The Jodi Picoult Collection #4 Read online

  An armadillo can walk underwater.

  Minnows have teeth in their throats.

  A shrimp can swim backward.

  You would think I’d have been scared. But I could hear my mother, telling me a story before I went to bed, about a coyote who wanted to capture the sun. He climbed the tallest tree, and he put it in a jar and brought it home. That jar, though, it couldn’t hold something so strong, and it burst. See, Wills? my mother had said. You are filled with light.

  There was glass above me, and the runny eye of the sun in the sky, and I beat my fists against it. It was like the ice had sealed itself on top of me again, and I couldn’t push through. I was so numb, I had stopped shivering.

  As the water filled my nose and mouth, as the sun got tinier and tinier, I closed my eyes and curled my fists around the things I knew for sure:

  That a scallop has thirty-five eyes, all blue.

  That a tuna will suffocate if it ever stops swimming.

  That I was loved.

  That this time, it was not me who broke.

  Recipe: (1) a set of instructions for preparing a dish; (2) something likely to lead to a certain outcome.

  Follow these rules, and you will get what you want: it’s the easiest prescription in the world. And yet, you can observe a recipe down to the letter, and it will not make a difference when the end product sits in front of you and you realize it’s not what you wanted.

  For a long time, I could only see you sinking. I pictured you, with your skin pale blue and your hair streaming out behind you like a mermaid’s. I would wake up screaming, beating the mattress with my hands, as if I could reach through the ice and drag you to safety.

  But that wasn’t you, no more than the skeleton you’d been given was you. You were more than that, lighter. You were the steam that fogged the mirror in the morning when Sean dragged me out of bed and forced me to take a shower. You were the crystals painting my car windshield after a night’s frost. You were the heat rising off the pavement like a ghost in the middle of the summer. You never left me.

  I do not have the money anymore. It was yours, after all. I slipped the check into the silk lining of the coffin when I kissed you good-bye for the last time.

  Here are the things I know for sure:

  When you think you’re right, you are most likely wrong.

  Things that break—be they bones, hearts, or promises—can be put back together but will never really be whole.

  And, in spite of what I said, you can miss a person you’ve never known.

  I learn this over and over again, every day I spend without you.

  WILLOW’S SABAYON, WITH CLOUDS

  SABAYON

  6 egg yolks

  1 cup sugar

  2 cups heavy cream, whipped

  1/2 cup light rum or Grand Marnier

  Whisk the eggs and sugar in a double boiler. Once they are completely mixed, fold in the whipped cream. Remove from the heat, pass through a sieve, and add the rum.

  CLOUDS

  5 egg whites

  Pinch of salt

  1/3 cup sugar

  2 cups milk or water

  Place the egg whites and salt in a mixing bowl; on low speed, mix until smooth. Gradually increase the speed and sprinkle in the sugar. Beat until the whites hold a soft peak—this is meringue, the cloud I imagine you resting on nowadays. Meanwhile, simmer the milk or water. Take a spoonful of the meringue and gently drop it into the simmering liquid. Cook the meringue for 2 to 3 minutes and, with a slotted spoon, turn it over and continue cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the poached meringue to a paper towel. The clouds are fragile.

  SPUN SUGAR

  Cooking spray

  2 cups granulated sugar

  1 teaspoon corn syrup

  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, wiping any excess off with a paper towel.

  Place the sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, until a candy thermometer registers 310 degrees F (hard-crack stage). Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Let the syrup stand to thicken, about 1 minute.

  Dip a fork into the sugar syrup and wave it back and forth over the baking sheet to paint long threads. The syrup will begin hardening almost immediately. With practice you can form the strands into lace, swirls, the letters of your name.

  To serve, spoon some of the sabayon sauce into a shallow bowl or onto a large plate and top with 2 poached meringues. Gently place a few threads of spun sugar around the meringue, not on top, or it will deflate.

  The outcome of this recipe is a work of art, if you can make it through the complicated preparation. Above all else: handle everything with care. This dessert, like you, is gone before you know it. This dessert, like you, is impossibly sweet.

  This dessert fills me, when I miss you the most.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Willow’s trivia came, in part, from The Book of Useless Information, edited by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (New York: Perigee, 2006).

  If you’d like to learn more about osteogenesis imperfecta or to make a donation, please visit www.oif.org.

  Handle with Care

  JODI PICOULT

  A Readers Club Guide

  INTRODUCTION

  Another heart-wrenching, controversial novel by Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care introduces Willow, a smart and charming five-year-old who was born with a brittle bone disease called osteogenesis imperfecta. Over her lifetime, Willow will have hundreds of broken bones. Her mother, Charlotte, will do anything to give Willow the best life possible—even if she has to say under oath that Willow should never have been born. In pursuing a wrongful birth suit against her obstetrician (and best friend for nearly a decade), Charlotte is willing to put everything on the line in hopes of gaining the financial means necessary to take care of her daughter. Picoult constructs an emotionally complex novel, weaving tender and poignant moments into a difficult story of suffering and sacrifice. Charged with thought-provoking questions about medical ethics, morality, parenting, and honesty, Handle with Care asks just how far we would go to care for the ones we love.

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Charlotte and Sean are faced with a very difficult decision when presented with the option of suing for wrongful birth. How did you feel about the lawsuit? The matter is complicated in many aspects, but especially because of Charlotte’s close friendship with Piper, her ob-gyn. How might the O’Keefes have considered and entered into the lawsuit if they had not had a personal relationship with Piper? Would your own reaction to it have changed?

  2. During the filming of a day in Willow’s life, Charlotte purposely asks Willow’s physical therapist to try some exercises that she knows Willow isn’t ready for yet, and Willow begins to cry in pain. Charlotte rushes to her daughter’s side, blaming the physical therapist, and when she asks if they got that on film, Marin—Charlotte’s lawyer—is angry at Charlotte for exploiting her daughter. Do you agree with Marin that Charlotte exploits Willow? Charlotte believes she is doing everything out of love for Willow, to win the case that will get her the care she needs, but does this take it too far? Where can we draw the line?

  3. Breaking is a theme in Handle with Care: bones break, hearts break, friendships break, families break. Consider examples from the book and discuss why you think certain breaks can or cannot be mended. Is there anything in the book that represents the unbreakable?

  4. The author inserts recipes throughout the book that highlight certain baking techniques, such as tempering, blind baking, and weeping. How do these recipes provide further insight into the story and into Charlotte’s character in particular?

  5. Throughout the story, the question is raised of what it means to be a mother. For Charlotte, it means doing anything in her power to provide the best life for Willow, but at the same time, her other daughter’s suffering goes unnoticed as she develops bulimia