

“And the micro-loan and education plans?”

“Moving along well enough,” Nadine replied. “About as good as we can expect. Life is hard there and doing things beyond basic survival takes a committed effort.”

“So my own part is still several years off,” Tamara said. “The technical course for the two-year degree will begin in January so I’ll need to have a small manufacturing operation ready in two years. The engineering programs are still being developed but they have some undergrads who have the basic preparation going into their sophomore years. We’re more than a year away for a plant here in Maryland but the candidate sites are being vetted by our consultant.”

~~~

“So how’s school? Fitting in okay?” Tamara asked Winnie on Monday, after her first day there.

“I like it a whole lot, Tamara. The kids are all motivated and there’s such a nice vibe there. I like my classes too and the teachers seem good. But I have a huge amount of work to catch up,” she groaned. “A whole month’s worth. But they’re letting me do just the important assignments to turn in, not the homework from each day, thankfully.”

Several days later, Winnie told Tamara that she needed new sports shoes.

“Tamara, I got those nice running shoes but I need to get ones for the gym. The shoes that were recommended for me to get are the Asics Sky Elite FF 2. Could we please get them?”

“Why those, in particular? Let me look them up,” Tamara told her. She typed a bit on her laptop. “Huh. Volleyball shoes? Something you’re not telling me?”

“I thought I’d surprise you, Tamara. I was gonna wait for a good time, but I guess now’s a good time too. I tried out for the school’s volleyball team and they put me on the JV team.”

Tamara looked at her with surprise and Winnie went on, “I heard how good a player you are so I wanted to try it out too. The coach says I’ll be a good player and it’s wicked fun.”

“Awesome... when are the games scheduled?”

“We’re doing the basic drills now and learning the offenses. We scrimmage against the varsity too. The team is already playing games but I’m not quite ready yet. I’ll start playing games in November.”

“Let me know when you have your games; I’ll make sure to be there. Do you know your position yet?”

“Coach thinks outside hitter and middle blocker are my strongest. And he said that so far, I have the best serve on the JV team.”

Early November

During the next several weeks, Tamara was quite busy since she had to work on her research project and get Winnie set up in a routine. News from West Virginia continued to arrive slowly. The group home had been closed and its operator had been charged with eight counts of endangerment of a minor, collusion, theft by false pretenses, and unlawful operation of an unlicensed group home facility. Mason told her that the state AG also suspected the involvement of a particular local judge and a county social worker in sending girls to that group home, had begun an investigation, and would be assembling a grand jury for the case review.

Tamara had received the packet of information from the Nobel organizers giving the details about the ceremony and associated events. In the information, the requirement for the laureate to present a lecture on the subject for which the award was given. When she saw Emma, she asked about that.

“The lectures are generally given beginning several days before the award ceremony,” Emma told her. “I gave mine the day before, it was on December 9. That year the first one was on December 6.”

“You realize that I need to give three?”

“Blimey! That’s right; I didn’t think of that,” Emma responded. She laughed. “Perhaps you should contact the Nobel events organizers. They obviously never faced this situation.”

Tamara called the Stockholm number from the telephone notification message and asked how she was to handle the lectures. The line was silent for about thirty seconds.

“Hello? Still there?” Tamara asked.

“Oh, yes, sorry... this is a difficult issue, I see. I was reviewing when the lectures were to be scheduled but the individual event schedules are not planned quite yet. We will need to contact you when we have an answer.”

It took ten days for an answer and it came by email. The organizers realized the burden of preparing three lectures and offered several options. One was to deliver a single lecture with the second and third to be delivered within six months, whereupon the prize money would be released. Those lectures were to be given in Stockholm. A second was to give two, and the third at a later date. Of course, the option for three lectures still existed.

Tamara sent back a counteroffer. She would give both the Medicine and Chemistry lectures several days before the award ceremony and do a joint lecture with Emma for the Physics one. As she pointed out, since they were close collaborators in that work, the material in their respective individual lectures would overlap significantly. So she proposed that each of them would prepare a maximum of a fifteen-minute long presentation. Since the instructions from the Nobel Academy requested that lectures be focused and concise and most laureates’ talks typically lasted only twenty to thirty minutes, her proposal actually met all of the lecture requirements.

Emma would present the theoretical framework for electron storage and Tamara would cover the engineering physics that allowed the physical device to operate. As Tamara pointed out to Emma, they already had a solid framework for their lectures; it would cover the same ground as their presentations for the Draper Prize.

After a bit of negotiation, the Nobel Academy planners accepted Tamara’s proposal. After all, everything else about her multiple Prizes was unprecedented. Her lectures were duly scheduled for December 6, 8, and 9, with the Physics one to be delivered last.

Late November

For the long Thanksgiving weekend, Tamara and Peter decided to do something special for the new people in their lives—Kevin and his friends, and Winnie.

“Sweetie,” she asked Peter, “I was thinking about family and how lucky we are to have such wonderful families ourselves. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away and typically we get several families together but we can’t fit more than maybe fifteen into anyone’s house. And then I thought of Denise and Kevin; they have nowhere to go—Amelia and Jeremy... well, family Thanksgiving isn’t in Amelia’s tradition, and for Jeremy, unless the U.S. embassies celebrate it with their employees ... anyway. Also Cindy and Tom. I’m sure that they have nowhere to go.”

“I’m seeing a common thread, dear,” Peter grinned. “You have a plan. Winnie, did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Seems to me that would be awkward for Native Americans.”

“Papa and I did nothing special. Without school, I could help him put the vegetable gardens to sleep for the winter and do some canning.”

“But you’re okay with us celebrating it? It’s turned into a family celebration time rather than the original colonizers’ celebration of a successful harvest.”

“Sure, that’s fine. Tamara, Peter said you had a plan?”

“Yep. I thought of inviting our new friends and whoever of our family can come so we can celebrate together.”

“Come to where? Nobody has a house large enough,” Peter asked.

“Actually Denise does, remember her palace? But I won’t impose on them. How about the clubhouse at the resort? That’s open all year and the restaurant could be used for seating. We wouldn’t cook there; I could have the whole meal catered.”

“Interesting idea. But maybe we should check with Ron. Things like grounds fees and other issues might be involved. Let me call him.”

A short time later, Ron Allerman called back. Yes, they could use the clubhouse and bring in a catered meal. No, there won’t be a charge to guests, just a token facility charge to cover the clubhouse rental. He pointed out that the resort’s nudity requirement actually didn’t apply to the clubhouse and restaurant.

“But it can get chilly then, anyhow,” he pointed out. “Folks can wear clothes. But if they use the spa, no clothes allowed out there.”

While Peter began calling his sister, parents, and grandparents to tell them of their plans, Tamara called Denise to invite her.

“And Amelia and Jeremy too. Could you call Cindy and see if they can come?”

“Tamara, that’s so thoughtful. We had already made tentative plans to have dinner with Cindy so I’m sure that they’ll be delighted to come and meet everyone. Then you can tell us all about your experience in hearing about your Nobel prizes. I’m so, so happy for you.”

Eventually the guest list was finalized. It included Tamara’s parents, Peter’s immediate family, and the Frederick and Wilmington families. Tamara asked Emma, but she had other plans. The event would begin at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day and light snacks would be provided. Dinner would start at 3:30.

Arundel Nature Society, Anne Arundel County: Thanksgiving

The affair was a great success. Everyone loved Winnie and fussed over her all afternoon. But when Denise met her, sparks flew. When Winnie touched Denise’s hand, she broke out in tears.

“You’re of my people!” she cried. “Denise... you have the blood of my kin.”

Denise was flabbergasted.

“Winnie, yes, I see it too. You’re Cherokee, I feel it in your spirit,” Denise said as she hugged Winnie.

“Denise, where’s your family from?” Winnie asked.

“Western North Carolina. My father’s grandparents were of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and my great-grandfather was a medicine man. I’m one-quarter Cherokee. And you?”

“Both my parents were of the Buffalo Ridge Cherokee, Anisahoni clan. They were the only family I had, them and my papa. They had siblings but they died before I was born; Papa told me they died from diabetes and heart disease,” Winnie replied.

“Tamara told me about you but she didn’t mention details. She said that you were orphaned when your grandfather passed. You have a spirit in you, I felt it when we touched.” Denise remarked. “I was surprised. I’ve only felt that from a few people.”

“Papa taught me the old ways and he was very spiritual. My two-greats grandfather, four generations ago, was a medicine man and the secrets of our family were passed down to me. I wonder how close a kin we are.”

Denise shook her head. “I’m afraid that I never knew anything about our clan. But how we recognized the spirituality in each other is awesome, Winnie.”

Their conversation was witnessed by a number of their friends in addition to Peter and Kevin. Barbara saw the knot of people gathered around Winnie and noticed that Peter was radiating excitement, so she went to him to see what was happening. She had met Winnie previously, at a dinner with her and Peter’s family.

“This is such a special group and it keeps getting more special,” Barbara declared after hearing about Denise’s and Winnie’s discovery. “There must be a reason that all these unlikely things keeps happening.”

“I’d say that somebody must have really good karma to find others who resonate so strongly with them,” Kevin said, grinning. “Probably it’s all of us. I wonder if there’s such a thing as collective karma.”

Meanwhile, Cindy had come over and she took Tamara, Barbara, Denise, Amelia and Winnie aside.

“Excuse us for a bit,” Cindy broke in. “We gals need to talk about our spiritual backgrounds. Tamara says that Denise and I have shamans among our ancestors and it appears that Winnie does, too.”

“Don’t forget Barbara,” Tamara said. “And possibly Amelia.”

Amelia looked surprised. “Me?” she squeaked.

“Sure,” Tamara said, smiling at her. “Greta thinks it’s possible. The Muslims who emigrated to Indonesia had shamanistic practitioners among them.”

It turned out that Cindy wasn’t only interested in Winnie’s sensitivity to Denise and to herself—she had also felt something when she took Winnie’s hand, a feeling similar to what she had felt when she first met Tamara. She wanted to ask the other girls about their own sensitivity. Also, as a psychiatrist in training, she had sensed a deep sorrow in Winnie and attributed it to the changes in her life after her grandfather died. Cindy knew how compassionate Denise was and felt the same level of caring in Amelia and Barbara. Of course, Tamara had shown her own compassion.

“Winnie, we know you lost your family,” Cindy told at one point. “But you have a whole new family now with Tamara and Peter and their families. But please, you should think of us here as your sisters too; we’ll always be here for you when you need a sympathetic ear or old memories are bothersome. Okay?”

The others concurred with Cindy and made some encouraging comments.

Winnie nodded, her eyes filling with tears as she went to hug each of them.

When Tamara and the others rejoined the rest of the party, she had to give a command performance; everyone demanded full details of where she had been when the Nobels were announced and what it felt like when she learned about it.

“How come, do you think, the Nobel people gave you the prizes so quickly?” Dave Gibson asked. “The awards only come after years have passed for almost everyone, right?”

Tamara agreed. “I asked Emma about that since her first award came within two years. She knew of a few other cases where the prizes were awarded very soon after the work was done. She told me that the committees are very conservative and wait until there’s general consensus in the scientific community that the work is important and is a major contribution to science. The things I did apparently had an immediate and major impact on two fields, ‘cause my work spawned a virtual ton of papers expanding on and extending my work, although I’m still mystified about the Chemistry prize. Maybe it’s ‘cause the chemists seem to love the technique I invented—requests to get a copy of the G-force analytic device keep pouring in.”

The Thanksgiving meal itself was a great hit, especially since no one had to do the food preparation and cleanup. Some grumbling was heard from the males in the group about not having any leftovers to graze on for the rest of the weekend, but then the caterer came out of the kitchen with bags of leftovers in to-go containers. That was a real hit—especially for the men.

After dessert, a few of the guests decided to do a soak in the spa and Winnie was amazed how easily people shed their clothes, took a quick shower, ran outside in the cold air, and hopped in. She knew that this was a nudist resort and that her new family and friends were nudists, but that was an “academic” knowledge. To see it in the “flesh,” so to speak, was still jarring for her.

As Tamara and Peter undressed to join the others, Tamara told her, “Don’t feel that you need to force yourself, honey. Some people need to ease into the idea of getting naked with other folks. You can come sit near the spa and talk, or stay and talk with some of the other cousins. Not everyone decided to take a dip.”

Winnie stayed with the other cousins. A little later, people began leaving; the Delaware group had an hour-and-a-half trip home. By eight o’clock, the caterer had finished cleaning up and Tamara and the others began leaving for their homes too.

Tomorrow was Black Friday and Tamara had some plans....

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