Truth Behind Lies
Chapter 4: Rudeness
Living over the shop… how original and not tacky. I was ready to barf after I saw the place my uncle called 'home'. Looked life a pig lived here. Smelled like it too. Oh wait… my uncle is a pig, my bad. I did my best not to look too disgusted as he gave me the tour. Maybe I could get a teem of fairies to clean up the place. Then he showed me the kitchen… okay… scratch a teem of fairies, try an army.
As he gave me the tour he multitasked and cleaned as he walked through the 'house'. If you can call throwing beer bottles at the trashcan cleaning. He gave me halfhearted directions as he moved around the house. If he acts like this when he's sober god help me when he's drunk.
Finally, he showed me my room. It was probably a storage room at some point. But for some off reason it seemed clean. And when I say clean I mean it wasn't filled with beer bottles. It was empty. Except for the cracked mirror on the wall and the hangers in the closet. The doors on the closet looked broken, "Wow, cleaner…"
"Yeah, I used to keep crap in here but we ran into a tight spot. We needed to sell everything in this room and even the T.V. I had. Don't worry about the T.V. I got a new one,"
"Where am I supposed to sleep? The floor?" I tried to hide the rudeness of the comment but failed as you can see.
He seemed slightly taken aback. But brownie points for him, he recovered quickly, "I have an extra couch out back. My friends will be over in an hour to help me move the good couch in here and the extra couch into the living room,"
"Okay then," I set my bags down, all 2 of them, and walked into the kitchen. I pushed all the crap off the table and sat down. My uncle followed me. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a beer. He leaned against the counter and took a long swig.
I felt bad for him. He was obviously not used to supporting anyone besides himself. From what my mom told me he's gone through some hard time. But I bet I can beet him. I've definatly been through worse.
I finally broke our silence with a , gasp, not rude comment, "Where am I going to school?"
"I'm gonna call the public school and talk to them about letting you in,"
"Ok," Well, I though it wasn't rude or sarcastic. You might feel otherwise. But I needed to know these details, "How far away is it?"
"About 6 blocks. Not far. You'll probably end up walking to school," I did my best not to grown. Well, on the bright side… there was no bus to miss.
He seemed unwilling, or unsure, to continue the necessary conversation. So I did it for him, "Don't worry about money. I can support myself. If I am not here when you want me to be, deal with it. It took my mom a while to get used to but she finally did. I don't think you'll have an issue with that. Do not bring any women home without warning me first. If you do you will regret it. I will not look after your shop for you. It is your shop not mine and I know you wouldn't pay me if I did 'help out'. If I do not answer a question just remember this phrase, 'You wouldn't believe me if I told you.'. Learn it, love it. If you have any issues with any of these rules here is my reply: Deal with it!"
Then I got up and left. Did that sound too rude to you?
Oh well, I know it did. But I don' have time for games. The thing that killed my parents is still out there.
۞
That really didn't go the way I expected. Jez had been silent the whole plane ride. So to fill the silence I did my best to tell her what to expect. I told her about the surf, the Z-boys, the local bars, and other useful tidbits. I don't know how much she listened to or if she listened at all.
I had always thought that Beth raised her kids to be good kids and fallow the rules. Jez's outburst when we got to my house proved me wrong. I had been caught so off guard that I just stood there and stared at her. What else was I gonna do? I'm the adult be she was the one laying down the rules.
As she left I thought over what she told me. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." What wouldn't I believe? I wasn't sure I wanted to know.