The Fourteenth Goldfish

Ben arrives for a date with Lissa. They’ll drop Ellie and Melvin at the movies. Ben has already asked Lissa twice to marry him, but she’s afraid she’ll make another mistake. Melvin appears, clad in a tie as always, and stares icily at Ben. Lissa comes downstairs dressed beautifully, but Melvin chides her for showing too much skin.

At the movies, Melvin eats “popcorn, a box of gummy bears, nachos, a root beer, and a milkshake” (74), plus a box of Raisinets. He says they’re not as good as they used to be, “like a lot of things” (75). Outside, an elderly couple moves past, one hunched over in a wheelchair. Melvin gripes about how old age takes away health, and then friends start dying off. Ellie thinks about Brianna.

Melvin doesn’t show up as usual at the end of the school day. Ellie looks for him; she gets Raj to check all the boys’ bathrooms. She finds a note from him on her locker saying he’s in detention. Raj sits with her while she waits for detention to get out. He says Melvin reminds him of his grandfather. Raj wears an earring shaped as an ankh, the ancient Egyptian symbol for life. He says the Egyptian mummies contained only the heart, which they believed was the center of thought.

Detention empties out, along with Melvin. He got sent there for using the bathroom without a hall pass. The other kids seem to admire him: One says, “Fight the power, bro!” (83). He adds that his history instructor shouldn’t be teaching that subject because she’s only 22 and doesn’t yet know anything.

Lissa decides to make dinner. She spends hours in the kitchen, creates a huge mess, then presents Ellie and Melvin with a mushy something that she calls fried eggplant. Neither of them likes it. Lissa gives up, and they order Chinese.

The next day, Melvin makes dinner. He tells Ellie that cooking is chemistry and that science helps make it possible. He holds a cheese from the fridge and says that people can eat cheese without getting sick thanks to Louis Pasteur, who invented the pasteurization that heats milk and kills its bacteria.

Ellie says she likes to cook. Melvin says that’s obvious: “You take after me” (87). He finds his late wife’s recipe box where Lissa keeps it and selects the card for coq au vin, his favorite. He claims French food is the best.

They prepare the meal carefully; Ellie learns a lot. When Lissa gets home, the meal is ready. She takes a bit and smiles, saying it’s just as she remembers it.

Raj shows up at Ellie’s door. He’s there to meet Melvin, who told Raj about his rejuvenation. Raj didn’t believe it until he saw an online news article and photo from a few months back, when Melvin, newly transformed into a teen, won a local science fair contest. Melvin isn’t worried because he thinks no one will believe Raj.

Melvin has hired Raj to be his lab assistant. Ellie believes she is her grandfather’s lab aide, but Raj says his qualifications are simple “An older brother with a car” (93). Melvin wants to sneak into his lab while Raj distracts the guard; they’ll escape in the car driven by Raj’s brother, Ananda.

Melvin rummages through Lissa’s closet and finds black clothes to wear. Ellie joins them, and they ride in Ananda’s car to Melvin’s old lab in building 24. To defy video cameras, Melvin and Raj wear ski masks. They set out but return quickly with no result because Melvin’s key card has been canceled.

In the morning, Lissa can’t find her black leggings. Ellie says Grandpa has them; Lissa says, “I don’t even want to know” (96).

Melvin needs his computer and other stuff from his apartment. He and Ellie are ready early, but Lissa isn’t, so they don’t leave until after 10 o’clock.

Ellie has been looking up bacteria on the internet. As they drive, they pass a biotech firm with a sign that contains a picture of a bacterium. Ellie recognizes it as E coli and calls it out. Melvin compliments her.

They stop at Melvin’s old house, a beautiful Craftsman building with the lavender his wife planted still blooming. They continue to Melvin’s apartment, where the furniture, out of fashion since the 1970s, contains a thin layer of dust. Melvin collects his papers.

He asks Ellie to find a suitcase to put them in. She enters the main bedroom, where her grandmother’s dresser holds a vase of dried lavender, and Melvin’s dresser is crowded with pens, reading glasses, and other stuff. She finds the suitcase, then notices her grandmother’s slippers just under the bed, as if waiting to be worn again.

Low on clean clothes, Melvin wears Lissa’s hot-pink warm-up pants. At lunch, he complains about The Catcher in the Rye on the reading list. He says the main character, Holden Caulfield, should stop whining and get a job. Lissa loves that book, but Melvin thinks Ellie should stick to the classics. Ellie says it is a classic; Melvin retorts that Isaac Newton, who discovered the three laws of motion, would never have read it. One law is that things at rest stay at rest unless acted on. Ellie watches Brianna with her new friends and wonders if volleyball is a force that pushed them apart.

Raj visits them after school. Melvin asks him to find “underworld types” who can help them sneak into building 24. Ellie makes burritos, and she and Raj eat while brainstorming a break-in. Melvin stomps in and fumes that his lab email account has been closed. It contains his contact list, including the name of the diver who found the jellyfish. Melvin waves his copy of Catcher in the Rye and says the guy who probably did it is a “phony” like Holden Caulfield. Raj says, “That’s a really good book” (110).

Ben takes everyone out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that Ellie loves. As usual, Melvin dresses up. Ellie orders her favorite, a burrito; Melvin orders as much as everyone else combined. Ben asks how he likes middle school. Melvin says, “I find the curriculum rather lacking” (113). He burps; Lissa scolds him. He explains that bacteria in the digestive system release gas, which causes burps and farts. Ben says at least Melvin is learning things at school.

Melvin asks where Ben got his education. Ben says Harvard, followed by a PhD at MIT. Impressed, Melvin asks where he works. Ben says he’s at a Silicon Valley start-up that makes video games. Melvin calls that a complete waste of an education. He asks if Ben’s ever been married or has children; Ben says none so far. Melvin asks, “Just what are your intentions—” and Lissa, panicking, tries to cut him off. Melvin finishes, “—with that last taco?” (116)

Ellie and Lissa go grocery shopping. Their cart gets piled high because Melvin eats so much. Lissa complains, but Ellie declares that she likes having Melvin around. She says he even has a fan club in Finland. Lissa notices that Ellie seems to love science while she hated it. Melvin would drag her to the lab, where she washed test tubes. It was boring: “No emotions, no excitement, no drama!” (119).

Ellie says there’s plenty of drama: She lists Oppenheimer’s daring quest to build an atomic bomb and Salk’s struggle to find a vaccine for polio. Lissa says there’s no romance and asks who scientists are in love with. Ellie replies, “Possibility.”

Protest groups have tables outside the store. One group campaigns against nuclear weapons; it’s staffed by Ellie’s science teacher, Mr. Ham. A flyer shows a picture of a bombed-out city with a caption: “Hiroshima: the war begins.” Ellie says she thought the bombs ended the war. Mr. Ham says humanity is simply “waiting for the next bomb to drop. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle” (121-22).

Melvin, who thinks the trash cans should be set out at night, finally does so on his own. The next day, Lissa takes him outside, where the trash cans were opened, and the stinky garbage inside was strewn onto the street by raccoons. She tells him he and his online fan club can clean it up.

For Halloween, Ellie borrows from her mom’s school wardrobe to create a mad-scientist outfit. Lissa dresses as Little Bo Peep; Ben is in a sheep costume. They sit outside, waiting for trick-or-treaters. Melvin is dressed formally as usual, but Ellie convinces him to wear a neon-orange clip for his long hair.

Lissa drives Ellie and Melvin to a community dance for older kids. They meet Raj, who’s costumed as a preppy: hair dyed blond, polo shirt, and slacks, with a sweater tied over his shoulders. They go inside, and Melvin heads straight for the food table. Raj asks Ellie to dance; she’s nervous about dancing in public but says yes and surprises herself by having great fun at it. Something about the pounding beat and the heat of the dancers enthralls her; she feels herself riding on the current of the dance.

The music ends, and Ellie looks for her grandfather. He’s in a corner, slumped in a chair, fast asleep, “Like an old man” (130).

On her birthday, Ellie wakes to colorful balloons on the ceiling. Her father calls, and she even gets a card from Brianna, though it’s nothing like what Brianna did for her in years past. Raj gives her a present, a burrito from the Mexican restaurant. Melvin says birthdays used to be quieter, but today’s kids want a parade. Raj points out that Melvin is now part of that generation.

Thinking about how adults don’t care about birthdays as kids do, Ellie asks Melvin if he’ll have 77 candles on his birthday cake or just 14. Melvin says, “I don’t believe in birthdays” (134).

For her dinner, Ellie requests not the usual Mexican but French. Melvin is pleased. The meal is delicious—coq au vin, plus a large cheese plate—and then Lissa brings out the gifts from her and Ellie’s dad. Among the presents is a cellphone; Ellie, happy, says, “Finally!” Melvin gives her a fancy microscope; thick with emotion, she says, “This is the best present ever!” (136). Lissa feels mildly hurt.

The waiter produces a birthday cake. Everyone sings “Happy Birthday,” and Ellie blows out the candles. One refuses to go out; she blows on it three times before it gives up. That night, she dreams of candles burning forever.

Melvin takes pain pills because his bones are regrowing, and they hurt, especially his leg bones.

When she was a toddler, Ellie’s father would do carpentry to supplement his acting work. He shows up with his toolbox to fix the toilet. It includes the hammer whose handle Ellie once chewed on when she was teething.

Her dad fixes the toilet. Ellie says he should have been a plumber. He admits it would have paid better than acting. Melvin walks in; Ellie’s father offers to shake hands, but Melvin insists he wash his hands first. He chases them both out so he can use the facilities.

Ellie’s dad makes dinner, and they all eat on the back patio. Everyone chats amiably except Melvin, who sulks like a moody teen. He and her father never got along, so Lissa and Ellie keep Melvin’s identity a secret. Her dad says Melvin reminds him of someone, “One of those grumpy types” (142). Melvin gets up and goes inside. Lissa shrugs and says, “Teenagers.”

Ellie clears the dishes and finds Melvin drinking wine. She protests, but he says his legs are killing him. Her parents enter the kitchen, and Melvin leaves to use the bathroom. He keeps flushing the toilet, so they look for him and find him bent over the toilet, vomiting. He blames the wine.

Melvin gets grounded. After school, he runs up to Ellie and Raj and says his key card and email are canceled because the company has been sold and is moving to Malaysia.

At home, a pizza delivery boy rings the doorbell, but neither Ellie nor Melvin has ordered anything. The boy looks at his delivery slip, apologizes, and leaves. Ellie suddenly knows how to break into the lab.

The next day at lunch, Ellie, Melvin, and Raj discuss her plan. Raj will pretend to be a pizza delivery boy, get in, grab the jellyfish, and escape. They’ll do it Friday evening when Lissa stays late at school.

Friday evening, Raj appears, but his brother’s car is in the shop. He suggests they take the bus; Melvin says it will take too long. Ellie looks at her nearly-finished puzzle showing a city street. She notices the taxis.

They take a taxi to a pizza store, where Melvin pays a worker $100 for his pizza uniform. They continue to building 24. Raj dons the uniform and takes the pizzas inside. Many minutes pass; Raj reappears carrying a cooler. They taxi to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate. Raj orders jellyfish in honor of the heist; he says it tastes like rubber bands. He and Ellie make jokes about using jellyfish to organize things and as erasers, and soon they’re laughing too hard to eat. It’s even more fun than when she used to joke with Brianna.

Melvin wants to wear a bow tie to the Nobel ceremony. Ellie and Raj complain that they helped save the jellyfish and should get a prize, too. Melvin concedes but insists, “I’m getting primary authorship” (153). They order more tea, and Ellie leads them in a toast: “To the possible!” (154).