The Secrets my Mother Kept

Three days had passed since Alexander's father missed his birthday. Three days of careful conversations and avoided glances. Three days of Sydney sleeping in the guest room instead of going back to her apartment, though no one talked about why. Three days of Gran cooking elaborate breakfasts that no one ate and Grandpa Marcus taking longer and longer fishing trips.

Three days of rain.

Alexander sat at his desk, watching water trails race down his bedroom window. He'd gotten better at making them move the way he wanted, though he still couldn't explain how he did it. It was like flexing a muscle he hadn't known he had. The droplets followed his attention now, merging and splitting at his will.

He hadn't told anyone. Not about the water, and not about what else he'd found in Mom's notebook after reading it again that night. Alexander decided that there was enough there and enough not there to get him questioning, diagrams that looked like DNA helixes but weren't quite right, strange symbols that could have been a language he just didn't know, The calculations about pressure at depths no human should be able to reach.. The word "inheritance" written and underlined three times on the last page… all things that had him wondering about his mother and really questioning his father. 

The rain pattered steadily as Alexander stood from his desk. He knew there had to be more - Mom had never kept just one notebook for anything. Her piano compositions had filled dozens, her research even more. And after what he'd found in this one...

The attic stairs creaked under his feet despite his careful steps. Nobody had come up here since his birthday, but the air felt different now. Charged, somehow. Like the moment before lightning strikes.

He made his way to the corner where he'd found the first notebook, past boxes labeled "Airi - Music" and "Airi - University." The cardboard was soft with age and humidity. As he reached for another box, a drop of water fell from somewhere above, landing on his hand. He watched it roll across his palm, following the lines there like it was reading them.

The water droplet pooled in the center of his palm, perfectly still despite the slant of his hand. Another drop fell, then another, each one gathering with the first instead of falling away. Alexander held his breath, watching as they formed a small, precise circle of water.

Just like the doodle on page seventeen of Mom's notebook."Inca..." Alexander said softly. The water glistened brightly for a moment and then became clear. 

"Alexander!" Grandma Brittney's voice broke his concentration.  His hand dropped slightly. Alexander blinked, and as quickly as the sphere showed itself the diagram disappeared. Carefully, but faster now, Alexander grabbed what he could and pulled out another notebook, this one bound in dark blue leather

Alexander clutched the leather-bound notebook to his chest as his grandmother's footsteps creaked on the stairs. He flipped it open, intending to quickly hide it with the others, but a loose page slipped out - different paper, newer. His father's handwriting, not his mother's.

"My dearest Alexander," it began. 

"Alexander? Are you up here?" Grandma Brittney's voice rang through the closed door. Alexander felt his heart beat through his chest as the nob on the door shook a little before opening. In that moment, Alex stuck the page back in the leather notebook and stuck the book in the waist of his jeans as Grandma Brittney emerged. 

"Yes, you are. What are you doing up here?" Grandma Brittney asked.  

"Nothing, just playing" Alexander spoke, his voice shaky and spooked. He pulled on his shirt, the leather bound journal became hidden under his shirt. 

"Well, lunch is ready" Grandma Brittney spoke again. "Come down and eat."  

Alexander closed his bedroom door and leaned against it, heart still racing. He pulled the leather notebook from his waistband with trembling fingers. His father's letter - he had to know what it said.

"Alexander!" Grandma Brittney's voice carried up the stairs. "Don't make me call you again!"

"Just a minute!" he shouted back, already opening the notebook. But as he flipped through the pages searching for the loose letter, something else caught his eye. A diagram, larger than the others, spread across two pages. It showed what looked like a person underwater, surrounded by those same strange symbols he'd seen before. But this time, some of them looked familiar - like the pattern the water droplets had made in his palm when he'd said "..Inca.."