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"Noah toldthe subject

Noah’s mother smiled "Oui I aes, and Luc is one of the most celebrated historians in Canada" She rubbed her husband’s ar research for a new book It’s very different"

Noah spooned a heaping pile of potatoes onto his plate "What’s it about?"

His father leaned back in his chair and swirled the wine around in his glass "A forgotten female scientist who had a peculiar obsession"

Noah’sto the kitchen to bring out more wine

"Go on," Noah said

"Bon," his father said, clasping his stubby hands together "Her name was Ophelia Coeur And she was obsessed ater"

Ophelia Coeur The na to remember where I knew her from

"She is the Marie Curie of Monitors The Mother Teresa of Monitors The Christopher Coluesticulated

"But what did she do?" Noah pressed

"Many, s She was the first person to study the effects of water on the dead"

I frowned I definitely didn’t know her name from that

"She started her career as the school nurse at St Clément, then moved to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1894 just after it was taken over by the Plebeians, where she rose to become the head nurse of the children’s ward"

"The Royal Victoria?" I repeated,to Noah’s "The children’s ward?"

"Oui She revolutionized the entire hospital"

I coughed, lance "Then what?" he asked

Noah’s father dunked a piece of bread into his sauce and stuffed it in hisand dedicated her life to science," he said, his words muffled as he chewed "She went to every body of water in North A victied in different kinds of water She was the first person to figure out that water has a ‘s"

Noah’s mother leaned over and wiped a speck of food from Luc’s chin He smiled at her and squeezed her hand

"She spentthe Great Lakes, with special attention to Lake Erie She claimed that the water in that lake muffled the dead even more than usual"

"Lake Erie?" I said

"Oui" Luc said, clearly confused by my interest "She was the first one to set foot on many of the islands in the lake Some of them were even named by her"

Little Sister Island That here Miss LaBarge had been found, dead

"But I believe her greatest contribution hen she identified all of the lakes that had briny properties, or properties that mimicked those of salt water That was, oh, in the early 1900s--"

"Where was she buried?" I deent my tone sounded

Noah’s parents didn’t seem to notice "Probably at sea, like everyone else," Noah’sbean

"Oh," I said A part of me expected the nameless headstone to be hers

"Actually, I wasn’t able to find any records of her death," Luc corrected "But back then, our record systeh some of her research papers have been preserved in the archives, we know very little about her background She was very private about her past She rarely made public appearances, and only published her scientific findings sporadically All we know about her past was that at some point in her childhood she was badly injured in a fire"

By then, both Noah and I had stopped eating

"It’s odd, non?" Noah’sknife

"How do you know about the fire?" I asked

"Because es?" I asked, a little too eagerly

Noah’s father seemed a little taken aback by my abrupt request, but then smiled "There’s a spark in you," he said, and winked "I like that After dinner, I’ll bring one out"

I felt Noah’s foot touch , hearty dinner One course and two bottles of wine later, Noah’s father was a little pink in the face, but otherwise just as lucid as when he had answered the door We finished the meal with a platter of soft, smelly cheeses, which Noah’sup the Ca His father s her