Uncle Charlie

"So I went to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner with all the relatives. There were about twenty people there, and we're all sitting around and eating shit before dinner, just snacks, big bowls of M&Ms and Cheetos and stuff, and my uncle comes in drinking a beer. Not my aunt's husband, the one who's house we were at, but her brother who's like my age, a little older. He's not married or anything. He doesn't even have a job. He lives with his mother who is like a hundred and uses her car and stays out all night. He tells everybody he takes care of her, but that's all horse shit. It's like the other way around. She's old, but she's still got all her marbles. But she's got a soft spot for Charlie, my uncle, 'cause he came late in life just before she would have gone through menopause which she should have probably gone through already when he was born. But she was happy as she could be, and she always spoiled him not like the way she treated the other kids yanking them around and yelling. That's what I heard, anyway, 'cause I wasn't there yet, of course.

"So Charlie comes over and starts talking with me and asks me if I want a beer, and I say sure, why not, so it's the two of us drinking and talking and he starts asking me what I've been doing since I don't see him but at Thanksgiving or Christmas or some relative's wedding or something, and I tell him nothing, and he gives me a sly sort of look like he knows that can't be right, and I laugh and put the beer can up in the air and take a big swig like I know I'm not telling the truth, too. Charlie ain't that bad looking, and he gets all kinds of girls, not just rednecks either, though he gets lots of them, too, but some with money you just wouldn't expect. So he starts telling me about what he's been doing, and I can tell he's kind of bragging which I don't find attractive at all, but there is something charming about the way he tells it sort of because he just sounds so goddamned naive, and suddenly I'm laughing and he's handing me another beer. My mother looks over when I take it and gives me that look like I'm not supposed to be doing that, so Charlie says let's go outside and get some air.

"We go into the back yard and sit on some lawn chairs and Charlie pulls out a joint and asks me if I want some, and I think no but I take a hit anyway 'cause the day is so fucking boring, and Charlie starts laughing and I say what and he says he never thought he'd be doing this with me 'cause he always thought I was such a prude, and that makes me laugh out loud. Why you think that, I say, and he just laughs and shakes his head and says I sure have grown up a lot 'cause he always thinks of me as a little girl, and I say you ain't so old yourself. Then the kids come out and Charlie puts away what's left of the joint and of course they want to know what we're doing and I tell them talking and they say what about and Charlie just starts laughing out loud and picks one of them up and starts swinging 'em around and around over his head until everybody's laughing and screaming and the kids are like a bunch of puppies running around and jumping up and down. Then my aunt comes out and says what's going on and I ask her how long until we eat and she says about an hour and I ask her if she wants me to do anything hoping she'll say no because I'm feeling a little fucked up, and she says no, so Charlie says lets watch t.v. or something and I say I'd rather look at the old photo albums my aunt keeps upstairs and he says OK and grabs another beer as we pass through the kitchen. My mom yells where're you going, and I tell her upstairs to look at the photo albums and she says you better not be drinking more beer we're gonna eat soon and I just give her a look.

"Upstairs I pull out one of the big albums and start flipping through the pages and Charlie's looking over my shoulder and I'm pointing at some of the old relatives when they were young, some of them dead now, and I say it sure looks like fun then, but Charlie doesn't want to live then. He likes living now, he says, it's good times. I keep turning the pages and then I see a photo of my mother when she was my age and she has a good figure and looks all sexy in a pretty dress that shows off her small waist and good tits and I say look at mom and Charlie says she doesn't look like that any more sounding like that's too bad and the way he's leaning I can feel a little bit of his breath on my neck, nothing really, just a tickle, and I move a little. You look like that now, Charlie says, you better watch it and not get fat the way all the women in our family do and I turn around a little and say I'm not getting fat and he pinches my middle a little feeling for a roll so I straighten up to make sure he doesn't get hold of much and he says well, you ain't fat yet and I pull my shirt up to show my belly. You'd just better watch out yourself, I say, but Charlie's skinny and so he laughs and says he won't get fat, running keeps him thin. Of course, he wasn't talking about jogging. And then its quiet and I listen downstairs and hear the t.v. and the talking and its just quiet in the room and Charlie's looking at me like he's kind of bored with the pictures and I hear myself say whatever and he's just looking at me and I'm trying to stare back but I can feel the blood rising up in me and my head's spinning maybe from the beer and the pot but maybe something else, too. I don't know. Then all of a sudden, I hear my mother yell out from the bottom of the stairs to come help her set the table, that dinner's almost ready. Then she yells my name again, so I say, OK, I'm coming, but Charlie just keeps on staring. So I shake my head and roll my eyes and start to get up but I'm unbalanced somehow and I fall over on my butt and I start to laugh, but Charlie isn't laughing and he comes over to help me up. Then I'm up and we're just standing there like something not right, so I look at him and say thanks Uncle Charlie letting him know. And then Charlie laughs like everything's a joke and he's just standing there smiling, too."