The Family Gathering

Nervously, I walked slowly towards my uncle's room. He injured his leg in an accident. Seriously, it has been ages since I last talked to him. The mental picture you'll have in mind would have been in a form of an old man, white hair, glasses on, but he is not, really.

My uncle is at the age of 24, yup, the same age as mine. But the title comes from the family tree in which his father is my grandfather's cousin. Hence, his father is my grand uncle and he is my uncle. Complicated? Tell me that when I tried to understand my lineage at the age of 4. We literally grew up together. We went to the same primary school, and moved on to the same secondary school. But after high school, it was hard for us to take care of what we had as we went separate ways. We see each other once in awhile, formal functions like weddings and dinners but you can sorta feel the gap inflicted. And did I mention, he is kinda good looking too. I laughed off to that thought as I stepped into his room.

"Hey Martha," He said, chirpy as if expecting me, trying hard by slowly standing up to greet me. He extended his hand, I greeted it with a huge grin on my face and gave him a hug. He hugged me back. And then he started to breathe faster. I was like, erm, is he orgasm-ing ?

"I think you stepped on my broken foot," He said.

I laughed and sat on the bed. He too, half smiling and half in pain - you can't miss the expression, did the same. Without hesitation, I blurted it out.

"I am kinda afraid," I looked into his eyes. I have no one to turn to (although I practically talked to basically all my family members about this issue except for my mom but they don't face this situation altogether).

"Why?" He asked as he flipped open his lappie.

"Edmund is getting married, and I am not going to anytime soon," He started to pound the keys on the keyboard.

"And what's the problem?" He said calmly.

"People will start to ask me when will it be my time to get married,"I said.

"Hey chill. people will ask me more," Puzzled by his answer I looked at him.

"I am your uncle remember. People will definitely ask me that. But, if you are quite afraid to face the crowd tonight, stay on my side. I'll call a few friends to come so that you have your own crowd," He said, flipped close his lappie and moved to pick his phone from under the pillow.

In an instant, I felt safe and secure. I smiled for the first time in the duration of 6 hours.