Writing Practice 16: Why she's so cool

Let's talk about that girl.

She began as a biologist.
As a girl, she loved frogs.
Bullfrogs, in particular.
She loved watching their throats inflate.

In her career as a biologist, something inspired her in such a way that she began looking at the universe as a form of being.
She was not religious, but she did often refer to the universe as God.
She switched professions. She studied and she became a Quantum Physicist.

She told Richard about the Bullfrogs when they started working together.
Richard pictured their throats inflating and it made him think of balloons.
Then she said: "I feel like studying quantum physics is like studying the biology of God."

See, Richard didn't like her because her bullfrog story made him think of balloons.
He liked her because after she reminded him of balloons, she said something that was far more beautiful than balloons had ever been to him. She had said such a beautiful and creative thing, and it snapped him out of thinking about balloons.

She was interested in the atomic universe.
And one day she said to Richard: "I like to think that sometime, somewhere out there someone will figure out how to access a atom's memory. Energy never dies. My energy will go on long after I'm dead. And I figure after it gets sucked into the sun and the sun explodes - my energy will be fired out into the universe. And some crazy-brilliant being will have mastered the ability to tap into everywhere those atoms have been and everything they've every experienced - they'll see everything that my atom's have ever been a part of and when they do it they'll see my life. They'll see what I'd discovered and how happy I was. They'll know about me. About us. About here. It's just a thought. But the universe is infinite, right? Anything can happen."

Richard, inspired by the comment, used it in his eulogy for his dead best friend. After saying it, he realized that the perception she had shared with him was comforting, and that she had helped him feel better about tragedy. That's the moment Richard knew he was falling in love with her.