Page 52 of Hold the Pickle
“Okay. Talk to you then.” She pushes end call with a hard jab.
When the line is clearly disconnected, we both start talking at once.
“Whoa! That Uncle Sherman!”
“My uncle is something!”
We both laugh.
I push her pie toward her. “You earned this.”
“I did.” She picks up her fork and stabs a loose slice of apple. “Looks like I have a reprieve.”
“You negotiated like a boss. You didn’t back down for a minute.”
She grins at me. “I did. Whew! I’ve been dreading that conversation.”
“Who is Court?”
“My brother. He has not enjoyed the Pickle world.”
“I see. And you’re worried it will happen to you?”
“Not likely, but I’m taking my time making my decisions. Thanks for being a silent cheerleader.” She reaches out and squeezes my wrist.
Her cool hand on me is like a jolt of electricity. I give myself a second to absorb it before saying, “Any time.”
We resume our pie.
When I think this evening can’t get more surprising, she says, “Did you feel that weird jolt when I grabbed your arm?”
Oh. She felt it, too.
I set down my fork. “Yeah.”
“It wasn’t static electricity.”
I shake my head. Where is this going? “No, that is different.”
“What is that, like, physiologically? Do you know?”
Okay, that’s an unexpected direction. “It’s a powerful combination of two neurotransmitters, dopamine and oxytocin. Both are very fast acting. Lots of people describe it as a shock or jolt.”
“Is it normal for both people to feel it?”
“That’s more the realm of psychology than what I study,” I say. “But I know that one person’s amygdala can definitely affect another’s.”
“Amygdala?”
“It’s a tiny part of your brain that controls emotions. So if one person’s amygdala goes haywire, like if they get explosively mad, say, after someone breaks something, then it’s far more likely the other people around them will also get their amygdalas activated.”
“What if that person stays calm?”
“Then yes, their calm amygdala will influence the others. You see it a lot in children. If you get upset when they fall, they cry.But if you play it off, so do they. They can mimic the calmness in their parents because their fight or flight didn’t get activated.”
“And it works for this electricity thing?”
“That’s a bit more complicated. If I was not attracted, let’s say I’m married and happy, and a cute girl touches my arm, it’s less likely that I will feel the same spark she does.”
