You can laugh, but scientists have taught spinach to send emails. I think of this when my mind drifts to a dark place, which happens more and more since Nicole left. I think about Nicole, then I think about spinach sending emails and living becomes a little less unbearable. It has something to do with the soil. And groundwater. And carbon nanotubes. Something to do with soil and groundwater and how the roots of the spinach plant can detect the presence of chemicals found in landmines and how carbon nanotubes in the leaves emit a signal which can be picked up by an infrared camera and emailed to a lab. Nicole. Nicole is beautiful. Beautiful and smart. High cheekbones and a PHD. She could explain it better. She could tell you all about how the scientists could adapt this to warn us about pollution and other environmental conditions. The soil knows things. The soil knows things before we know them. The soil probably knew about Nicole. Everybody knew about Nicole. Everyone but me.