"Don't rub your eyes." Emma hadn't thought to warn him about onions. "First, wash your hands again. Then you can either flush your eyes with cool water, or use a cool compress for a few seconds. Or you can let tears do what they're supposed to do and rinse the irritant out."

A lot of the science Emma had been most interested in had started from cooking. "There's something in onions that reacts with air, forms um... sulfon- sulfenic...some kind of sulfur-based acid. Makes your eyes tear up. It doesn't last long usually. Unless you go and rub your eyes when there's traces of onion on your hands.

"My grandmother taught me to cook, and how to cry less when chopping onions. But Sister Thérèse taught me to make gumbo. She was one of my teachers, and use to let me hang out," hide out, "in the kitchens when she was cooking."