Bad Uncle Too

Then I had to wait the few seconds it took to work, which felt like hours. I called in my team as soon as the first man dropped.

Not even allowing myself to look at the children who were scattered all over the floor, their little bodies looking like dolls.

My team came in and I dropped down into the room as they dragged the terrorists out in cuffs before the rescue teams came in and took the children out.

I’d kept my word, no one was hurt, not a drop of blood, shed.

I remember walking back out into the sunshine once the last kid had been taken out of there. I remember the grin when someone called out to me.

I told her all of this now, all these many years later. “Dad said you came out of the building covered in dusts with your cocky grin in place. You wouldn’t let anyone congratulate you, you said it was a team effort.”

“You went to the place where they were tending to the kids and walked through until you’d seen every last one of them before leaving to go diffuse some other situation that had cropped up in some other dark corner of the world.”

“Months later you and your team raised enough money to build a school for those kids. It was because of that story and so many others that you became something bigger in my eyes.”

“I don’t think dad realized what he was doing when he’d tell me those stories. And then you’d come to the house and you were so handsome, so kind to me. That it just made the dream complete.”

“I think I was twelve the first time I told my parents that I was going to marry you. That’s about the time you stopped coming to the house, you’d moved here I think.”

I just looked down at her but she was still not looking at me. “I don’t think they took me seriously then. But each year whenever you’d call dad or he’d call you, the only question I’d asked was if you were married yet.”

“And each year dad would laugh and say no, that you’d never marry, and I’d remind him that I was going to be the one you married.”

“I lived in fear of you calling one day to say you’d fallen in love with someone else. I also knew about your reputation with women. And even though dad swore that you’d never settle down, somehow I knew that you would, and that it would be me.”

Now she looked at me and her eyes were full of tears again. “So why the tears?”

“Because I didn’t think of what you want. I built this thing up in my head since I was a little girl, but not once did I ever think that you might not want the same thing.”

25

“Look at me.” I turned her face towards mine. “You said you heard about my reputation with women. Do you know you’re the first woman I’ve ever shared my seed with?”

“I’ve never once been careless with a woman when it comes to sex. Never felt the need to share that part of me with another human being. You’re the first, the only.”

“I didn’t know that that’s why you came here. But trust me, if I didn’t want you too we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“So you fell in love with me because of your father’s stories.”

“Not only, I also fell in love with you the man. And each time we met it just got worst.”

“Dad was the hardest nut to crack, mom accepted easier because we talked about it a lot. I never let her forget. I think in the beginning she believed that it would pass.”

“But as time went by and I never changed my mind, she came to accept that I meant it. Wait here, I’ll show you something.”

I let her go to go to her room. She came back five minutes later with something hidden behind her back. She stood in front of me for the longest time not saying anything, just looking down at me as I looked back at her.

She held out her hand and I finally saw what it was she’d been hiding. It was the picture of me leaving that building that long ago day with a child in my arms. They’re right. That’s one hell of a cocky grin I’m wearing.

I studied that picture for a long time before looking back at her. “I carried that picture everywhere with me. Dad never knew until I was older, maybe sixteen. I think maybe that’s the reason he stopped inviting you over I’m not sure.”

“But for the next two years I worked on him. I refused to back down. Mom and I talked him into letting me come here for the summer under false pretenses. He was so afraid that I’d get hurt, that you would treat me just like the others. But in my heart I knew different.”