Chapter 2

"Alon? Alon?" called Della outside her son's room. When he didn't answer, she went inside and found him still asleep, face down in a book. She gently pulled it out from under his head.
"Principles of Entomology, huh?" she said. She shook Alon gently.
"Time for shul, Alon."

"Mmmm!" Alon yawned and stretched. "Morning, Ima."
"Your father is nearly ready! Come on, get dressed. Go!"

"Okay, Mama." Alon sat up, and took his glasses off to rub at his eyes. Their was a deep indentation in his face where he had leaned against them in the book.

"I'll put your breakfast in a bowl."

"Thanks, Mama."


Della left Alon getting dressed, and went downstairs. Michael was eating breakfast and looking at a magazine. He nodded to Della, not wanting to talk with his mouth full. Della took a ladle of milk pudding from the slow cooker and set it on the table with a spoon for Alon.

Michael finished what he was eating. "We'll be a little late back today."
"Yes?" said Della, fixing her own breakfast.

"I have a meeting for the Children's Hospital charity. Shouldn't be more than an hour, but you know how these things can run on."
"Yes, I do."
"Do you want to come to shul, Della? It'd be nice to see you there."
"No, it's okay. I'm not in the mood. Besides, I have to read some more about this camp idea."

"Oh, I need to go back to work early this weekend."
"Why?"

"It's the project. We're at a critical stage. We're pretty sure the competition is spying on us, so the sooner we develop this, the better," said Michael.

"Surely they don't know what you're making?" asked Della.

"They don't know about the actual engines, they just know that something's going on! Plus, they won't find much, it's all in here!" Michael pointed to his head.

Della smiled.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you Alon's Hebrew class is cancelled tomorrow. Rabbi Aryeh is sick.""Nothing serious, I hope.""I don't think so. I'm sure they'll tell us today.""Let me know. And give him and his wife our best.""Of course."

"Hey, Alon!" said Della as her son entered the room, still looking tired. "Come on, breakfast is on the table, you have ten minutes before you have to go."
"Okay."


Alon ate hastily, while Michael clipped a kippah on to his head. It was a new one, with different chemical structures all over it. When he had finished, he ran upstairs to clean his teeth, and ran down again. He stood on the last step while his mother looked up and down at him.
"You've forgotten something, honey."
"What, Mama?"
"You think you can go to shul like that?"

Alon looked at himself. "Yes," he said, confidently.

His mother smiled. "Shoes, Alon?"

Alon laughed and ran to his room, returning shod. He and his father set out to walk to shul together.


This left Della home alone. She had nothing against shul, but she had been brought up in a much more secular household than Michael. She felt that attending was a bit hypocritical, and without a working knowledge of Hebrew, she could not understand much of the service. But she was keen for Alon to have the opportunity to embrace both the secular and religious, and make his own choices. She already expected he had more of a scientific bent; how could he not with his father an engineer and his mother a geneticist? She headed to the office to read some research papers she had just got.


"Hi, honey!" said Michael as he closed the front door after himself and Alon. "We're home!"

Alon ran straight up to his room to change. Della followed him.

"Alon?"

"Yes, Ima?" He sat down on his bed to give his mother his full attention.

"How would you like to do some work with Berkeley?"

"The university?"

"Yes."

"I'd like that a lot!"

"You get to do experiments, fieldwork, all kinds of things! For six whole weeks!"

"Really? Wow!"

"And you get to talk to lots of really great academics!"

"When can we go?" said Alon, excited.

"You'd go on you own, Alon."
"You wouldn't be going?"

"No, Alon. But there would be lots of other kids there!"
"Do I know them?"
"No," said Della. "But you'd be making friends in no time!"

"I don't know, Mama," said Alon, now looking sad.

Michael appeared in the doorway. "You'll have a great time, kid! I went to camp when I was about your age. I'm still friends with some of the people I met there!"

"Really, Aba?"

"Really. And these kids will all really be into science as well. You'll fit right in!"
"Do you think so?" asked Alon, with his wide smile returning.

"I do. Just think, one more week of school, and you could be on your way to camp!"

"Yay!" said Alon, jumping up to give his father a high five.

"Come on, kid, let's get some lunch." Michael took his son downstairs in a fireman's lift. Della smiled and followed.


Back at school on Monday, Alon took some books out of his locker. It was difficult for him to reach the top ones, so his was down on the floor. He threw the books into his backpack, and strapped it on. It was almost as large as him. He went to walk to his classroom.

"Hey, there goes the pipsqueak!" said an older boy. "Look! He's so little!" he laughed.

"How very observant of you!" said Alon, sardonically.

"Oh, that's a big word! You're cleverer than you look, pipsqueak!" he said.

"Better than looking cleverer than you are!" said Alon.

The boy frowned, and ripped off Alon's glasses, throwing them on the floor. The bell went and the boy left.

Alon fumbled around on the floor for his glasses. He eventually found them, but was now about ten minutes late. He sighed. It was difficult being in Junior High so young, but he took the bullying in his stride. He had his mother and father, and didn't really care what other people thought of him.


Alon finally turned up to class. He tiptoed around the edge and took his seat. His teacher smiled; she knew that he would not be late without good reason. Supawat Assavathorn, an older boy, leaned over to his desk and whispered. "Page 252!" she said. Alon took out his book and turned to the correct page. It was calculus; one of his favourite areas of mathematics. He leaned back in his chair and sighed, happily.


When he arrived home, he threw his bag down in the hall, and went to hug his mother as usual.

"Good day, Son?" she asked, hugging him back.

"Ima!" he said. "I really want to go to camp! I can study calculus all day and nobody will think I'm weird!"

Della thought to herself. She did not want him to go to camp just in order to be accepted; she wanted him to feel secure all the time. But she felt that tit would be good for him, and as long as he was on board, did not want to change his mind.

"Great, Alon! You'll have to start thinking about what to take with you."
Alon paused. "I'll write a list on my computer!" he said, and ran off upstairs.