Love, Elliot

Part. / 9

Previously on Love, Elliot: he called me a day or two ago since I haven't been receiving his fax yet.

Please tell your dad to lend him some money. I will pay you back soon as soon as I can.

Love, Tom.

I couldn't believe what I was reading. Tom Stanley? The guy I had worked with during my internship at Homes-for-Orphans? Is it truly him? 

'But I don't understand,' my thoughts spoke loudly. We haven't met in 2 months, why would he tell me to do that? 

The next morning, I saw dad and Uncle Ben roasting some tomatoes for breakfast. Dad has this, self-proclaimed omelette, that he calls 'Amazing omelette'. Very original, right?  To be honest, I can't even hate it, cause his is the best. Probably even...even more than mom's.

'Good morning everybody!', I spoke enthusiastically. 'How are you Uncle Ben?'

'I'm good sweetheart. But I got some bad news for you today.'

'What? what's the matter?'

'Well, unfortunately, I have some unsold business to take care of in New York, so I'm going to hop off there', he spoke with a frown.

'B-but, you can't go! You've only been here for like 2 days! What about all the plans we had made?'

'I am sorry. I can't really miss out on this one.'

I saw dad with tears forming in his eyes. He never gets emotional. Is there a bigger problem that I'm missing here?

'Sweetie?'

'Yeah, dad?'

'I'll drop you off to school in an hour or two, alright?'

'Hmm. That's fine.'

School's about to end in 2 weeks. I don't really have a plan to do anything this summer. I might get involved in internships. Paid-internships that is. I can save cash and use this for my college tuition. Although, I'm sure dad won't have it. 

After breakfast I decided to go and do some homework while sitting on my balcony. Seeing Uncle Ben, I motioned him to come and join me for a chat. If there is anything I can find out about Aunt Veronica, it's from him. I also brought a jar of candy corn since he can't get enough of it and has already gone through two whole bags.

'Heeyyy!'

'Uncle Ben? Can I ask you something?'

'Yeah, sure. What is it, darling?'

'Why won't you guys tell me about Aunt Veronica?', I blurted out. 

Way to go Kathy. A Great way to start a gentle and non-alarming conversation.

His back was turned against me. I couldn't exactly see his expression when I mentioned her name, but I did notice his shoulders tensing up.

'S-she was a sister of ours.'

'Was?'

'Yes. Was. We don't want anything to do with her anymore.'

'But why? Why is that? To be honest, I can tell why you guys don't like her, since she mocked mom being dead,' I once again, blurted out. Not even thinking twice.

'What?', he spoke with eyes widened.

'U-um. I'm sorry for my use of words, but yes she did. She complained about mom not having a longer life.'

I kept staring into his eyes, and as I did, I saw them getting red by every second. His hands clutched the rod, hard  and his knuckles became white.