The Heart Of Ace

Chapter 13

"Mama."

"Yes, hon."

I kissed her cheek. She chuckled.

"Did he hurt you?"

I froze, panicking. "Who?"

"Tim."

The relief was instantaneous.

Mom searched my eyes.

"No. I was not that into it."

She nodded. "I felt so. You were not smiling. When you are with someone you love, you would be smiling all the time."

I could tell she was thinking about dad.

I smiled. "Did you smile so often with dad?"

It was my favourite bed time story though it was nowhere close to bed time. We were getting ready for the party but to listen to her talking about dad with so much love and adoration, I could pretend to be sleepy.

I laid my head on her chest. She smelled of my dad and my childhood. I wanted to go back to the time I was always happy and carefree.

"All the time. He would move heaven and earth to make me smile." She smiled seeing my dad in front of her eyes. I wished I could see him too.

"Did you know how we met?"

Of course I did but she started again.

Mom had a boyfriend before dad. A real jerk. They were all in the same college. Mom was not really comfortable around this guy. She went along with it though, being the perfect girl everyone wanted her to be; especially her parents.

At that time mom did not even care that my dad existed even though he was the star football player. Dad noticed her but everybody knew she was in a relationship. Mom was that one beautfiul girl evey boys knew not to mess with even for fun.

How they fell in love was an act of destiny with a heavy dose of help from Dad's enemy.

Dad was a thick headed jock. He made fun of anything and everything not thinking about the consequences.

Well he made fun of wrong guy.

Ferdinand Jefferson. Yup, the film director.

He was in drama; dad was in football. Complete opposites.

One time the joking went too far and dad told Uncle Fred that 'all people in drama are faggy fairy bitches' even though he had no idea Uncle Fred, indeed, was gay.

Long story short, with lot of bruises and hospital visits, Dean asked dad to be 'King Arthur' of the drama and Uncle Fred to be the quarterback of the season. He wanted both of them together all the time.

During the drama competition, Mom's boyfriend tried to be handsy with her. Mom wanted to wait till marriage and he did not like how he was turned down in front of his friends. Mom ran towards the drama stage because that was the only place with lights.

Dad in his shiny tin armour jumped from the stage and smacked the guy with his shield and Uncle Fred swiped mom away from all the commotion.

Mom became friends with Uncle Fred and dad became infatuated with her to a point of obsession.

So, as any enemy would do, Uncle Fred rubbed his new found friendship with my mom right on his face. Mom was the first person to know about Uncle Fred's sexuality and the first person to tell him that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him.

When mom heard about their fight and the reason behind it, she was furious. Dad tried real hard but mom was not budging.

I exactly did not know how it went down but mom accidently spilled to dad that Uncle Fred was gay. Dad actually had no idea. All this time he was calling him names to get a rise from him. Mom was furious that dad made Uncle Fred miserable about something that was normal and natural. She said he belonged with people who made fun of girls for being a girl.

To her surprise, dad apologized to Uncle Fred. In front of Dean, he accepted how he was the one always provoking Uncle Fred. Dad got suspension for inappropriate conduct but he scored a goal with mom. Uncle Fred was floored when dad said he knew about his sexual orientation and it was not something he should be ashamed of, let alone hiding.

Dad was miserable. He finally stopped his pursuit of getting my mom's attention.

Let us just say, all Uncle Fred wanted from life was approval. He turned his own life around when he got two people who did not change the way they treated him because of him being gay.

Mom was still loving and dad was still an asshole.

Uncle Fred literally pushed mom towards dad. He made mom realize that the hot-headed-good-for-nothing jock really loved her.

Dad and Uncle Fred went from enemies who were assholes to each other to best friends who were assholes to each other, then and there.

Life was perfect.

I missed Uncle Fred.

"Mama, I am gonna call him."