Ann and Bob were just getting out of their sport-utility vehicle as Eric and Eunice got outside the back door. “Wow,” Eric said as he saw them, “you made good time.”

“No reason to stop, except to get gas and do a drive-through for lunch,” Bob replied, going to one of the back doors to pull out a suitcase and a hanger bag. “It was a little crazy going around Indianapolis, but it always is. Sure will be nice to see spring get here, won’t it?”

“Yeah, it will be,” Eric agreed, being as much a normally undemonstratively male as Bob was being. “Jeff sure loved the cold weather, though.”

“Understandable,” Bob nodded. “Every degree the thermometer dropped was money straight into his pocket. So how have you been?”

“If I was to say ‘about the same’ I’d be lying,” Eric replied. He’d known Bob for somewhere around thirty years give or take, ever since Ann had brought him home from college one winter back in the early eighties sometime. Bob was a big, solid guy, over six feet, sandy-haired and balding; in recent years he’d grown a beard, which actually looked pretty good on him, or at least so Eric thought. All too often guys around Bob’s fiftyish age grew beards because they were just plain tired of shaving, and they looked like it. There had been times Eric had to go without shaving for a while, but he always had done away with the scrubby growth at the first opportunity.

“Understandable,” Bob said again, glancing over at Ann, who had her arms around her mother in a fierce hug. Ann was taller than her mother, but unlike her had put on a bit of weight in recent years, although not exceptionally so. She was going gray now, too; her dark hair was shot with streaks of it. It seemed incredible to Eric in a way; he remembered well being present the day Jeff and Eunice brought her home from the hospital, a tiny baby. The years had definitely passed; he knew she’d be fifty in only another month or so.

Ann turned to Eric, and threw her arms around him. “Oh, Uncle Eric!” she said. “I feel so sorry for you. I know you were Dad’s best friend. I’m just so glad you were willing to help Mom take care of him.”

“I promised I’d do it, and there was no reason not to,” Eric told her. “Your dad was my best friend, too. Maybe we’d better go inside, your mother and I didn’t take the time to get coats on.”

That was enough to get them all trooping inside; the warmth of the house was welcome. “So, Mom,” Ann asked, “is the plan still for Bob and me to stay here tonight?”

“Why not?” Eunice told her. “We’re not expecting anyone else to get here tonight, but I don’t know when everyone left. Probably it would be best if you and Bob were in your old room upstairs. We may have to reshuffle things for tomorrow and the day after, but we’ll work that out tomorrow. We’ll have dinner here tonight. Eric has some pork chops thawing.”

“Oh, Uncle Eric, you don’t have to go to that trouble,” she said. “Bob and I would be glad to take you out for dinner.”

“It’s really not much trouble,” Eric smiled. “And it would be more trouble to get cleaned up and then go out. Besides, the chops are already thawed. Don’t worry about it Ann. I have it under control. Why don’t we all go into the living room and sit down? I could make drinks if anyone would like one.”

“I could stand something mild to recover from all the time in the car,” Ann said. “Whatever you have. I suppose there’s still plenty of rum in the house, so a rum and Coke would be fine.”

“Rum and Coke would be all right, but I’d prefer a beer if you have one,” Bob added.

It didn’t take long for Eric to get the drinks; in fact he was sitting in the living room before Ann and Bob, since they decided a visit to the bathroom was necessary, too. But Eunice was there already. “You know,” Eric told her, “I was just remembering you and Jeff bringing her home in that old white Rambler you used to have.”

“Oh, mercy, that was a long time ago,” she shook her head. “We all had so much ahead of us back then, didn’t we?”

“We sure did,” Eric agreed. “I guess we must have known then that it would have to come to an end sometime, but somehow it never seemed real to us.”

That could have sent both Eric and Eunice off into one of the fits of reminiscing they’d been having the past couple of days, but the arrival of Ann from the bathroom stymied that. She and her mother quickly fell into a discussion of who else was coming and when they would be arriving, and a further discussion of who would stay where. Eric and Bob just sat back and let the women carry the conversation, which was fine with Eric.

Although Eric knew all three of Jeff and Eunice’s kids well, at least in recent years he’d known Ann and Bob better than the others, if for no more reason than they lived the closest to Blue Lake, so were here more often. Ann had been the most supportive in helping Eric and Eunice deal with Jeff’s illness, although her business was busy enough and she lived far enough away that she and Bob hadn’t been a great deal of help.

But in the days of the kids growing up, Eric had gotten to know all three of the kids fairly well, just about like an uncle, in fact. The kids had all called him “Uncle Eric” and still mostly did; none of them had been little kids when they realized that Eric wasn’t any kind of a relative at all, but just a long-time friend.

Eric had mostly known the kids in the winter, because he was usually gone most of the summers in their growing-up years. As they’d gotten a little older, say into their teens, he wasn’t always gone all summer and sometimes had spent a couple of the warmer months with them on Blue Lake. As they’d been growing up, from time to time Eric had tried to pass along a few usable outdoor skills to them, like sailing in the old wooden Snipe sailboat they used to keep on a dock out in front of the house in the summers. It really was a little on the big side for the lake. He also did things like taking them canoeing. As far as Eric had ever known none of the kids had ever really gotten into outdoor sports and had gone on to other things as they got older. It had been a little bit of a disappointment to him, in a way, but never one that bothered him all that much; the three weren’t exactly his kids, after all.

“Mom, I’m glad to know you’re taking Dad’s death so well,” Ann said finally. “You were together for so long, and it has to be hard on you.”

“I’m doing all right,” Eunice told her. “I think it’s partly because the reality hasn’t set in on me just yet. But then, after the last couple years and your father doing so poorly, I can’t deny some relief about it being over with, too. I don’t know how I would have been able to get through the last couple years without Eric’s help.”

“Eric, it’s been unbelievable that you’ve been so much help to Mom,” Ann gushed. “I really would have liked to have been able to do more, but it was very hard to get away as much as I did.”

“It’s hasn’t been a real problem,” Eric told her, re-entering the discussion for the first time in several minutes. “When you get right down to it, I really wasn’t doing much of anything anyway, so it’s not like I had anything else to do. Besides, I made a promise to Jeff that I’d look after him, and I meant to keep that promise.”

“You always tried to teach us that keeping promises was important,” Ann smiled. “And I know you always meant it. But it must have been hard for you.”

“Just because it was hard didn’t mean it didn’t have to be done,” he told her. “Ann, I’ve spent much of my life doing hard things for the sake of doing them, and in fact, for the joy of doing them and for the feeling of accomplishment I got at the knowing I’d done them successfully. This was a little different, but the end result stands: I feel satisfied that I kept my promise to Jeff, even though there were plenty of hard times the last few years.”

“But knowing how you liked to get out and travel, to see things and do things, hasn’t it left you feeling, uh, tied down a little?”

“Of course it has. But Ann, for the most part my traveling and adventuring days are over with, and they’ve mostly been over with for a long time. You remember Gary Dovecote, the guy I used to go on those canoe trips with?”

“Of course I do. I remember some of the canoe trips you and he used to take us kids on so Mom and Dad could have a little break from us. Some of them were a lot of fun! I haven’t seen him for years. Is he still alive?”

“Oh yes. He’s getting up there, in his eighties now, and still pretty active although he’s slowed down as much as I have. His fire may have burned down a lot, but there are still some embers glowing. He called me here a while back and asked if I might be up for another canoe trip some time soon.”

“I wouldn’t think either of you would be able to do some of those big trips in Canada you used to do. He’s not actually thinking of doing one again, is he?”

“Actually he is, but it wouldn’t be like some of the death marches we used to do, just a nice gentle float of the kind we used to take you kids on. It would be just to touch the old days a little, if you know what I mean. I had to tell him I couldn’t, since I had your dad to take care of.” There was no point, Eric thought, in telling her that the question of another trip wasn’t completely dead; he’d wanted to bring it to Eunice first, and the right time for that hadn’t come yet.

“I hadn’t heard that,” Eunice said. “Maybe you ought to call him up sometime and see if he’s still thinking about it. Eric, after all the time you’ve spent helping me with Jeff, you need a little breather.”

“I might have to think about it,” he replied, not wanting to mention that he’d already done so. Leaving Eunice alone for the two or three weeks a trip like that would take, when the trip to and from the river was included, might not be the best idea. He was pretty sure a reaction to Jeff’s death would be along sooner or later. “A trip like that would be nice, but it’s not like I have to do it.” He didn’t want to get into that subject any more than he had to, at least right now. “We’ve got an hour or so before I’d better get started on dinner,” he said to change the subject. “Is there anything we should be doing before that?”

“The biggest thing I can think of is to get that mattress and bed frame down from the attic to what used to be Elaine’s room,” she replied. He noted that she didn’t say “Jeff’s room,” which it had been for the last two years. “I know that’s going to be a struggle.”

“Not as bad as it was getting it up there,” he smiled. “It’s like we used to say about climbing, at least going down you’ve got gravity more or less on your side. Bob, why don’t we go take a swing at that while the women see if there’s any other cleaning or whatnot that needs to be done in the room.”

“That’s part of the reason we came today,” Bob said. “In case there was something that needed to be done.”

“Actually, it’s not a long list. I think things are in pretty good shape.”

The two of them went upstairs, and then up a narrow flight of stairs to the attic, which was low; nowhere was there enough space to actually stand upright. The attic was packed pretty full of things that had accumulated in half a century of Jeff and Elaine’s living there. There were even some things of Eric’s there, climbing gear that it seemed unlikely that he would ever use again, and some sailing gear that seemed to be about equally unlikely to have further use.

Eric made a mental note to suggest a garage sale to Eunice for next summer. He understood that Jeff’s death had made him realize that there would be an end to his own life, as well, and at his age there was little chance that some of those things would ever be needed again. Some of that stuff had some value as mementos of his younger years when he’d led a more active lifestyle, so a little of it was valuable for that reason alone. But the majority of it was something that someone else would have to deal with sooner or later, after he and Eunice had passed on like Jeff. That would most likely be Bob and Ann, and it would be a huge pain in the neck to them. There was no point in saddling them with more than necessary.

Fortunately the bed frame and mattress were easily accessible; little had been taken to the attic since they’d converted Elaine’s room into Jeff’s sickroom, and the bed had been one of the last things taken up. It was no great trick to get the frame down into the upstairs hallway and then to the main floor, although there was one tricky corner; the mattress, however, was floppy and took some fiddling and a little bad language to manage. But all in all, the job was quickly done; the women seemed to be putting a little more effort into the room than Eric had anticipated, so they weren’t all the way ready for the bed anyway.

“Now that I have the chance,” Bob said, “this is probably a good time to sneak out back and have a smoke.” He was a smoker, although not a heavy one, but Eric figured it had probably been some time since he’d had the opportunity.

“Let me grab my coat and go with you,” Eric replied. “I could stand a little fresh air myself.”

In a couple minutes the two of them were out in the wind shadow of the garage; a chilly breeze was blowing off the lake, and it seemed slightly more comfortable there. Bob lighted a weed; Eric had never smoked, but at least was upwind of him. “I was thinking about it on the way up here,” Bob said. “Did Ann’s folks ever get rid of that old sports car they had?”

“No, they still have it,” Eric smiled. “In fact, I sold it to them, oh hell, over fifty years ago. I bought it from Eunice’s dad for seven hundred and sold it to them for the same price. That was the first time I met her dad. I know that a few years ago someone offered Jeff twenty-five thousand for it. Even if fifty years are involved, or whatever it was, that sounds like a profit to me.”

“I had no idea it was worth that much,” Bob shook his head. “I thought five, maybe ten thousand, but I never would have believed twenty-five.” It was pretty clear to Eric that Bob had visions of getting his hands on the car cheaply. “Does it get used much?”

“It hasn’t been used at all since the summer before Jeff had his stroke,” Eric replied honestly. “It’s sitting in a storage building in Wychbold with a tarp over it, except that I go over once a month or so and start it to keep the battery up. It’s really in excellent shape. About ten years ago Jeff had a guy go through it with a fine-tooth comb and bring it back up to showroom shape. It probably hasn’t had five hundred miles on it since then. I think the last time Jeff and Eunice had it out they took it to a car show and picked up a trophy. Maybe I ought to talk to Eunice about getting it on the market, but she might not want to sell it. She’ll have a lot of memories of Jeff wrapped up in that car. They drove it on their honeymoon, you know.”

“I remember hearing about that,” Bob said. “It was just a thought. So I guess I’m just as glad I have a moment to talk to you alone. Ann’s mom seems to be taking this pretty well, but do you think she’s just putting on a front?”

“No, actually I think she’s taking it pretty well. The timing came as a surprise to both of us, but I can’t say that it was a shock. Jeff really wasn’t well, you know, and that was hard on her. In fact, it was hard on both of us. Things won’t be the same, ever again, but things change in life and you have to get used to the fact.”

“Yeah, I guess they do,” Bob agreed and took a drag on his cigarette. “Look, I don’t know how to say this, but on the way up here, Ann was talking about asking her mother to come down and live with us. I don’t know what I think about the idea yet.”

“I can’t speak for Eunice,” Eric replied. “But I don’t think she’d be anxious to do it, at least not yet. She’s still in pretty good shape and she ought to be able to take care of herself for years yet. I don’t think she’d want to cut off all the connections she has around here, not just yet. If things get a little harder, I should be able to help take care of her for a while yet, but I don’t think it’s something that’s a really major issue.”

“Actually, in Ann’s mind, you are the issue,” Bob said. “Now that Ann’s dad is gone, you’re still planning on staying around here, aren’t you?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t made any other plans,” Eric admitted. “But equally honestly, I haven’t even thought about it. It’s not like I have anything else to do. Eunice has been my friend for almost as many years as Jeff was, and I still owe her a lot for all they did for me over all the years.”

“I figured something like that,” Bob said. “But Ann has got, well, she’s gotten onto this guilt trip that she should have done more for her mother while her dad was sick, and I think she feels like she needs to make up for it somehow. I’m not really in favor of it, not at this time, anyway, so long as you’re here, and if Ann were to get her mother to move down to Evansville with us, it would leave you hanging.”

“In the end, it’s going to have to be Eunice’s decision,” Eric replied. This was something he hadn’t expected.

He really hadn’t thought very much about what would happen after the next few days, other than figuring that things would go on much like they’d gone on for years, just without Jeff being around. That it could end, that his own future would be in doubt because of Jeff’s death was just something that hadn’t crossed his mind. Now, there was a very large well of uncertainty there – if he didn’t have this place to live in, essentially for free, he could quickly be in dire straits. While he got Social Security payments each month, they were not large, mostly because he hadn’t earned a great deal of money in his lifetime.

But there was no way he could voice those misgivings to Bob – Eunice perhaps, but not Bob. “I don’t think it’s necessary, at least not yet,” he replied. “Now, that doesn’t mean that in five or ten years things couldn’t change, because that’s a fact of life when you get to be Eunice’s and my age. Hell, what happened to Jeff is proof positive of that, and he was the youngest of the three of us.”

“I think I agree with you,” Bob said. “But I’m sure Ann doesn’t see it that way. She really is feeling guilty about not being able to do more for her mother and father the last few years.”

“I can’t blame her, I guess,” Eric submitted, his mind still churning about the unpleasant possibility. “We managed to get along, but there were times it would have been nice to have had a little extra help. I know Ann did the best she could, but I guess that’s how that works.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.