the adventures of neal burke

dancing with death

the rest of the school week had gone by in a blur, but it's finally saturday.

i'm free.

on the weekends i usually roam the city. there's endless possibilities, and with a metro card and some cash you can have an amazing day over and over again. sometimes i visit people, other times i just walk along the sidewalks. some days i'll go up on a balcony of a cafe or something and just people watch. mom says i can read people like a book, so i guess practice makes perfect.

today, i'm going to uncle moz's house and meeting theo there. although mozzie isn't actually my uncle, he's practically family and always has interesting stories. theo, who is a few years older than me, is my dad's coworker's kid. he's always been pretty cool, although we're complete opposites. he wants to be like his mom and go into law enforcement. i'm scared he'll have to investigate me one day.

when i get to moz's house, which is fairly hidden outside the city, theo's already there. i greet him with a hello and a handshake, and we wait for moz to come let us in.  my mom has always called moz 'a bit odd', which i heard my dad say once was code for 'strange con man'. i know dad doesn't always approve of what moz does, and he doesn't even know i come here, but moz understands me. at least more than dad does.

the door opens and moz pokes his head out. "you may enter." he says, holding open the door. we walk in and sit down. after the usual greetings and small talk, i sit up and look at uncle moz.

"moz, can i ask you something?" i say, a bit nervous. theo looks at me curiously.

"'the fool wonders, the wise man asks.'" he replies.

" benjamin disraeli!" theo grins. moz grins back at him. "very good, teddy." he nods approvingly, then turns back to me. "what's going on, junior?"

i forgot to mention the nicknames for both of us. he calls theo 'teddy', mainly because it's more like what moz went by, and he causes me 'junior', probably because there can really only ever be one neal. at first he called me 'suit junior', but it became pretty clear i was nothing like suit senior.

"it's just...this is going to sound stupid, but i feel like no one understands me. it's, like, dad doesn't understand how i always get into trouble, but i never try to get into trouble. trouble finds me. and mom...well she gets me more than dad, but i feel like she just feels sorry for me."

"what about ms. suit?" (his nickname for my sister, who does actually take after my parents.)

"definitely not. she's the ideal kid who follows the rules...she wants to understand, but we both know she doesn't."

moz sighs, and puts down his glass of wine. 

"junior..." he pauses, then rephrases his words. "neal...i think one person who would really understand you would be neal." the weight of his works sink into me. neal caffrey?

"he always got into trouble...doing the wrong thing for the right reasons...but at the end of the day, he had a good heart. he was a good person." moz looks at me with a sad smile. "i know your parents are the typical kind of successful -- graduated high school, went to a good college, and got a good job -- but you don't have to do that. that's not what matters, in the end. in the end, neal had a good heart, and i know you do too."

what moz said helps, but i'm still frustrated. "so the one person who would understand me is dead?"

moz winces. "neal left a legacy, junior. even if he isn't here with us today, he alway's with us...you may not be much like the suit, but you have his detective skills. maybe finding out more about neal will show you more than you think."

more than i think?  neal was a forger and con artist who was always dancing with death until one day he danced off the stage of life. i've been told i'm like him in some ways, and i've heard my dad muttering to my mom that i'm 'turning into him' (and not in a good way), but i guess i don't know much after all.

what was the infamous neal caffrey hiding?

or, rather, what was my dad hiding about him?