The Fortune Cookies

"You will live in Antarctica"

"Meg, I have some news. They called me at work today with a better job offer, it pays way more than the one I have right now..." Jem said.

"That's great! When do you start?" I replied

"Well, there's just one catch."

"What?"

"Well, the job requires us, or me, to um... move."

"Oh, well, I'm pretty sure we could manage that. I mean, the kids may not be the happiest at first, but they'll eventually get over it."

"There is still one problem, it kind of requires me to move to Antarctica....."

"That's funny! I mean, you have to be kidding me!"

"I wish that I was."

"Antarctica! Why?"

"They believe that their may be a new species of penguin that has been spotted, and they want me to station there and observe them. They also want you to come and assist me with my research. They said that they would ship supplies every week for us and the kids, unless we wanted the kids to stay here."

"Okay, that's a little too far. The kids stay here, in the U.S. and we just leave and go to Antarctica. That sounds like great parenting."

"I never said that I agreed or anything. I was just telling you exactly what they said."

"Well, we will have to have a long discussion about this with our parents and the kids."

"That's fine with me, they aren't in any hurry to ship us off."

A year later...

"You would think that living in way under freezing temperatures for about a year that we would be a little more used to this weather," I said.

"I know, I mean it's not as bad as the first month, but man it's cold," Jem replied.

"Well maybe in the 5 years that we will be here we'll get more used to it."

"Maybe."