7. Runnin Away (Tall Black Guy, Ozay Moore, Malaya)
Christmas that year was really nice even though my daughters spent the holiday in DC with my ex wife. Valeria and I enjoyed a peaceful, quiet evening at our home in the mountains after spending most of the morning and afternoon on video and phone calls with family. We watched our daughters open their gifts, then we talked to Valeria’s father, Hugo. He lived near us, but it was impossible to leave his house in downtown Asheville to make it to our home because of the snow.
“I should have come over yesterday,” he said apologetically after we said hello and wished Merry Christmas, and before we spent hours with the call open like we had with our daughters. Nothing is a substitute for being with loved ones, but technology definitely makes it easier to cope with distance.
“I’m just glad we’re all safe inside,” Valeria said. “It’s been coming down pretty heavy for the past three days.”
The snow had been falling for a few days and it was much less intense on Christmas day than it had been the day before. After we hung up with Hugo, Valeria and I exchanged gifts and ate the meal we had prepared together. It was mostly comfort foods, macaroni and cheese, meatballs, pigs in a blanket, bread pudding. I made hot chocolate and we sat out on our covered back porch watching the snowfall.
“You know who we didn’t take to today?” Valeria asked as she took my mug of cocoa. She had finished hers and took a sip before handing it back. “Uncle Thomas.”
I hadn’t spoken with Uncle Thomas since Thanksgiving. I knew he would call me when he was ready, that he wouldn’t answer or would be short if he was still dealing with drama with his new friend, Chuck. He’d been very upset when he left my grandfather’s house and I didn’t want to pry, especially because I had no way of knowing how things had turned out and I could be making him rehash something very emotionally difficult.
But Christmas was a good excuse to reach out. I wouldn’t mention Thanksgiving at all unless he brought it up.
“Call him from your phone,” I told Valeria. She had her phone playing instrumental jazz Christmas music and mine was somewhere inside the house.
“Merry Christmas uncle Thomas!” she said excitedly after she’d called and he picked up.
“Put him on speaker,” I said.
“… good to hear from you guys,” he was saying. “Wes is with you now?”
“Hey unk,” I said, “it’s been a while.”
“I know, I been meaning to get in touch. Thanksgiving was so nice, I been meaning to see how everybody doing. I know I left kinda upset, but everything is good.”
“For real?” I asked. “If you want to talk about it…”
“Nah, enjoy your Christmas and I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”
It was impossible to tell if he was really ok, but I had to take his word for it. Valeria went inside to watch movies and we spiked out cocoa with whiskey.
By Valentine’s day of the following year, I still hadn’t had a substantial conversation with my uncle. We talked briefly on the phone, he even called me to ask how things were going, but none of our conversations lasted longer than ten minutes. Uncle Thomas never brought up his friend, Chuck, and I still didn’t feel comfortable asking directly about what had happened between them. Until Valentine’s day when I could make a casual joke about his Valentine. And that’s exactly what I did.
“Hey,” I said when I called my uncle. Valeria was out getting her hair done in preparation for our date night.
“Nephew, happy Valentine’s day. How’s Valeria?”
“She’s good, we going out later. What about you? You got a Valentine?”
My uncle laughed, “You know me, nephew, I don’t really celebrate holidays that don’t involve feasting and drinking.”
“You can have a feast,” I said. “If you’re in Asheville anytime soon, let us know, we can have a belated Valentine’s feast. You can bring Chuck.”
My uncle was silent in response. We were both quiet for almost a minute.
“Well,” he said, “I’m gonna let you go enjoy your day with your wife. I love you, you and Valeria take care.”
He hung up before I could respond and I kicked myself. It must have gone very wrong between the two of them. I hoped that my uncle was really ok like he said. It would be a while before he felt comfortable to talk to me about it.
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