Another day arrived. After checking in on two sweet, lonely seniors, it was already noon.
Just as Mary was getting ready to clock out, her mind drifted back to the cranky old man she'd met yesterday.
"I wonder if that guy is in a better mood today..." As far as Mary knew, the old man didn't have a single friend.
She thought to herself, Aside from me, I doubt anyone else is going to visit him.
Maybe it was the sense of accomplishment she got from helping people, or maybe just an overflow of compassion, but after a moment's hesitation, she turned around and headed toward the old man's house.
"Hello? You home?" Mary called out a few times from the porch, but there was no answer.
Thinking he might have mobility issues, or perhaps was just hard of hearing, Mary practicedly pushed the door open and walked in. The room looked exactly as she had left it after cleaning yesterday.
By the windowsill, the old man was sitting with his medals clasped to his chest, eyes closed, looking like he was just soaking up the sun.
"What an odd man, not even answering when someone's here," Mary muttered under her breath as she approached the window.
bathed in the sunlight, the old man's face looked surprisingly peaceful with his eyes closed.
When he's not talking, he's actually not that annoying... Mary thought. Then she noticed that his clothes looked very thin.
It was already late November. Even though the sun was out, it wasn't exactly warm.
Afraid he might catch a cold, Mary found a blanket in the room, intending to cover him up.
But as she went to tuck the blanket around him, she accidentally brushed against the old man's hand. It was ice cold.
A bad feeling washed over Mary. She gently nudged his arm, only to find his body was already stiff.
"This..." Mary couldn't believe it. He was fine yesterday, and today he was gone.
Her mind went blank. She checked for breath under his nose just to be sure.
Confirming that he had indeed passed away, Mary immediately called the church for help.
---
Not long after, Pastor Jeff arrived at the house with a few church staff members.
"Are you okay?" Pastor Jeff asked with concern, approaching a clearly shaken Mary.
"I-I'm fine..." Mary shook her head slightly. When she spoke, her voice was raspy.
Having witnessed the end of a life firsthand, she certainly didn't look "fine."
"He was in his eighties. Returning to the Lord's embrace isn't necessarily a bad thing..." Pastor Jeff offered a few words of comfort, then added, "Why don't you rest for a bit? I'll handle things from here."
...
Half an hour later, watching the old man being wheeled out covered in a white sheet, Mary still found it hard to accept that a life was just gone.
Especially since she had just interacted with him yesterday.
"He went peacefully..." Pastor Jeff walked up to Mary again. "You did a great job here."
"Actually, I didn't do anything..." Now that her head was clearing, Mary felt a twinge of guilt remembering that her attitude toward the old man yesterday hadn't been the best.
"Don't be modest. I can tell. You did better than any of the previous caseworkers," Pastor Jeff said, acknowledging her work based on the clean room and the fact that the old man had been groomed.
Seeing that she was still down, Pastor Jeff continued, "I'm giving you a few days off. Go home and get some rest. I'll find someone else for the caseworker job."
"No, I'm good," Mary snapped back to reality, speaking seriously. "I want to keep doing this job."
Thinking that she might be able to help more people, Mary turned down Pastor Jeff's offer.
In that moment, she seemed to have found a sense of purpose.
Over the next few days, the rest of the Cooper family noticed the change in Mary's spirits.
This change brought the atmosphere in the Cooper household back to its old harmonious, warm state.
---
By early December, another weekend had rolled around.
At the university, Professor Sturgis and Dr. Linkletter's research project had finally been approved.
Mike, Paige, and young Sheldon were all invited to join the project as assistants.
The assistant work was pretty basic—fetching coffee, organizing files, and other grunt work.
Honestly, anyone could do this stuff; it wasn't difficult, just boring.
Of course, as special invitees, Mike and the others had some privileges. In their downtime between tasks, they were free to look through the internal research materials.
And so, two weekends passed, and the first phase of Professor Sturgis's project was coming to an end.
On this particular day, Professor Sturgis and Dr. Linkletter called Mike and the other two over.
"You're all geniuses. Now, Dr. Linkletter and I want to see what you've learned during this time. If we're satisfied, there's a surprise waiting for you," Professor Sturgis said with a smile.
Clearly, this was a test. If their performance satisfied the professors, it was very likely they would be promoted from assistants to actual researchers for the second phase of the project.
As assistants, they had the right to listen, but not to advise.
If they became researchers, they would actually have a voice in the project.
For anyone who loved specialized research, this was a major draw.
"Alright, we'll use this problem as a case study. You may begin," Professor Sturgis said after writing a physics calculation on the small blackboard.
The goal of this project was to derive a new analytical physics formula.
This new formula would, under specific circumstances, simplify many calculation processes.
Mike, Paige, and Sheldon, having followed the research topic all along, understood the intent of the test. They immediately looked down and started working on their scratch paper.
On Mike's side, with an IQ over 180, his logical thinking skills had been massively boosted.
Understanding the derivation of the new formula, the difficult problem on the blackboard didn't pose much of a challenge to him.
After a brief moment of thought, his pen started flying across the paper.
Just as he was feeling confident and about to reach the answer, Paige had already stopped writing and raised her hand.
"Excellent, Paige. That took you less than five minutes," Professor Sturgis said with a smile as he took her answer sheet. "Let me see your steps..."
That's right—the test wasn't about the final answer to the problem on the board, but the derivation process itself.
Professor Sturgis looked over Paige's paper seriously for a moment, nodded in satisfaction, and then handed it to Dr. Linkletter.
"Paige, you pass." After looking over Paige's steps, Dr. Linkletter smiled. "Welcome to the team, officially."
Truth be told, after their interactions over this period, Dr. Linkletter had developed a very good impression of this clever little girl.
"Thanks~" Paige smiled, playing it cool without acting too excited.