“He’s in shock, the poor kid.” Robbie could hear the woman talking behind him, but he ignored her. He really wasn’t. In shock that is. At least he didn’t think so. He didn’t feel shocked. Like, sure he was very unpleasantly surprised by the news, but he was more scared and a just a little bit annoyed. People just assumed that if you told a twelve year old kid that both his parents had died in a tragic car accident, said kid would dissolve into instant tears and/or uncontrollable hysterics. But the thing was, Robbie barely knew his parents. His father had been a very important, very busy businessman. He had flown all over the world taking care of his various companies. In his seventies, he barely ever had time to spare for his only son. When he finally did find a moment, he mostly didn’t know what to do with Robbie. Their talks consisted of father asking Robbie about school and after school activities and Robbie giving him a dutiful report.
Robbie’s mother wasn’t any better suited to parenting. Diana was thirty years younger than her husband and very active. She would follow her husband on his many trips or spend time at various charities and functions, taking care of the social life so important to influential people. Whenever she was forced to spend time with Robbie she would give him looks like she wasn’t sure what to do with him. They had nothing in common. Maybe if he’d been a girl? But Robbie didn’t really care all that much. Sure sometimes he wished to have a family like in one of those movies he sometimes watched, but mostly he was happy not to have been worse off. Some of his friends at school had parents who constantly fought each other or got married and divorced at least once a year. These kids never knew what to expect next. Robbie had it good compared to them. He went to a good school, had plenty of friends, though none very close, and he had every toy and computer game he could ever want. Not that he was much for games. He preferred books and loved studying. He was the happiest when working on a project.
But now the woman from social services came to his school to tell him his parents had been killed in an accident and he was going to be subjected to one of the very changes he dreaded. They had sent him to a psychologist who, after unsuccessfully trying to get him to talk about how he felt, had given him some crayons and left him alone while she chatted with the social services woman. Robbie doodled some stuff while not trying very hard to ignore their talk. It wasn’t like he was some baby who did not understand what this all meant. He was mature for his age, everyone said so. One teacher had once said he had an old soul. Robbie didn’t know about that, but he did get how the world worked.
“So what now” the psychologist asked the social services woman. “Does he have grandparents, aunts or uncles who’d take him in?”
“No grandparents. We’re still trying to locate his immediate family. For now, he’ll stay at home under the care of his housekeeper. She had temporary guardianship of him already, due to his parents frequent trips. The woman doesn’t mind looking after him even while she searches for a new job. Its doubtful whoever ends up looking after the kid will be moving into the house. All the possessions will have to be valuated and will probably be kept in trust for him.
Robbie frowned. It was just like he suspected. He really hoped his father’s lawyers would make sure he could stay at his school. It was a boarding school but he did not board. He lived in the same city so it hadn’t made sense. But if the lawyers could figure it out, he could stay at school until he got old enough to move out on his own. That would be a perfect solution in his opinion. But as young as Robbie was, he knew life rarely gave you what you wanted. That’s why he was scared. He was afraid they would find some old forgotten relative of his and move him half across the world to live in ruined haunted mansion in the middle of the moors.
Robbie snorted quietly at his thoughts. Right, like that would happen! He was never so lucky to have anything exciting happen to him. A haunted mansion would be exciting so it was definitely out of the question.
The unknown scared him, but the change that was about to befall him also annoyed the beeswax out of him. He hated change! He liked his routine, dang it! Robbie looked at his picture and frowned. Somehow, he had drawn the mansion and the ghosts. There was even a werewolf in the background. Robbie narrowed his eyes and tried to judge the picture objectively. The walls were crooked and the perspective skewed. The werewolf looked wicked cool though. Robbie wished he could be a werewolf. He’d turn into a wolf and go live in the forest. Then he thought about it some more. If he lived in the forest, he would have to eat raw meat and wipe his bottom with leaves. That was too gross. He decided being a werewolf wasn’t half as cool as the movies and books made it out to be!
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
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Robbie felt his belly clench unpleasantly as he waited in the principal’s office. It took the social services longer than expected to find a living relative of his. It’s been nearly a month since his parents’ deaths. Robbie had attended their funeral and accepted awkward condolences from his father’s various business partners and his mother’s socialite friends. After that he returned to his regular life. But things did not go back to normal. Kids at school started to avoid him. Robbie suspected they didn’t really know how to treat him. He certainly wouldn’t know what to say to a kid whose parents died, so he guessed he couldn’t really blame them. It wasn’t like he had any really close friends either. He was friendly with kids in his classes and the clubs he attended, had some of them visit him and attend birthday parties, but there wasn’t anyone he confided in. So no, he didn’t blame them for avoiding him but it didn’t stop the slight resentment that they didn’t try harder. And now here he sat, his life about to change once more.
It would appear that he had an uncle. His mother’s brother no less. He had never known. He’d never met the man, never even heard him mentioned. But the social services woman assured him that they were truly related. His uncle lived somewhere deep in the country, in a small town surrounded by forests. And now he was coming to meet Robbie and decide if he wanted to keep him or if raising a nephew was too much trouble. That wasn’t what the social services woman said, but Robbie knew it anyway. So he sat in the chair in the principal’s office, dressed in his school uniform waiting to meet his estranged uncle.
Robbie sighed. If his life was about to change so much he wished it would at least turn into something cool. Like, his uncle would turn out to be a spy who had been undercover all these years and couldn’t contact Robbie’s mother. Instead the man was a farmer and a pretty poor one at that. That’s what Robbie read between the lines of the social services woman’s speech. His unknown uncle was a poor farmer and Robbie’s mother had been ashamed of being related to someone so unimpressive. It was the only reason he could think of for his mother never mentioning a brother. If Robbie had a brother he would never lose contact with him like that. They would be best friends. They would do all kinds of things together and would protect each other. They would probably fight, but they would always forgive each other in the end. They wouldn’t ever stay on the opposite ends of the country and never mention the other’s name. But Robbie was an only child, so it was a moot point anyway. Robbie liked that saying 'a moot point' it sounded very serious and grown up, like something a hero in a book would say. 'Let’s stop arguing, it’s a moot point.'
Robbie heard voices in the hallway and turned to look at the door. It opened and principal Higgins walked in leading a short, stocky man inside.
The first thing Robbie noticed about his uncle was that he looked nothing like Robbie’s mother. She had been short and slender with hair dyed platinum blond and always styled to perfection. The man before him wasn’t much taller, but his hair was ordinary brown and rather shaggy. He had a beard, one of those big ones, like a lumberjack. He wore a dress shirt but it didn’t look like he was comfortable in it. He also paired it with loose dark jeans and heavy work-boots. Robbie’s suspicions were confirmed. His mother would have never wanted her high class friends to know she was related to someone like this. Robbie didn’t really care. The man looked at him with a steady gaze and he eyed him warily in turn. Principal Higgins cleared her throat and said.
“Robin, come meet your uncle, Foster Stoneheart. Mr. Stoneheart this is your nephew, Robin.” Robbie definitely knew his manners so he stood up and approached his newly met relative.
“It is nice to meet you, Sir,” he said, extending his hand. His uncle looked faintly surprised but he shook Robbie’s hand and nodded. His grip was nice and steady. That was one of the only things his father had ever taught him. “You can always judge a man by his handshake, Son. A good honest man will have a strong, steady handshake. Never trust a man with limp handshake who pulls away from it too soon. He’ll have something to hide.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, kid,” his uncle said. His voice was surprisingly deep and growly for such a short man.
“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted.” Principal Higgins smiled distractedly and left them alone in her office. Robbie eyed his uncle, who watched him in silence for a moment. Finally, the man offered.
“Why don’t we take a seat on the sofa and you can tell me a bit about yourself, Robin?” Robbie grimaced and his uncle must have been a perceptive man because he asked. “What is it?”
“I don’t really like my full name, Sir. Everybody mostly calls me Robbie.”
“Robbie it is.” His uncle nodded and they took a seat on the couch. “Now, how abut you tell me something about yourself and then I’ll tell you a bit about myself? How does it sound?” The man patted Robbie’s shoulder and Robbie could feel some of the tension in him easing.
“It sounds good, Sir. What would you like to know?” He wasn’t fully reassured, not yet, but he had a good feeling about his uncle. He thought they might learn to get along.