Barefoot at the Lake by Bruce Fogle

Author:Bruce Fogle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910463048
Publisher: September Publishing

NOTHING

HAPPENS

As I finished drying the breakfast dishes and my mother put them back in the cupboard, she said, ‘Go talk to your uncle.’

She tried to hide the tenseness in her voice but I knew when she was pretending everything was normal, and now she was pretending. Besides, before she made breakfast I’d heard her call him a fool and I knew that he wasn’t. Children could be foolish but not adults, especially Uncle Reub. To me he was the cleverest adult, the most intelligent one, the one who knew almost everything and if he didn’t know something he was honest and told you he didn’t.

Uncle Reub was back in his chair on the lawn, looking down the placid water towards the bridge. Flies were bothering him because every now and then he waved his hand across his face.

‘What should I talk about?’ I asked.

‘Just talk to him.’

I wanted to go to Cedar Bay to help Rob, Steve and Perry build a raft, but Rob had told me I wasn’t invited.

‘I’m going to take Angus for a walk,’ I answered and my mother replied, ‘After you do that talk to your uncle.’

I went in my bedroom where Angus was in the clothes cupboard in his basket, his big brown eyes wide open. I picked him up and looked into his eyes. They were the same colour as mine, dark chocolate, and for the first time in my life I wondered what it would be like to be a dog, to think like a dog. Did he think the way I did, wondering what he’d do today? Did he wonder why the clouds moved so fast? Did he know when Mum was moody and needed to be left alone or when she needed someone to just listen to her talk? I carried Angus outside and put him down, but instead of going for a walk we went over to my uncle.

‘Mum says I should talk to you,’ I said.

‘Did she say what you should talk about?’ Uncle asked.

‘No, just talk to you.’

We were both silent. Angus wandered down to the shoreline where he found a dead sunfish, brought it back to the grass then carefully and purposefully rolled on it.

‘Are you hungry?’ I asked.

Uncle sat up straighter, turned to me and I noticed, also for the first time, that my uncle’s eyes were as brown as Angus’s and mine. ‘We all look the same,’ I thought. ‘If our eyes look the same do we all think the same?’

‘Your mother brought me a bologni sandwich.’

He paused then continued, ‘Brucie, that’s thoughtful of you to ask.’

They were silent once more.

‘Nothing to do today?’ Uncle asked.

‘It’s boring,’ I replied.

‘Have a look at my watch,’ Uncle suggested.

I loved Uncle’s watch. The numbers were large. In daylight the numbers and hands looked light green but at night they glowed in the dark.

‘Watch the second hand.’

I did.

‘Keep watching the watch.’

I did.

‘Brucie, did you notice that time slows down when you watch it?’

It did take an awful long time

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