i love uncle henry: a romance novel
chapter 1: the visit is planned (short chapter: edited)
characters (to clarify)
Violet: our protagonist
Lila: Violet's mum
Tom: Violet's dad
Henry: Violet's uncle
George: Violet's older brother
I love uncle henry
Mum and Dad have finally managed to get that news reporting job in Rwanda that they’ve been asking for, for years. Yet conveniently, it just so happens to be assigned to them at the start of summer vacation. I was promised that we’d go back home to England at old house, but apparently not.
“MUM!” I shout, “You can’t just…leave! Where am I supposed to go?!” I storm into the kitchen furiously.
“We really can’t afford tickets to England for you now, darling” Mum says apologetically, stirring a large steel pot on the stove, “But we’ve got Auntie Julia—“
“I hate her, Mum. She hates me. We’ve went over this before!” I groan and look hopefully to Dad, who’s drinking tea nonchalantly at the table, avoiding the conversation entirely. “Dad!”
“What?” he looks up, anxious. He’s got the London accent, the “typical” British accent, whereas Mum’s go some weird mix of Mid-England English and London English. His “what” sounds like “Wot”.
“Dad, tell Mum that I’m not going to Auntie Julia. She’s the she-devil!”
“Lila, it is true that Julia is…unkind” Dad says to Mum. Yes! “Haven’t we got anyone else in America? We can’t afford out of state trips”
“There’s…” Mum says nervously, treading on dangerous roads, “There’s your little brother, Henry”
“Half-brother” Dad corrects sharply. He’s never been on good terms with his drastically younger brother. Grand-Dad had divorced Grandma and married a younger woman and they had Henry. He’s twenty five and Dad’s thirty seven. A gaping twelve year gap between them hasn’t been in their favour. We work hard to avoid talking about out younger step-grandmother and Henry. In fact, I haven’t seen him in nearly six years!
“Yeah!” I jump in enthusiastically, “I’d love to stay with Henry. I hear he’s got this decent beach house in Maine?”
“He has” Dad says tersely. He maintains a cold appearance and his steely eyes unfocused on the newspaper.
I say, with great care, “Dad…can we ring Uncle Henry and ask if I can stay for the summer?” He sighs in response, and I go further. “I haven’t seen him in years, and it’s not fair that I don’t get to. After all, he is my uncle”
“AND You and mum are going to Rwanda, leaving me all alone here. The least you can do is allow me some fun at a beach house! It’s not England, but it’s the next best thing”
Looking meaningfully at Mum, and getting a nod of approval, I await Dad’s response.
“Okay” he finally says, “Mum will call him”
