“July, sweetheart. Definitely July.”
For weeks, Mia told everyone: “We’re closest to the sun in January! The cold is a trick.” Her teacher gave her a gold star. Leo got a coffee mug from Mia that read: Ask me about perihelion.
“Because of the tilt,” Leo said, finding a diagram. “In January, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. Sunlight hits at a low angle, spread out, weak. July is hot because we’re tilted toward it—even though we’re farther away. Distance doesn’t win. Angle does.”
And every January, when people shivered and complained about the frigid depths of winter, Leo and Mia would look up at the pale sun—larger, technically, than any summer sun—and whisper to each other: