The Rockin' Rodents

Uncle Ed comes to visit

Ger listened to Jerry's stories as he pottered around the shop. Sometimes customers would come in and they'd stop while Ger attended them. Ger even swept the floor ( under protest!).

Finally, just as Jerry finished telling his tall tale, it was time to go. Johnny sent them a message on his phone telling them to meet at the love shack at half seven for rehearsals.

Ger and Jerry went home first. Ger wanted to eat, shower, and check on his mum first.

When they got to Ger's house, Ger saw his Uncle Ed's car parked in the drive.

"My Uncle Ed's here," he said to Jerry Lee Mouse.

"You've got an uncle Edward too. What a surprise," said the mouse.

"Behave yourself!" said Ger. He didn't want either his Uncle or his mother to suspect that anything was out of the ordinary.

His uncle would often pop in for a visit unannounced and unexpected from time to time, but that was when his dad still lived with him. Ger wondered why he was here and what it had to do with his father.

Ger went in the front door and could hear his uncle and mother talking in the kitchen and went to see them.

Although they were both musicians, the two brothers couldn't have been more different from each other. While his dad was a live wire, always looking for adventure, always with his mind on the open road his uncle Ed was stable. He taught history at a school in one of the bigger towns nearby.

"Hi, Ger!" His uncle stood up from the table, rattling half-drunk teacups on saucers and scattering cigarette ash from the ashtray like gray snowflakes and shook him by the hand.

"How's the man of the house? Are ya looking after yer mother?" his uncle asked warmly.

"Yeah, fine thanks, Uncle Ed" replied.

"Yer ma tells me you've been holdin' up well," said his uncle. The sentence ended at a wall of uncomfortable silence. Ger, his uncle, and his Ma looked at each other and then everywhere else. Ger wanted to say something but didn't know what.

"Are ye still playing your guitar?" finally his uncle broke the silence.

"Yeah, actually I've got a rehearsal with the band, I'd better go," Ger responded, grateful for the excuse to be somewhere else.

"And yer tea, Ger? Aren't ye hungry?" his mother asked her voice full of concern.

"No, thanks ma, I was snacking at the shop, I'm not hungry," he lied.

"Well, you're uncle's going to be staying for a while, to help with the shop," his ma said, nodding at each other in that conspiratorial way adults had when they had planned something.

"Great! Well I'll be off now!" said Ger, desperate to leave before they brought up his father.

"Eh, careful kid, they can't see or hear me remember?" said Jerry Lee Mouse.

"Eh, I meant to say I'll be off. I'll see you both later. That's great news Uncle Ed," Ger said nervously as his Uncle and Ma swapped worried expressions.

As he rushed back out of the kitchen, and up through the hall, his uncle sprinted up behind him and stopped him just as he was about to go out the door.

"Ger, I just wanted to say, I know things have been bad with your father and all."

Ger could see the torment on his uncle's bearded face as he searched through his feelings of loyalty to his brother on the one hand and trying to recognize the problems his nephew and sister-in-law were going through at the moment.

"Just remember that you're father's sick. He's an alcoholic. The drink makes him say things and do things he shouldn't, but try to remember that he loves you and you're mother and that none of this is your fault." Uncle Ed finally got what he wanted to say out in the open.

Ger could feel his face becoming flush, his throat drying up as he fought the tears threatening to break past their ducts, like a river over a levee in a flood.

"OK." was all he could manage as he ran out the door. Once in the cold freshh air, he let the tears roll down his face.