Berryllium

Chapter 1

"THIS TRIP WILL CHANGE YOU HALIMA ALEXANDER, I CAN FEEL IT," she said.

"But why Venezuela…I don't want to go there," I hold my head in one hand and stuff a heaping spoon full of oatmeal squares in my mouth with the other. Here mom goes again with another one of her crazy notions.

My yellow lab Nanu eagerly waits for pieces to drop.

"Halima, I never ask you to do anything! Come on, it'll be fun. I promise," Mom says, pleadingly. "Pleeaase?"

Ugh. It's so hard to say no to mom. She hardly asks for anything, so when she does-there's usually a good reason.

"Fiiiine," I let out a long sigh of defeat.

Mom slaps my butt triumphantly. "Woohoo! Angel Falls, here we come!"

"Ow!" I gasp, pouring the leftover milk into the sink.

My mother, Beryl Alexander had a difficult childhood. She was found as a baby on a farmer's doorstep somewhere on the east coast and put up for adoption. You'd think that a couple who couldn't have kids would spoil their adopted child rotten. Unfortunately, mom got the exact opposite-all she was to them was a poster child. She was used as something to show off to friends, only to make themselves look good to the community-nothing more.

That's probably why she moved out at seventeen, finished college in three years, then attended nursing school, and had Cayce and I at a young age. She always promised to give us the life she never had-and she has, wholeheartedly.

"So what's with these waterfalls?" I begin packing veggie tofu stir fry in my Nightmare Before Christmas lunch box. "Is there energy radiating from them or alien sightings?" I ask and hum theTwilight Zone tune.

"Very funny," Mom rolls her eyes. "I had a dream about Angel Falls."

Throughout the past fifteen years, mom's fascination with metaphysics has exponentially grown with age. Soon enough, understanding the world in every aspect, from the nature of existence, to the study of causality started to really catch my attention in high school because it's a subject that's usually avoided. Actually, I think it's forbidden in all public schools. Hmm…now why would that be? "You did?" I exclaim in excitement. "So did I!"

"Really?!" she clasps her hands together-hopeful that I'm inheriting her visionary gift. Mom has an acute sense of knowing what's going to happen in the future, through dreams mostly. I guess you can call it a super intense gut feeling or a freakishly strong form of a mother's intuition, but whatever it is-it works.

"Just kidding," I chuckle.

"Oh my god, you're such an evil little gremlin," Mom pushes me out of the kitchen and gives me a quick peck on the cheek. "Hurry up and go to class, you're going to be late."

Rummaging through my backpack I find my car keys and the lip balm that has been missing for weeks. Leila, our faithful pest controller, pounces toward me and rubs up against my jeans.

"Hello my little tiger," I say, taking both sides of her face and scratch behind her ears.

"Halima! Good morning!" a heavy New York accent says.

I look up and see Mr. Minkowsky loading his three sons into the car for school. Each one had a different Marvel super hero on their kippah-so cute.

"Mr. Minkowsky! Did you save me any latkes like you promised?"

"Of course! Come over anytime and my wife will make it for you, fresh!" he says with a big warm smile and climbs into the driver's seat.

The three little boys wave good-bye through the back windows, and I wave back as I watch the van disappear down the street.

Sometimes I envy those kids because they have such a cool father. When mom talks about dad it's heartbreaking. She claims he was the only man who understood her-so well in fact, that she believed he was able to read her mind. I think he was the only guy she has ever really loved, but immediately after I was born, he disappeared without a trace.

Cayce offered to help mom look for him once, but she said it was a dead end-evidently there are no records or documents showing that our father ever existed. As weird as it sounds, it's almost as if he was a figment of mom's imagination.

She said he treated her like a queen and loved Cayce wholeheartedly, doing everything in his power to keep them healthy, safe and happy…until I was born.

Mom never blamed me for dad's sudden disappearance, but any outsider looking in would find it strange for a perfectly happy couple to be broken up after the birth of their daughter. Literally-it was barely an hour after I took my first breath that my father ran away.

But rather than despising my father for leaving us, I've always given him the benefit of the doubt. There has to be a good reason why mom fell in love with him in the first place. Who knows? He might have been a secret agent for the government and the only way to protect us was to leave.

The idea isn't entirely farfetched because mom said all he could tell her about his occupation, was that he helps save and protect the lives that will positively affect the future. But his disappearance always made me wonder if we weren't worth protecting anymore.

I guess you can say my mom's best friend, who we call Uncle Benny, has been a true father figure. He's there for us no matter what, so maybe that's why I never had a complex about my biological dad leaving.

Regardless of the situation, watching mom work hard to take care of Cayce and I has taught us a lot. Laziness in our family of three is considered unacceptable and we're never allowed to say that we're bored. If we have time to be bored then we're not utilizing our time wisely.

I star t the car for school and sit in silence while the engine purs against the cold morning air. I bring my hand to my mouth for warmth to stop them from shaking. My eyes stare blankly at the garage door remembering the things mom just said about her dream.

Could it be the waterfall that I've been dreaming about since I was little? I look in my rear view mirror, my blue eyes stare back, and I laugh to myself. There's no way. I shift the car into reverse and head toward the freeway.