The Adventures of a University Student Involving a Crossword Puzzle, Pineapples, and Love
an excerpt

Chapter Twenty-Six
One Year and Two Months Later
August 19th

[...]

On this particular Tuesday, Margaret was bored. She had only two classes over the summer semester, and neither gave very much homework. There was absolutely nothing decent on television at this time of day. Her mother and uncle were on a last minute vacation to Edinburgh, Scotland; Marguerite was engulfed in too much work; Jenny and Eamon both had classes; and Pirro was in Atlanta because his father had suffered a heart attack two days ago, right after the Miami Dolphins (the Miami Dolphins) beat the Atlanta Falcons in the preseason.

The only companion Margaret had was Imelda, whom she was cat-sitting while Pirro was away. Imelda was adorable and much fun, but the two had played all morning and neither wanted to continue that practice. Thusly, Margaret found herself at her desk, the cat curled in her lap, surfing Wikipedia — that is, she clicked on an interesting link on the Main Page, read the article and followed another interesting link, and repeated. She had started with a report on Canada’s current prime minister and had so far found her way to salmonella.

Just as Margaret clicked on the blue link to find out what exactly “Rappaport Vassiliadis soya peptone broth” meant, an instant messaging box popped up in the upper left-hand corner of her screen. A greeting from Pirro was at the top of the white box in small black letters. Aren’t you supposed to be too distraught to talk to anyone right now? she typed back.

You're not just anyone, he responded. And I'd rather not think about my father at the moment.

Margaret raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t send the emoticon that would do it for her. Instead, she wrote, Well, I’m chalk full of interesting facts right now. I’ve been Wikipedia-surfing for the past hour and a half. Did you know that “Rappaport Vassiliadis soya peptone broth is used as an enrichment growth medium for the isolation of Salmonella and Shigella species"?

She waited a few moments for his response, which was, No, I did not. I do wonder how it got that mouthful of a name, though.

Margaret skimmed the short article. It doesn't say. But it has a pH of approximately 5.2.

Your cat is warm, by the way.