Heavy Love(63)

"Miss Whitson." One of the Navy Seals that Victor left me with enters.  They told me that one would always be with me, and he seems chattier  than the rest – well, technically because he just said the first words  ever.

"Yes?" My eyebrow rises.

"You have a visitor, ‘Uncle Red'?" H says, gauging my comprehension.

My jaw drops, and I smile. "Uncle Red, let him in!" I whisper ecstatically, while hurrying to my feet.

Uncle Red isn't really my uncle, but he's known my father since they  were in college. Both being geniuses, they were rivals, and borderline  neurotic, or so Mommy would say. Gina had worked at a diner, "the kick  it spot" right off the university campus grounds. Mom had attended the  junior college around the way for a while, but trying to take care of  her own sick mother too, Gina didn't make it. When she dropped out, she  found that she still liked working at the diner. That's where she met  the two guys, they had fought over her, and I could tell deep down Red  must have been the good looking one back in the day.

Anyway, Uncle Red is of mixed descent, hence the nickname Red. A  chemical fire burned him in the laboratory when I was 6 years old. I  remember being so afraid of him. His body was covered in burns.

It took his joking to get me to warm up to him to remember Uncle Red as  the man that used to make me smile as a toddler. Matter fact, Uncle Red  got on Jonah for taking the training wheels off my bike after my first  skinned knee. My play uncle is always and forever on my side. As I aged,  I realized that Uncle Red's intelligent, yet elaborate jokes were  confusing, but I love him all the same.

"Oh, Lux, Seems I'm always coming around when something bad happens,"  Uncle Red purses his lips as he enters the room, in a beige linen suit. I  haven't seen him since Mom's funeral, and an even longer time, the time  before that, so I try not to stare at the burns on his face.

"No uncle, I'm just glad you're here," I reply.

"I'm glad you called, Lux." He takes a look at his best friend, and  places a Rubik cube on the table beside Dad. Then Uncle Red comes to  give me a hug.

We hold each other tightly for a while. Even though Uncle Red's my play  uncle, I've grown to adore this man, whose real name is Doctor Charles  Everhart. I know that just one dose of his jokes will raise my spirits.  Maybe Uncle Red can take Victor from my mind, for just a while …



If we deny love that is given to us,

If we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss,

Then our lives will be empty, our loss greater …

 Oprah Winfrey



The entire FEAR series is now available.

I am doing a bit of spring cleaning so expect to see new covers for all three books on March 25, 2016