Sanora

Uncle Ben

I remember when I was only little, we used to go to our nana's house every Christmas. I remember it so vividly, the bright flashing christmas light's along with bright red sweaters some with reindeers on them some with elves on them. Don't forget the strong smell of the pine needles from the trees and the lovely warmth of the fire that soaked deep into your bones. We still do that every year, but I especially remember one year.

...

The door burst open letting in a cold draft and small flakes of snow. Everyone looked over to the door as the infamous Uncle Ben walked in, bottle in hand. I remember Nana going up and giving him a stern talking to telling him, "how worried she was!" and that, "she raised him better".

Uncle waved her off and threw his bottle of booze in the bin and swayed over to me and sat next to me, 

"Heya! Hhhow you going, champ?" He slurred a wave of hot alcohol breath hitting me in the face.

I crinkled my nose, my blonde twin piggy-tails shifting as I recoiled, "just warming up by the fire..." I looked over at the pile of cinders, "or what was the fire...". 

"Ahhhh, sorry 'bout that kid, so how old are you again? 4?"

I lifted my head proudly, "I'm 5 actually! I'm in big kid school," I beamed. 

"Ben!", an old croaky voice yelled as my Poppy walked down the stairs, one boney hand clasping on to the rail, the other supporting a box tucked between his body and his elbow. "Here's a bunch of things you left behind when you moved out. You didn't come to last years christmas event and you never visit so it's a bit dusty".

"Thank ya, Daddio! Let see what goodies past me left behind". Uncle said his black hair shoulder length hair shifting over his face and he got up to take the box of Poppy. He plunked back down next to me and put the box down and began opening it as I grasped on to the couch, a small me still bouncing from the big man sitting down.

Uncle opened the lid of the what seemed to be ancient box even though it was only two years old. I crawled over on all fours, struggling a bit as my long skirt kept on getting under my knees , curious to see what was in it. Uncle opened the box a cloud of dust wafting up free to move after their multiple year long dormant state. 

Bright coloured clothes were pulled out and inspected but ultimately being placed aside as Uncle's gut had grown from when he moved out. All sorts of bits and bobs were pulled out and inspected none of them seeming to catch his attention, but suddenly Uncle shrieked, "THAT T-THING! T-THAT DEMON! GET IT OUT!" The startled me follow the big man's horrified look to a stuffed toy. It had the head and paws of a fox beady eyes stitched into it'd head, the rest of its body was just a thick pink blanket with little front paws up as if it was asking for a hug.

"You still scared of that thing? You were fine with it as a kid but now it's scary, its supposed to be the other way around!", said my father chuckling at his little brother.

"Listen bro, that thing," Uncle said getting right in dad's face before pointing at the toy, "that's a demon right there!"

...

But that event was about six years ago now. Now I'm being driven to a church by my father with my mother in the passenger seat reading a schedule, a funeral schedule, Uncle Ben's funeral schedule. 

When we finally got to the church, we were solemnly greeted by a nod from my Nana and Poppy all dressed in black.

...

All the family gathered in Uncle Ben's old apartment as Nana and Poppy worked out who would get what as Uncle Ben never wrote a will. I clutched on to my mum's hand as I looked around at the messy apartment. 

"Madeline?", my nana called, I looked over in her direction before letting go of mum's hand and running to the old lady.

"Yes, Nana?", I said curious to why she called me. Was I getting something? How cool!

"Here's an old stuffed animal your uncle used to have, her name is Sanora," Nana said in her sweet voice, the wrinkled on her forehead gathering as she smiled with a  furrowed brow at the mention of her son. 

I reached my hand out it was the same toy from the christmas six years ago, "what a pretty name!"

A/N

Only short might expand on it later, please tell me if I got any grammar or punctuation wrong so I can fix it. 

The basic rundown of this series is that I'm gonna listen to a song and come up with another part of the story based from it so feel free to recommend songs.