“Let me give you a brief overview of what we do in this club. We meet three times a week here in the science lab to explore topics our club members are interested in, perform experiments, and write reports on what we’ve learned. Whenever possible, we also have a bigger experiment or field trip once a month. We might pick up stones by the river, sample the water quality, and so on. Our next trip will be to visit a local rock outcrop.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun!” Yue said.
Ms. Tanimoto smiled once more. To Yue, she looked like an angel. The boys stared at them, their faces saying, Oh great, there she goes again.
Yue was reminded of a visit to a relative’s house over New Year’s. Ms. Tanimoto and the two boys acted like siblings with a big age gap.
“…Can I ask why there aren’t any other girls in the club?” she said. “Was it always like this?”
“Hmm… I couldn’t tell you. I only started teaching here this year.”
“Nah, there’s never been any girls,” said Hiroto. “My big brother was a part of the club back when he was in junior high, and he said there were nada. He only joined the club to get time to work on his jokes, see. Girls just don’t like science, you know? There’s more guys than girls in STEM. It’s a boys’ subject.”
“Don’t say that in front of the student council unless you wanna get a knuckle sandwich,” Akira put in. “The prez is super into STEM. Says she’s trying to win the Math Olympiad.”
“I-I mean, she’s just the exception to the rule…”
“Are you sure? What about me?” asked Ms. Tanimoto. “I became a science teacher and everything.”
“Uh.”
Hiroto shot Akira a look, begging for backup. Ms. Tanimoto was still smiling, but it was clearly not the same smile from before. Suddenly, Yue remembered Ms. Tanimoto talking about gold—how it could be hammered and hammered but never break, only keep growing and growing under pressure.
The smile never left Ms. Tanimoto’s face as she said, “Every person has their own likes and dislikes. It takes time to figure those out, so in the meantime, lots of people look to what their friends are doing and choose similar subjects and hobbies. It makes it easier to fit in. However, when you do discover something you enjoy, you shouldn’t ignore what your heart tells you just because your friends don’t feel the same way about it. Science is just as fun of a subject as English or social studies. I mean it. I enjoyed it so much, I started teaching it.”
“…But there’s data that says there are fewer girls in the sciences than boys. Plus, all of the science and math teachers here are men. Except you, Ms. Tanimoto.”
“That’s true, but what difference does that make? Maybe that’s what the data says today, but we don’t know about tomorrow. Still…Hiroto is right. There aren’t so many girls interested in science.”
“…Does that mean it’s unnatural for girls to join the science club?” Yue asked.
“No, not at all. Not in the slightest,” Ms. Tanimoto declared emphatically. “Nature itself is a very, very big thing. Like I mentioned earlier, there are many elements we know are theoretically possible but have yet to discover. We’ve only uncovered a tiny fraction of the universe, and the rest is a void in which our species is adrift. Before we tell ourselves that something is natural or unnatural, we must remember that nature is too large for us to fully comprehend. It’s up to you to decide whether something is unnatural. All right?”
“So you’re telling Kawahara that it’s wrong to think the science club isn’t for girls?” Akira said.
“Yes, exactly. Thank you for summing it up.”
“Any time!”
When Yue still said nothing, Ms. Tanimoto gave her a smile that was a cross between concerned and self-conscious. “Well,” she amended, “I’m not a girl, per se. I’m a woman. But as a female teacher…I would feel better having a friend like you in the club.”
Yue whispered, “Thank you.”
She bowed her head. Goodness, but she was embarrassed. She didn’t know why she was on the verge of tears. Maybe it was better to keep her head down until the feeling went away.
Later, she was still so caught up in the excitement she agreed to walk home with Akira and Hiroto. They told her more about Ms. Tanimoto’s friend, the one who worked as a joo-lurr. Hiroto swore with a big grin on his face that he had caught them eating burgers together once. That was her boyfriend. Akira scoffed. Nuh-uh; Ms. Tanimoto said otherwise.
Well, boyfriend or no boyfriend, Yue was just happy to fit in as a “natural” part of the group.
When the time came for them to go their separate ways, her new friends waved goodbye and called “See ya later!” She waved back.
Once she was alone, she mulled over the name of that mysterious occupation. Joo-ler. It sounded like jewel, and she knew what jewels were. The problem was the -er part. How did someone -er a jewel? Besides, jewels were for girls. What was a man doing working with jewels? A man who was Ms. Tanimoto’s friend, a man who knew about Indian stepwells… She couldn’t begin to imagine what such a person could be like.
However, Yue’s imagination worked just fine in other areas. She could name plenty of things she knew very little about, like India—and Sri Lanka—not to mention the molecular structure of metals. She had never been to Tokyo, where Ms. Tanimoto said her parents lived.
Right…Osaka. Tokyo was like a bigger Osaka, according to Yue’s mom, but at least Osakans talked similarly to people in Yue’s neck of the woods. The unknown wasn’t the unimaginable. Yue enjoyed removing items from her collection of unknowns and adding them to her list of knowns over time. Regardless of what a jewel-er’s job turned out to be and whether this mystery man was actually Ms. Tanimoto’s boyfriend, Yue hoped she would get a chance to meet him someday.