The Science of Breakable Things

Natalie, her dad, and Twig ride home in silence. Later, Natalie is in her bedroom, and Twig calls her, saying she has an idea for how they can still take Natalie’s mom to New Mexico to see the orchids. For a moment, Natalie allows herself to feel hope, although she knows Twig’s ideas are often unrealistic. Twig stole her mother’s credit card, which she thinks they could use to buy plane tickets. Natalie says this would never work.

However, Natalie gets an idea that she thinks could work. She remembers that the last time she got an orchid, she didn’t get it from New Mexico at all, but from her mom’s and Mrs. Menzer’s old lab. She can get another orchid seed there by stealing her mom’s lab keys, taking the bus at night so no one stops her. She tells Twig she’s going to do this tonight, alone, so she doesn’t get anyone else in trouble.

Twig breaks into Natalie’s house using the key her parents hide underneath a fake rock. She announces that she is going with Natalie to the lab. Twig’s commitment gives Natalie hope. They go outside, and Dari appears. Twig invited him, which means she must have told him about Natalie’s mom’s depression. Natalie is mad about this, but she doesn’t have time to protest because they need to rush to catch the bus on time.

Dari tells Natalie that Twig told him about the flower. He apologizes for making last-minute tweaks to the egg design. He feels like it’s his fault they lost. However, he wants to make it up to Natalie because they’re a team.

No one else is on the bus except the driver, who ignores them, and a man drinking from a paper bag.

Natalie reminisces about the time when her mom worked constantly in the lab, yet she was also there for Natalie and loved her too. She took Natalie to the lab with her as a young child instead of enrolling her in preschool. There, she and Mikayla played, imitating their mothers.

They successfully use Natalie’s mom’s keys to enter the lab building, and they sneak past a sleeping guard. They go to the third floor, where Mrs. Menzer’s office is, but there’s a code box. Natalie doesn’t know the code. She tries random combinations of numbers. The third time, after she types “3333,” the box stops flashing, and they enter the hallway. Dari feels like Natalie cannot possibly have correctly guessed the four-digit code on the third try, but Natalie thinks sometimes things just work out right.

Natalie easily enters Mrs. Menzer’s office. She searches through the filing cabinet for a blue Ziploc bag like the one her mother’s boss took the seed from years ago. The bag she finds is labeled “Iris Germanica” instead of “Cobalt Blue Orchid” (250). She looks through the rest of the drawer, but there are no other blue bags or bags labeled “orchid.” Natalie decides the bag must be mislabeled and tells her friends it’s time to go, taking one seed with her.

Back in the hallway, Natalie stops because she sees her mother’s old office. Weirdly, her mom’s nameplate is still on the door, even though she was fired months ago. Natalie then remembers that Mrs. Menzer said she misses her. Natalie enters her mom’s office and discovers that it’s exactly how she left it; even the pictures of her family are still there. Just as Natalie is realizing her mom was not fired, a security guard appears in the doorway.

The security guard is confused when he sees that three children triggered the alarm by entering the wrong code three times. Dari seems comforted that “3333” was not the real code, just as he suspected, until he remembers they’re in trouble. The guard wonders aloud if he should call the police, but Natalie suggests he call Mrs. Menzer instead because they know her. He does, and she says she’ll arrive in 45 minutes. The children endure silence while they wait.

Natalie reflects that she used to love Mrs. Menzer and only started hating her because she believed that she fired her mother and caused her depression. Now, she realizes that her mom couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to work, and Mrs. Menzer is waiting for her. However, this also means she can go back to liking her.

When Mrs. Menzer arrives, Natalie tells her the whole truth, including her belief in the orchid’s healing powers and her hopes of applying them to her mother. Mrs. Menzer explains that the flowers aren’t magic, and Natalie does not have her facts straight about the flower she grew with her mom. She says Natalie needs to ask her mom for the truth about the flower.

Mrs. Menzer drives the kids home. Ultimately, Natalie is glad Twig invited Dari and agrees that they’re a team. Mrs. Menzer suggests that Natalie try to clear the air with Mikayla. When she drops Natalie off, both parents are waiting for her, and her mother holds her. They decide to go to sleep and discuss things in the morning.

Natalie’s parents are both up and waiting for her in the morning. She explains that she went to the lab to get another magical cobalt blue orchid. Her mother reveals that the seed they planted before was really an iris, not an orchid. They had a limited number of orchids and could not give any away to live outside their lab. She also explains that she and Mrs. Menzer were unable to isolate the orchids’ healing properties and apply them to humans. It was difficult for both of them to learn that what they’d hoped for in their scientific inquiry would not come to fruition.

Natalie’s mother tells her she’s had depression, but she still loves her. Natalie cries and recognizes that these are new versions of her parents, but they’re even better than the prior ones because these parents are “real.” Additionally, she is a new version of herself, which means they might need to renegotiate how to “fit together” as a family.

Twig is grounded and not allowed to use the phone, but her housekeeper lets her do it while her mom is at work. She calls Natalie, whose mother is at a therapy session. Neither girl has been able to get in touch with Dari.

Natalie’s dad tells her he’s glad the three students were together and that she has good friends, even though they shouldn’t have broken into the lab. He also tells her that her mother had depression like this before, when Natalie was very young, and the two of them stayed in bed together for a month. Natalie thought her mom’s depression descended upon them suddenly, but now she realizes it was always there.

Natalie finds her mother in the greenhouse, where she looks “real” again. She found the Korean fire plant Natalie got her for Christmas and is caring for it because it was dying. Natalie now sees her mom as her mom again, albeit a different and imperfect version of her. Natalie’s mother also planted the iris seed.

While biking to school, Natalie runs into Mikayla, says hi, and offers to help her carry her project inside. Mikayla reveals that she didn’t stop being Natalie’s friend on purpose, but she “couldn’t compete” with Natalie’s closeness with Twig once she came into the picture. The girls appear to reconcile, although they aren’t going to be close.

Mr. Neely has the students present their scientific findings, and Natalie, Twig, and Dari give a presentation about the egg-drop competition. Natalie reflects on Mikayla’s project. She grew potted plants, which all grew toward the light.

The school year is over, and it’s time to turn in the science journals. This ended up being one of the most important assignments of Natalie’s life, although she didn’t need the outlet so much after that day in the greenhouse when her mom seemed like herself again. Now, she can speak openly with her parents and her friends, so she doesn’t need to journal as much.

The blue iris never grew, but the Korean fire plant thrives. There are still good days and bad days, but Natalie works in the greenhouse every day with her mom. They buy more irises and orchids from the nursery. Natalie concludes that it’s not always possible to protect breakable things, but a person can keep going anyway.