When I was little, my mom dropped me off at my uncle’s house over the summer. It was already challenging enough for her to raise a child alone and make enough money to sustain our little ecosystem. She recently moved up in her position and found a second job, so she usually wasn’t home until late at night. Poor thing, she barely managed to get any sleep. It would be impossible for her to spare me any time to watch me during my break. Fortunately for us, we found a simple solution. For that summer, I would stay over with my Uncle Ted.
I never really saw my Uncle Ted. My mom never really talked about him. I always viewed Ted as a peculiar man. He had very thin, greasy hair and wore angular glasses tinted so dark that you couldn’t see where he was looking. He was, by definition, obese but proved to be surprisingly mobile. I distinctly remember my first meeting with him; his plump, chubby face with gruff, unkempt stubble, looking at me with hollow eyes and a toothy grin. During the day, he would be in his room most of the time while I was out playing outside or reading a book in the living room.
I usually only talked with him during mealtimes. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to cook food, so I had to do it for the both of us. Fortunately, because of my mother’s frequent absence, I usually had to make my own food and, as a byproduct, became an excellent chef. During our discussions at the table, we would always chat about all the worldly things like the weather and events of the day.
“How was your day, Daisy?” he would say, and I would respond by telling him all the fun things that happened, like playing near the stream and my attempts at catching frogs. As I told him about my adventures, he would look up from his plate and give me a big silly smile and crack a joke. Ted knew how to make me laugh. He was a pretty humorous guy so it was pleasant to chat with him.
Every night before I went to bed, Ted gave me multivitamins so I could grow up to be a “big, strong girl.” They weren’t labeled and didn’t have a container; he just pulled them out of a little plastic bag. I don’t know what they were, but they really helped me sleep. Put me out like a light. Sometimes I would wake up a little sore in the mornings and I would think they were working and I was growing taller.
Because this was a long time ago, some parts of my memory are a little hazy and I can’t really recall what we did together. However, I do remember that he loved taking me to the public pool when the heat began to grow intolerable. Ted showed great interest in teaching me how to swim. He would wrap his hands firmly around me and wade me through the water as I thrashed my limbs around. Eventually I got the hang of it, but he always insisted on “perfecting my technique,” so I never really had the opportunity to swim on my own.
Sometimes we would play games together. There was this one game we played often, but it’s hard to remember. He called it the “senses game.” He would take a blindfold and wrap it around my head, then spin me around in a circle seven times. I would have to use my other senses to navigate the room and find the hidden lever to escape the “dungeon”. I felt just like an adventurer from one of my novels.
One day, he was in his office, and I wanted to peek inside to see exactly what he was up to. It was really dark there though. I never saw much other than the dim blue light of a monitor and the junk littering the floor. One day, I told Ted that I could help him clean his room since it was starting to smell fishy. He got really angry and snarled “never go there again.” Truth be told, I was pretty scared since I had never seen him so furious before. I silently nodded and promised to never go near his room again.
Whenever we went shopping, Ted bought me all kinds of dresses and skirts, saying things like, “You’ll look so pretty in this Daisy, do you want to wear it?” Of course, I couldn’t refuse after being showered in praises and compliments, so I wore whatever he got. One time I was in the yard climbing up a tree to grab a cool looking bug, but I slipped and got my dress stained. When Ted saw it that day, he got very upset and chided me about how I absolutely cannot get my clothes dirty.
During those two months, Ted would express his desire to take baths together. “It’s OK,” he said. “We’re family after all.” I didn’t see anything wrong with it at the time, I took baths with my mom all the time to conserve water so this would not be any different. The bathtub was small, and I would have to be really close to Ted. I would be leaned up against his chest and could hear him breath in my ear. The heat usually made me drowsy, and I don’t remember when I went to sleep or how I got into bed after that.
Overall, I’d say I enjoyed my time with my uncle Ted. When that summer ended and I came back home, I made sure to tell my mom about all the fun things we did together. As I spoke about all the stuff we did, my mom’s normally jolly demeanor shifted into something very very dark. She told me she needed to go to Uncle Ted’s house to do something that very night and that she would be back a little later. I didn’t know what she was doing, but it must have been quite important to her, so I didn’t really inquire.
The next morning, I woke up to the smell of my mom making breakfast which was surprising because I thought I was supposed to be the cook. While I was eating, my mother requested that I throw the trash out. I remember this part specifically because the trash that day was pretty weird. Something familiar. Something fishy. Whatever it was, I didn’t really pay any mind.
I never went back to see Uncle Ted again for another summer. My mom said that “from now on, I’ll watch you.” I was happy because I would get to spend time with my mom, but a little sad because I would miss the freedom I had at Ted’s house. Interestingly, after a couple months the police came by to tell my mom Ted went missing.
They came to our house to ask questions, but it was in vain. Apparently, they say it was as if he had just vanished and had no evidence or clues to track him down. I was worried for him but I guess I just moved or forgot. I asked my mom about this incident years later when it came up in casual conversation. “Do you remember Uncle Ted mom, what happened to him?” Her smile faded and she looked at me with a cold stare. “Don’t worry about him, sweetie. I’m sure he’s fine.”