My ride, I love you

Mork

Chapter 4 : Mork

"Uncle, can I ask you something?"

I descend the stairs from the second floor and find my younger uncle preparing breakfast in the kitchen. I assist in setting the table and distributing the soft-boiled rice into three bowls, for him, my uncle, and myself. Meanwhile taking the opportunity to ask him something that's been on my mind all night.

"What is it? And why the heck are you not at work? Aren't you running late for work at the station? I thought you already left long ago!"

He turns and roughly slices some celery leaves to season the boiled rice for the other uncle and for himself. None for me, because he knows I don't like it and will just pick it out to throw away. It's not that I dislike vegetables. I can eat all vegetables but the aromatic ones. They feel weird in my mouth.

"It's cool, uncle. This morning Fueang takes care of my queue because yesterday he made me do his in the evening."

I sit down at the table and start chowing down the soft-boiled rice with minced pork. It has a lot of rice and so little minced pork, but I don't know why it's so delicious. My younger uncle is so good at cooking.

"Oh, I see. And what did you want to ask?"

He sits down on the opposite side of the table and starts eating too. I hear the loud splashes of water hitting the floor from the bathroom in the back of the house. Which means my uncle must be taking a Thai-style bath. Okay, good. It will be a bit awkward and embarrassing to talk about this when both of my uncles are presented. It seems easier to ask the younger uncle when we are alone.

"Well, uh..."

Oh, boy. In my head, I already know what I want to ask, but when I'm trying to communicate with my mouth, I am so lost as to where to start and how to bring it up.

"Well, uh... I, well..."

I keep stammering my uh and well and he starts to frown.

"We already have plenty of water, we don't need more wells from you. Just spit it out, because I'll leave once I finish eating."

"Okay, okay. Shoot! Uh, about you and my uncle. I mean when you guys, uh, well... Back when... Back then, how did it go?"

Once I complete my sentences, he abruptly stops putting food in his mouth.

"Why do you suddenly want to know? Is everything alright, Mork?"

"Well, uncle, yesterday I dropped off a passenger at a condo for his date."

If I don't know how to construct my questions, then just tell him from the start, so he will understand what I want to know. And maybe telling him the story will make me realize what I want to ask.

"Yea, and then?" He asks.

"And when I got to that condo, his date happened to be there waiting for him."

"And why did your passenger and his date make you want to ask about your uncle and me?"

"Because..."

Drats! Why is it so difficult to just say it out loud?

"Because what, dummy?"

This time, the question is not from the younger uncle, but from my own uncle who just finished taking his bath. He enters the room in a pair of shorts and a Thai loincloth thrown over one shoulder.

"I've been hearing you for a while. That's a lot of uh and wells. What about this passenger? Why are you flustered and stammering?"

Finishing the sentence, he sits down next to the other uncle and starts digging in while staring at me with a look of determination to get me to talk.