Sometimes, when the roads get a bit too bumpy, Bernice felt a tinge of wanting to vomit. She was just a child of five, listening to her mother’s every word. God was her spirit, and her life, therefore Bernice believed in the life above the Heavens, wishing one day that He would come down and embrace her family with love and care.
“Just another bump, dear. Hang on,” Polly, her mother, would glance at Bernice at the backseat. By now, Bernice had lied on the seat, her head resting on the cushion. Her red hair messy. Polly drove even more slowly at the upcoming bump, and the bump scratched the bottom of her car. “Damn…” Polly cursed under her breath.
Bernice decided to sit up, and opened the window, for some fresh air. Polly glanced at her beautiful daughter from the rear view mirror and continued driving.
“Mummy.”
“Yes, dear?” Polly waited through the silence.
“What’s Daddy like?” Bernice asked, looking at her mother. Polly’s grip on the sterring wheel tightened and then relaxed.
“What’s he like? Well, he’s tall, dark and handsome and…”
“But Mummy! That’s the exact sentence from any fairy tale storybook!” Bernice retorted in giggles, and her missing front teeth shown.
Polly couldn’t help it but laughed along and the vehicle jumped on another bump. “Because that’s what your father is. A fairytale.” Polly smiled, a hint of sadness in the curve of her lips.
Bernice had never seem to have meet her father since the day she was borned. It was always just her and her mother. Her father seemed to have started the faraway job right after Bernice was borned, and he had seldom come home to visit. He visits when Bernice was in school, or away for summer camp. It was always her mother who told her about her father’s visit, though less than annually. But for the past three years, he did not show up at all, which bothered Bernice. Polly was always there giving excuses to cure Bernice’s disappointment.
It was, Bernice’s wish, that made them both travel to meet the man in their family.
