Uncle Freddie.... by Sharanya

Uncle Freddie...

-Sharanya 8IGCSE C

My name is Billy Roger, I’m 13 and 3 months and no matter what my brother tells you,I’m not a pest! My dad says I just have an over imagination, which does come in hand. It makes the fun parts funner and the scary parts scarier.

My teacher doesn’t really allow me to invent words. Like the word terrifical, she says “Billy, terrifical isn’t a word”, I tell her it’s a funner word to say and she obviously hits me with the “funner isn’t a word either”. Like I understand she’s my teacher but she should be more fun!

All my teachers obviously love my brother Alexander, I mean come on-he’s “the perfect student” / the teacher’s pet. He’s a topper in all subjects, the captain of the sports academy and he’s part of the student council. And they all expect that from me…

Anyways, my life has been a whole 360 degree turn, bumpy roller coaster, but I’ve kind of been managing since I have my amazing best friend Ramona and my super cool uncle Freddie. Uncle Freddie has been my only support lately as its summer break and Ramona has left the country. But now, Uncle Freddie is engaged, Dad and Mom are completely occupied with work and Alex’s college applications. So that just leaves my 15 year old buddy Marley and me. Marley was there in the house before I was and we’ve been so close ever since. But now Marley is old, he’s getting sick, I don’t even know if he’ll be able to make 16 years of age, which is a 112 years in dog age!

My life is a total rip off and I have no clue on how I’m going to get through the rest of summer vacation.

“Back off you shameless boys!” Ramona charged at Robert and his group (They were the biggest and the tallest group of boys in the grade) as they knocked the books off my hands. They have been bullying me since the 4th grade and if it wasn’t for Ramona, I’d probably be dead by now. “ Billy, you ok?” Ramona asked me, picking up my books for me as

I leaned against the locker, panting with my hands on my head.

“Thanks Ramona” I replied with a big exhale. My face was red and she knew I was frustrated. Ramona saw me get pushed and thrown against the lockers in the 5th grade and ever since, she was right by my side to scare away the boys and since she’s taller and bigger than the boys, they refuse to see what Ramona can do to them, but Ramona is way too sweet to have a physical fight. I picked myself up and Ramona walked me to my locker.

“Only half an hour left” Ramona stated, jumping up and down.

“Yeah, half an hour and I don’t have to see those nasty beasts anymore” I exclaimed with a giggle. Ramona and I had quite some time thinking of a name to call them, one that really suited them, but after a point we just had to pick one because it was getting way out of hand!

“Do you have any plans?” Ramona added “I’m going to my aunt’s house in London”.

“Oh no plans this time, since Alex is going to college and we have to save money for him and so mom and dad have to focus more on him and we can’t take Marley for long drives because it’ll be hard for him since he is old and UGHH! Everything is so frustrating!” I kept on adding, I whined as I face-slapped myself.

“Yikes! Don’t worry because I’ll just be gone for 2 weeks” Ramona calmly said as she put her arm around my shoulder.

“You know that’s a pretty long time” I added as I wiggles her arm off my shoulder.

“But hey! We have about 6 more weeks after that to have fun together!” Ramona mentioned. A loud BANG rose as I shut my locker. We were then separated for the next class as the bell rang in our ears.

“Alright then!” I shouted back at her, hoping she could hear me through the loud ring. It was the last period and everyone was hitting their books on the desk to the beat of the clock’s ticking. We all started a count - “3,2,1... yayyyyyy” we all shouted at the top of our lungs. Everyone jumping and celebrating, including Mr. Phillip. Everyone rushing out of their classrooms, heading for the tall black main doors of International Middle School. Papers flying all over the packed hallway. Celebrations all around me. I was acting like I was part of the Running of the Bulls event, escaping the pack of screaming children! As soon as I came out I turned back to see if Ramona was coming. I thought she probably left early so I started walking with my head still facing the “bulls” and bumped into someone, “sorry I didn’t mean to do ….uh-oh!”

I squeezed my books, looking up at his pale, angry face.

“Oh no, where’s your girlfriend huh? Ohhh poor Billy, Sissy!” it was Robert, malking me as he kept pushing me back and back.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” I exclaimed as I pushed him away.

“Oh so that’s how you want to play it?” he tilted his head in a confused matter. He was about to knock my books off my hand but I quickly turned back and just ran. Zig zag, avoiding the crowd of happy children. I kept running when I just ran into a huge set of students, I had no way of passing them. Robert grabbed my by my collar and raised his fist way up high. Everyone was forming some sort of circle around me, and they all tried telling Robert to stop.

“Give me a loud, slow countdown” he asked at his tall group of friends.

“NO YOU WONT!” A deep familiar voice rose from behind me. Robert looks up and his hand that held my collar started to loosen up. He stuttered and asked the mysterious man “who are you?”, robert shivered but didn’t show it, however I felt it. “Doesn’t matter who I am. You just have to stop being immature and leave the boy alone!”. Out came a tall, skinny man. It was my uncle Freddie. I saw him like a superhero with a bright spotlight and a long, shiny red cape flying around behind him. Everyone was curious to know Robert’s reaction. He let go of my collar and ran for his life.

“For all of you kids who have been bullied by this person, look how weak he really is!” uncle Freddie announced while everyone giggle and cheered. I saw robert like a big balloon just run out of air and fall apart. I ran to him and hugged him tight. “Uncle Freddie I didn’t think you would come to pick me up”

“Well Billy, surprise surprise!” Uncle Freddie is always excited to do surprises. Uncle Freddie was my dad’s younger brother, he’s my ultimate role model - he’s creative, funny, honest and he is so very caring. Uncle Freddie was always there for me, he is very understanding. He understands how it feels to be the younger brother and how you compared to the older sibling 24/7.

We drove back home in his fancy, red, open back, shiny truck. We were jamming to our favourite band The Beatles!

As soon as we reached home I ran to Marley (my awesome 15 year old dog), marley is my buddy. I count him as my best friend, my brother which is basically family. I always go to Marley after school and tell me about my day, and it always makes me feel stronger when Marley growls when I mention the nasty beasts. I then went to Alex’s room where there was my brother Alexander, my mom Lizzie and my dad Frank. They were going through all the letters Alex received from his colleges he applied to. Then they ran into a big envelope with big letters written on it. I leaned and read: REPORT CARD - BILLY ROGER. I whistled and casually tried to walk out of the room, but my dad shouted “Freddie stop him!”, so I had to go back in. “where do you think you are going?”uncle Freddie giggled.

“Why don’t you sit next to me?” dad said while patting a part of the bed next to him.

“No! Read the sign on the door Billy. It says NO PESTS ALLOWED!!” Alex read out as he pointed at the sign.

“Shut up you idiot!” I yelled, I pushed him away from me.

“Ay billy,what’s wrong with you. Didn’t you say there were mean bullies. Don’t be one of them!” mom came in between us like a barrier.

“Now. Billy is a creative, hard working student!” dad started reading.

“That’s my boy” uncle Freddie replied with a wink.

“But often daydreams. Argues to follow the rules of grammar or rules in general!” dad and mom looked at me from the corner of their eyes. “ do you have anything to say about this?” mom added.

“ its just…” I started. Alex leaned in to hear what I have to say about this. “She’s no fun” i complained.

“Billy thats not nice. Have some respect, she’s your teacher!” mom scolded me.

“ she always makes us spell words from some list she gives us. And we have to speak using only words from that same list. She doesnt allow a kid to be creative and open minded, like me. She hates me!” I exclaimed.

“She was fine when I was in your grade” Alex stated.

“Ugh. I mean everyone loves Alex and everyone hates me!” I shouted. Everyone giggled. “ why are you laughing?” I grumply asked

“We’re not laughing sweety” mom mentioned.

“Because you’re so childish” Alex added. I giggled and added to his statement “that’s why you still sleep with a stuffed animal!”.

“Get out of my room you little pest” Alex pushed me out and slammed the door behind me.

I was sitting on the tree branch watching the beautiful sunset when uncle Freddie came out to the backyard and asked “you want to talk about it? Mind if I join you?”. As he climbed the ladder, I kept looking at the view. He saw my face and I wasn’t happy. “I didn’t even ask you, how was school?”

“Good, annoying; same as other day. By the way thanks for helping me out in school!” I reminded.

“no , no problem. Don’t listen to that boy, he doesn’t deserve to be treated nicely. He is nasty as you say. I’m telling you, he will learn his lesson.” uncle Freddie tried to cheer me up but I continued to be confused. “Its annoying you know, how everyone thinks I’m perfect just because Alex is. How everyone thinks I’m weak and how its funny to push me around, punch me, trip me, basically bully me just because im small and skinnier than the rest. When Alex was small, everyone would stop to take pictures of his freckles but for me, I get pinched and made fun off because I have freckles and dimples. Honestly when its me turn to do things, nobody even cares”. I told uncle everything I was going through. He can kind of relate to me ; he is skinny and he has freckles and dimples (it runs in the family). A tear slid across my cheek.

“Hey hey don’t cry Billy!” Uncle Freddie hugged me and told me a very funny story on how he overcame his bullies and fears. I wiped the tears off my face and looked at the orange sky, it was beautiful. “Life is great!” I whispered. Uncle Freddie told me to think of good things in life when you are going through a bad time and that’s what I was doing. I looked down and saw Marley come out to the backyard with a stick he found, he barked at us telling us to come down and play with him. We jumped down and played with him until the moon came up. I looked towards the window where I could see the kitchen/dining table. I saw mom and dad sitting and they seemed like they were talking about something serious.

“Hey dad!” I shouted. We ran back inside. “What’s the matter dad? You seem sad” I asked him as I sat on his lap. He looked at mom and replied with a slight hesitation “no nothing. How was school? I forgot to ask” he changed the topic. I looked back at uncle Freddie and replied “great!”.

I went to my room with uncle Freddie to watch a movie and since my room is right opposite Alex’s room, I can hear most of the things coming from inside. I heard loud shouting, dad was screaming. “How am I suppose to earn money for this house? Then Where’s the money for the boys?” he shouted in panic. I walked into the room and I had a slight peak at dad’s face as his back was facing me. He was red and sad. Alex and I were both curious to know the truth. “Hey boys daddy got fired today.” mom started. “My boss had to fire a group of employees and I was part of that small group”dad added. He was devastated! “But don’t worry, we will come up with a plan to help us out right now, ok? I mean look at the bright side, I get to spend some quality time with my boys!” dad tried to calm us down. We smiled back at mum and dad as uncle freddie rubbed our shoulders. Alex and I walked to my room as his room was occupied. “What if i don’t have a house to live in? I mean you’ll go to college and I’ll be with mom and dad!” I kept asking Alex questions. “Don’t be silly, mom will figure something out for the both of us” he told me. “I feel like I did something wrong!” I kept worrying “No! Not this time” alex added as he smiled and slightly nudged me in my arm.

I woke up earlier than everyone today. I was sitting on the tree branch, drawing the sun rise as I leaned side to side to capture every detail of the clouds when I heard big thuds coming from inside the house. I looked through the kitchen window and saw mom and dad grab their things together. Their coats, their bags and for some reason I saw mom pack her favourite spatula, I thought is was some sort of good luck. I went inside to ask mom what’s the hurry and she replied “ no Billy. We just realised that this house has a very expensive rent salary and we won’t have enough to pay for the house and for you boy’s future. So we are going to see houses for cheaper prices. We also have a limited time to find a new home, pack everything in this home, shift and get Alex to college. And in this huge noise, Uncle Freddie was fast asleep - as usual.

I didn’t have the time to process it in my mind and ask questions. I was just speechless and I didn’t even realise Alex was right next to me with his jaw dropping as well. We were both shocked and speechless.

“Take care of each other!” dad shouted as he slammed the main door behind him, creating a loud noise which shook Alex and I in surprise.

“Dont talk to me! I already woke up in such stress, im just going to my room in peace.” Alex said as he yawned and waddled back to  his room and slammed the door behind him creating another loud noise which shook me again.

I wonder if I’m in some sort of curse…

I sat on the couch and looked up at the ceiling as these thoughts flew across my head. I mean there is so many unlucky things happening to me back to back, ever since the summer break started. And its continuously happening, there’s no stop. Huh I wonder…

Ramona is not there, dad loses his job and now our house is up for sale because we are running out of money and UGHH everything is so frustrating! I repeated the same thing I told ramona which made me miss her more. All this wanted me to go hug Marley. Where was he?

Speaking of Marley, he needs to eat! I panicked as it was way past his lunch time. But why isn’t he coming to me for food, this is strange.

“Marley” I yelled. He’s always sleeping or walking around the living room but today I couldn’t see him, I shook his bowl because that makes a sound that Marley always follows but still no sign of him. I checked mom and dad’s room, Alex’s and the kitchen but he was in neither. Only one more spot left, his bed which was in my room. As soon as I entered I looked straight at his bed and he still wasn’t there. I took one step forward and I saw him. I saw him sleeping on my pillow. A smile came across my face. Marley looked so cute, round and fluffy. I went and sat next to him. I lightly put my hand on his head and whispered to him “Marley, come on wake up. It’s time for your lunch”. His eyes were shut tight, Marley has never been in such deep sleep. As I looked at his stomach I realised.

 No movement.

The loud, tacky sound of the metal bowl hitting the floor, froze me. A cold and heavy drop slid down my face, my face turned cherry. My eyes got wider and wider as my jaw dropped lower and lower. My entire body was stiff...just like Marley’s. I blinked hard because I thought I was dreaming but, no, unfortunately I wasn’t. “For god sake, can you please just stop making so much noise. The whole entire house is going to fall apart before mom and dad come home and they are going to…” he paused, he saw the dog food on the ground and my red face. He then saw Marley. I turned and looked at him and I’ve never seen him be that shocked and clueless before. 2 heavy teardrops hit his toes as his jaw dropped. I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I burst out crying and ran to Alex, sobbing. He bend down and cried with me, hugging me back as tight as he could. “Oh gosh…” Alex hesitated looking up at the ceiling with his tears constantly falling right down.

Uncle Freddie woke up and saw us in front of marley, it took a second for him to realise and he then grabbed us by our hand and took us to Alex’s room to get our eyes off of Marley for a second. I could see the tears in uncle’s eyes as Marley was the one and only dog in the entire family.

“Ok boys!” he began as his voice shook. He sat next to us, trying to console us. “Now what has happened, happened. I don’t want any fights or blaming. We are all big now and we can handle this by ourselves. We are strong and we are not going to keep crying ok”. We wiped our tears off, including uncle. He kept telling us that we are strong and we cant keep thinking about what happened and let that stop us in the future. Instead become braver and learn to handle things calmly and without remembering the past, in order to start again/try again. He told us that he wanted to give us the grown up talk/advice for future, later as Alex has a whole new life starting ahead of him but he needed to tell us now or we would just keep crying until mom and dad come back home in the evening. We had to handle this before the evening or marley would be lying there in a way we all don’t want him to be in.

We buried Marley in the backyard right under the branch where we could always remember him. We put the stick he found right on top of his grave as a memory of him and this house. We were so lucky to have uncle Freddie with us at a time like this otherwise we would’ve been fallen into pieces! Alex and I cried for a while after that while talking about funny moments we all had with Marley. We miss him!

Later that day after we told mom and dad the whole thing, mom was hugging us for hours. They said “you went through all of this by yourselves?” “my brave boys!” dad added while he looked at marley. “Thank you” dad mouthed out at Uncle Freddie because dad knew what uncle would have done at a moment like that.

 So I forgot. Uncle freddie has a girlfriend, Rosie. This was going on for the past 4 years now. She comes over once in a while but uncle freddie usually goes to her house, that’s where I hangout with Marley or Ramona but now I have none. Anyways, she’s kind of like my babysiter...ok ok I’m joking but she treats me like a baby. Don’t get me wrong she is really sweet but every since, uncle Freddie has been busy with her and I hardly get to hangout with him.

So recently she came over for lunch and we were all painting the walls back to white before we left the house. It was such a sad moment because we all had the thought of us leaving but out of nowhere Uncle Freddie gets down on one knee and proposes. There is joy all around them, tears of joy, laughter of joy but I was the only one who were kind of sad. I knew that after he gets married I wouldn’t see him as much. But when I do he will still be busy with Rosie. Now what would I do without him? UGH this is so frustrating!! (yet another reason to why I think I’m cursed) 

Its day 2 without Marley, mom and dad are again hunting for houses. It’s just alex and I at home, since uncle freddie has his… I don’t even want to talk about it. I was on the phone with Ramona and she told me a lot of her vacation and how amazing it was. She kept going on and on when she asked me “how was your vacation so far Billy?”, I had a quick flashback and replied “great!”

“Oh that’s great Billy! I have to go and eat lunch at some fancy hotel, see you in a few days!” Ramona excitingly mentioned and quickly cut the line.

Uncle and Rosie returned home, they were blabbering about some sort of destination and decorations. I was sitting on the couch right across the main door. When they come in, I had a huge smile because I was so bored. “Hi where did you guys go for so long?” I asked them as they passed me. For the first time, uncle didn’t reply to me. He didn’t even look at me. He just walked right by me, like I was invisible. And I was pretty loud and clear with what I said, there was no way they couldn’t have heard me. I wondered if he hated me, if he had forgot me and everything else. All these questions kept coming to me but one that kept repeating was ‘am I actually cursed?’. Uncle always told me he would be there for me but I think he also forgot about what he said. I got really angry. Just because he has a fiance, he completely forgot about everything around him. Rosie is his only concern, not me, nor Alex, nor us who are in a major problem as a family... nor even Marley. He just wants to be with Rosie, if I get beaten up right now, he’ll still be looking at Rosie. Hopefully he’ll change back to how caring he was to everyone else.

“Good morning!” mom shouted. It was way too early and mom was so excited for some reason she was about to eagerly tell us. We all were so sleepy but still waddled to the kitchen to see what all the joy was about. I really thought it was because of Uncle and Rosie but mom opened some sort of email on her laptop, she was reading it to dad and he seemed so proud. After everyone came to her. “ I GOT THE JOB!” she exclaimed “I’m in the Downtown Alley Baking Company which is one of the biggest companies in the country” we were so excited and proud of her. We were extremely surprised because we didn’t really think mom will get a plan so fast. Mom is a really amazing cook and she got such a great idea.

“But mom when did you even go there? you guys were looking for houses ever since we ran into this issue” I asked her. We were all clueless but she told us that in those few hours of searching for houses they went to the company instead to show them mom’s skills. No wonder she took her favourite spatula. She also told us that she gets a great amount of money per month & that we can afford to live in this house. I was so happy, mainly because I didn’t have to leave Marley alone here. We were so happy for her and proud, we gave her a huge hug and all got dressed to go out for a celebration brunch!

It’s the wedding day!

“You look smart daddy!” I told him as I watched him get dressed(1 hour earlier). The family is suppose to me 1 hour earlier than the guests but dad got way too excited to attend his younger brother’s wedding so we had to go 2 hours before the guests arrived. “Hey Billy!” uncle Freddie called out.

“What?” I was still pretty angry at him.

“You know that there has to be 1 special person to hold my ring up for me, before I put it on Rosie?” he asked me. As he puts his hand on my shoulder he added “and i want that to be…” he paused. So I added “ yeah I know you want it to be alex, it’s ok, I forgive you now go get ready, it’s your wedding by the way” I was annoyed at him, when “you Billy. What are you saying? I want it to be you!” he exclaimed with a big giggle “really?” I was so excited “ yes obviously it was going to be you, you’re my best friend! Now go get ready.” I was so excited I screamed! “Be the best ring holder you could be!” he shouted “promise!” I shouted back as I ran to dad, “how fast can you make me as handsome as you” I asked dad in excitement. And clearly I forgave uncle.

It was my turn now, to go and hand the ring to uncle Freddie. He had to pull it out but the ring was stuck. He pulled and pulled, it flicked off his hand and into the air above, the last thing I saw was a strong shine from the diamond and VANISH!

“Uhhh, no problem everyone, we will find the ring anytime now” uncle wanted everyone to remain seated while they all looked around them.

“I FOUND IT” my voice echoed. I saw the blue shine coming from the dress of the bride. The tip of her heel was inside the hole of the diamond ring. I carefully pushed her shoe up and gently took the ring because if it broke, everyone would blame me. I jumped and gave him the ring as everyone applauded. “Thank you” Uncle Freddie mouthed out. He looked exactly like dad when he mouthed out thank you, I zoned out for a bit as I looked back at that moment.

As soon as the wedding ended we were getting ready for the after party when I saw a familiar face running towards me “Ramona!!” I shouted in question. Ramona secretly came early and attended the wedding. She came to surprise me! I hugged her so tightly. “ I have so many things to tell you!” I stated with a massive smile “no! I know” she replied

“You know? Huh what? How? I didn’t tell you..” I stuttered, she interrupted me “your uncle called me and told me everything and he really wanted to me to come for the wedding just so he could make it up for you” she added.  I ran to uncle, he was watching us talk. I ran and gave him a tight hug. “Thank you so much for everything!”. He was so happy and that obviously made me very happy for him and Rosie and I’ve never done this before but I ran and gave Rosie a big tight hug as well, I told her to take care of my best friend for me!

Well I miss them already! This has been the most exciting, nerve racking, overwhelming, and the best summer vacation I’ve ever had, all because I had the best, the strongest, and the most caring person in the world with me, who went through every obstacle of life with me. Literally flew someone just to make me happy…

Uncle freddie, you’re my hero!