drliscuddy:
Lisa probably had learned about this at some point. Six point two times ten to the twenty third. Hydrogen peroxide. Triple point of water. Sure. Somewhere in there. She seems to vaguely remember, in an unimportant flash, memorizing this in some textbook somewhere for one year of pre med – or maybe it was med school, it feels so long ago – fleetingly and to her complete disinterest, but the details of which she could not dream to tell. Her studies had dictated out the unremarkable piece of information as she sat drumming her neatly manicured nails upon her desk, and Lisa had spewed it right back through her pen in a cutthroat barring of curly, cobalt competitiveness. It had probably taken the form of some test answer. She had then ejected it straight away, in between the grade point competition, in between the cheering, the crown, the triple shots in celebration of her top score. The INFORMATION hadn’t particularly mattered to Lisa; only when she needs information does it pique her interests. And even then, it is blunt, logical, concrete. The rewards are what matter.
And yet, despite this – before her, being confronted by her son’s excitable, quickening diction … the way he’s just BURSTING to share with her something that seems so, so unremarkable … well, that, truly, is remarkable.
❛ Sure, let’s see. ❜
Lisa relaxes, lets a sigh release the muscles taut from her notations over annotations. There is the slightest hint of a smirk upon her lips. She’s tired, but willing, if only to encourage a trait she might never know to feel but always want to keep and ( admire ) , close, close, close and within her heart. She shifts forward a bit in her chair, two knuckles now supporting her chin, and stares pointedly at the small phone screen resting in Avi’s palm. Sitting with both feet tucked in front of her – folded in a neat sus-sous on the floor – she appears almost sharpened by her studious, squinting gaze.
she’d barely let out the end of ‘see’ when avi pressed play, too excited not to get on with it, tilting his phone ever so much so she could get the clearest picture, though he still hovered over her and held his breath with the same excitement and nervousness one feels when sharing something new for the first time. for being as short as it was, the video was slow at the beginning -- a demonstration from a lab at the university of southern california, a school he had now, due to his fondness for this video above all the others he’d watched, decided he was going to attend ( though he changed his future intended university every other week, depending on his mood, or what he was interested in that day, or whether or not he got the sudden yet powerful urge to live in or at least near the woods ) -- and he felt antsy with anticipation for his mother. within the specialized vat utilized by the lab in question, a few chunks of ice floated around in the water for a half a minute, doing nothing of particular interest, until the water started to boil, and the three forms -- solid, liquid, and gas -- started fighting against one another, looking almost unnatural when not a single one could struggle to take hold.
❝ there , ❞ he said, as though he were proving a point, and he carefully held his finger over the phone screen, not wanting to touch it and accidentally switch them from ❛ triple point of water ❜ to the next video in his playlist, ❛ boy sets dryer on fire !!! ❜, to make absolutely sure that she was observing what he was observing, and also so that he would be primed to end the video when he was finished. his mother, he knew, was busy, and so he wouldn’t take up too much of her time, even if he wanted to. ❝ see, mom, it’s cool because, you see, the triple point is different for every material . so water has it’s temperature and pressure point where its three forms can coexist , but it’s only water that’ll have that temperature and pressure point . . . nothing else. ❞ he pursed his lips, pleased with his retention of information, and, when the video was done, the introduction to ❛ boy sets dryer on fire !!! ❜ just starting to play, he hastily exited the youtube app .
❝ it’s like, it’s own special thing, ❞ he said, not articulating as well as he would have liked, though he knew she would understand, and he did not think about it too much. ❝ i want to see it in real life, ❞ he said, having not decided this until right that moment but understanding as soon as he said it that, of course, of course : this was the next, logical step forward . ❝ i haven’t looked into whether or not i can get a special pressurized vat but also i think, probably, the science museum would do it or something. ❞
