He and Naomi knew that the cloud chamber worked from their dry runs with Poppa’s watch face. But so far, the only flashes of alpha and beta and gamma rays they had picked up came from the watch and not, as they’d hoped, from actual radiation star particles they might witness after the watch was removed. The write-up in Scientific American had specified that this radiation might be tricky to detect, but they were still trying.

Then there was the written report—Nate’s least favorite part of the job. Naomi was supposed to be finishing that up, along with the illustrated poster. But Naomi hadn’t shown up at school on the Monday or Tuesday after the discovery of his father’s rifle. When Nate called her house Tuesday night, Mrs. Torvald said Naomi wasn’t up to talking.

Wednesday night—after another day’s absence from school—Naomi called him. He knew the second he heard her voice that something was wrong.

“My parents found out that I climbed the windmill,” she said. “It was pretty bad.”

No mystery how her parents had found out. The news about Nate locating his father’s rifle had traveled all over town. It hadn’t been difficult for the Torvalds to piece together the rest.

“My parents said you and I’ve gotten too close or something like that,” she told him. “Like they couldn’t imagine a boy and a girl just being friends, without some kind of weirdness going on. And I guess it made them nuts, thinking about me in the middle of nowhere with a couple of boys. So now I’m not supposed to see you anymore.”

“That can’t happen,” Nate told her. “We have to do something.” Then, after a moment, “What about the science fair?”

“I guess I won’t be going to Butte after all. They don’t even want me at the fair at school.”

“We worked so hard,” he said. “How can they do this?”

“You can do it on your own. If the cloud chamber wins, maybe Larry can go to the state finals with you.”

“But you’re my partner. You’re the one who’s earned it.” “I have to go,” she said. “I’m not supposed to use the phone.”

“Take care of yourself, huh?”

“You too.”

When Nate came home from school on Thursday, he found his mom packing her good china into boxes, and she looked tired. Not just tired—bone-weary.

“I know it’s a bad time for you, Mom,” Nate said. “But I was wondering if you could give me a little help on my science project. I really need you.” Saying this, he realized how long it had been since he and his mother had done anything together and how much he missed her. “If not,” he said after a second, “I can get Larry.”