The Science of Breakable Things

Natalie and Twig work on the egg-drop project the day before Thanksgiving. Later, Twig will fly to New York to visit her dad. Twig shows her drawings of various designs she came up with. Most of them are impractical and silly, but one is reasonable: using cotton balls. Natalie did a project with cotton balls with her mother once. Twig seems pleased that one of her ideas is good, since she doesn’t normally excel at school, projects, or homework. They test a Play-Doh idea that doesn’t work. Natalie doesn’t tell Twig about her mom’s cereal idea.

On Thanksgiving, Natalie is surprised to find her mother awake early in the kitchen, cheerfully insisting that she will make the pie after all. Natalie’s father is picking up his mother, who visits every Thanksgiving, at the airport. Natalie’s mother’s parents are dead. She usually works hard to prepare for her mother-in-law’s visits, but not this year.

Grandma arrives with gifts from Korea, where she is from and lives half the time. She spends the rest of her time in California with her boyfriend, “Uncle Gene.” Grandma loves Korean food and traditions, but her father doesn’t, having grown tired of them while he was growing up.