Uncle Eddie

“Mommy I don’t wanna go!” Cameron is kicking the back of his Mom’s seat as she’s driving.

Esther looks over to the passenger seat and exchanges a glance with her husband, Cameron’s Dad. 

“I know, honey, but you’ll have fun with Uncle Eddie.”

“Eddie is no fun! He doesn’t play and he’s mean.”

“I think you’re being unfair to your Uncle. He loves to play, doesn’t he, Tom?” she says, turning to her husband for support. He glances back at her; Uncle Eddie doe snot like to play.

“Yeah, he’s---we played a lot growing up! He used to love playing Batman. He’s either make me Robin or the villain, depending on how he felt that way. Sometimes Grandma was the villain and we had to break into the kitchen and stela her candy.”

“But Uncle Eddie doesn’t allow candy in his house.

“That’s true, love, it makes him sick now.”

“Too much candy is bad for you,” his Dad finally chimes in.

“You’re lying!” Cameron kicks the seat again. 

“Cameron! You can’t kick your Mommy like that!” Dad turns back, scolding his son. 

The rest of the car ride is quiet. Tom reaches out and puts his hand on top of his wife’s. She sighs but looks over at him a few moments later and smiles. 

When they pull into Eddie’s driveway, he turns back in his seat one more time and talks to his son.

“Cameron, you’re a big boy now, right? It’s very important that you do this to help out your Mom  and I so we can go take care of Nanna ok? You gotta be nice to Uncle Eddie and help him around the house. Can you show me that you’re a big boy and do this for us?”

Cameron nods vigorously.

As they exit the car, Eddie comes out waving at them and offers to take Cameron’s bag.

“I can carry it myself!” Cameron jumps up.

“We’re trying to teach him to only pack what he can carry,” Dad says.

“That’s smart, look at you bro, such a good parent,” Eddie offers him a fist bump. 

“Alright, ready young man?” he then asks Cameron, who nods. “Let me show you your room.”

“Wow, I get my own room?” he asks, excited.

“You bet.”

They walk off into the house.

The parents are left together at the front lawn for a moment.

“Think it’s gonna be okay?” Esther anxiously asks her husband.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. You know out boy likes to be dramatic. Eddie loves him. And what else can we do at this point? We can’t bring him with us.”

“I know,” she responds. 

He hugs her tight. 

“It’s just the weekend,” he says. 

“Mommy, mommy, my room is so cool!” Cameron comes running out of the house. “There’s even a TV in there!”

“Oh wow, that’s so cool, buddy!” Mom says, happy Cameron has come around. 

“Really, Eddie?” Tom shoots his brother a glance.

“My house, my rules,” Eddie shrugs. “You think I was gonna rebuild the guest room for this?”

“Don’t worry, though, I figured out the parental lock. You guys wanna come in for a bit?”

“We shouldn’t, it’s a long drive…” Esther trails off.

“Oh come on, I’ll make you a cup of coffee for the road.”

“Ah, let’s do it,” Tom agrees.

As Eddie’s putting the coffee on, the family hang out in the living room. 

“Wow, this is really nice, Tom,” Esther says, “you’ve done a lot of work on this place since we were last here!”

“Well you don’t come very often, but I suppose I have–thank you!” he shouts from the kitchen.

****

“Look at this!” Tom yells out, looking at a vitrine full of comic books. He reaches to open the glass door.

“Please don’t touch those!” Eddie says as he enters the room with a pot of coffee and some mugs in his hand.

“Sorry, brother, they’re very old and very valuable.”

“Oh, okay, didn’t know you were a collector.”

“Come on, you know I always loved Batman. In fact some of these are from when we were kids, check the second shelf from the bottom.” 

He starts pouring the coffee while Tom looks through the glass case. 

“How do you take it?” he asks Esther.

“Cream and no sugar, thanks.”

“Just black for me,” Tom says, still fascinated by this discovery of his brother’s collection. 

Meanwhile, Cameron has joined his father, who’s pointing out different issues and reminiscing about which storylines his brother made him re-enact with him when they were little.

“And for you, young man,” Uncle Eddie pops back in from the kitchen, “how about some Coke?”

“No, he really shouldn’t have soda!” Esther objects.

“Don’t worry, it’s Diet,” Eddie tries to appease her.

“It’s also the caffeine,” Esther adds.

“Ah, let him have the soda, once in a while won’t hurt,” Tom shrugs.

“My house, my rules. What do you say, Cameron?” Eddie asks.

Not surprisingly, Cameron jumps at the opportunity and goes for the Coke.

“What do you wanna do next?” Eddie asks as he and Cameron are waving goodbye to the parent’s car.

“Will you read me some of your comic books?” 

“No, buddy, I’m sorry. They gotta stay in the case. Lots of them are still sealed, too.”

“So why do you have them?”

“They’re valuable. It’s a great collection.”

“Kind of like hockey cards?”

“Yeah….you could say that.”

“But I play with my hockey cards!”

“Well, not with these ones, they’re different, okay?”

Seeing Cameron’s disappointed face, Eddie adds “but what do you say tomorrow we go into town and I’ll buy you a comic book. It will be yours to keep and you can decide if you to open & read it or start a collection.”

“Yay! That sounds good!”

“Okay then, it’s a deal! So what do you wanna do now?”

Cameron thinks for a second before deciding to watch TV in his room and the two go back inside.

Eddie is in the living room, watching his own TV, when Cameron runs in all excited. He’s holding a small FIFA office soccer ball replica, one of his prized possessions he won’t go anywhere without. 

“Uncle, Uncle, will you play with me?”

“No, that’s not for me,” Eddie laughs.

“Want to watch me do keep-ups? I’m really good! I wanna break my record–it’s 25!” Cameron throws the ball up and starts juggling it with his knees. “One, two, three…” counting out loud.

“Oh no, not inside!” Eddie shouts, but Cameron is still going.

“....four, five, six….” he continues, focused.

“I said, not in the house, dammit,” Eddie yells even louder and gets up from his chair to put an end to this abomitation. This startles Cameron, who looks over, causing him to change direction of his kick and also to give a stronger kick. 

Just lile that, the ball flies high off his foot–and straight into the vitrine of comic books, knocking it over! Glass shatters and flies everywhere! 

Eddie is on his feet, yelling and cursing. Eddie runs away.

“You little weasel, you think you can hide from me?!” Eddie screams after him but right now he can’t bring himself to do much of anything besides stare at the shambles on the ground.

A few minutes later–what feels like eternity to terrified Cameron–he can hear Eddie calling his parents on the phone. In no uncertain terms, he’s asking them to turn around and come get him immediately. 

“I don’t care how far you’ve gone! I am telling you your little brat is not allowed to stay in my house anymore! I will kick him out on the street before I let him stay the night here.”

He pauses for a second, listening.

“You bet I’m serious! I will so do that, just you watch.”

Another pause.

“I don’t care about any of that! That all sounds like a you problem! I’m telling you to come collect your spawn.”

Cameron is sobbing hearing this, and he cannot listen anymore. He grabs his bag and runs out the door. Eddie notices this.

“Oh shit, he’s just ran out the door!” he screams into the phone. “Gotta go!” 

He runs after Cameron. Except he can’t run too well, it’s more of a quick shuffle.

Out the door, he heads down the street but cannot see Cameron. He goes down a few blocks, yelling his name, but he is nowhere in sight. Defeated, he decides to call the police, but realizes he left his cellphone at home. He heads back, looking around and feeling miserable.

As he comes up on his house, there is Cameron! He’s sitting on the front steps, his face all red and snotty from crying. 

“I’m really sorry Uncle Eddie. I didn’t mean to do that. Please don’t make my parents come back, I promised my Dad I would be a big boy and stay here with you because Mommy and Daddy need to take care of Nana.”

“Well you didn’t do a very good job, did you?” 

“I’m so so so sorry, please give me another chance.”

With heavy sigh, Eddie looks at the boy.

“Ok, promise you’ll be very careful, will not play with a ball inside, and will LISTEN to me when I say not to do something?”

“I promise.” Cameron sticks out his pinky. 

Eddie holds up his pinky but keeps it high in the air, away from Cameron’s reach.

“And do you promise you will not wake me up in the morning, but will wait in your room until I’m up?”

“I do.”

“Alright,” Eddie completes the pinky promise. “What do you say, after I clean up the glass, which you are not to get near, by by the way! After that, do you want to help me sort out the comic books back into order? You have to be very careful with them, though, you’ve done enough damage as it is.”

“Yes Uncle, I promise!” the boy jumps up all excited.

“Well then, it’s settled–oh and you’re doing the dishes for the rest of the weekend!”