It had been a fun summer so far, my first summer away from home! My parents had friends in town, so I arranged to stay with them until classes started up again in the fall. Our families had been friends for years, so I knew them simply as Auntie and Uncle. They’d been married and lived together nearly 3 decades but never had any kids. They just simply had fun and lived their best life. They were always a lot of fun, joking, laughing, crazy stories, wild ideas.
Uncle was a big burly man, he looked like a lumberjack or something, but looks were deceiving. He was a photographer, and so their house was lined with all kinds of pictures he’d taken over the years. He was a nice man, very generous, though something always seemed a little off with him. The way he looked at you, it was uncomfortable, but he’d never harmed a fly in his life, to my knowledge, so everyone dismissed his antics as harmless. Auntie would give him a hard time about leering sometimes, but it was more in jest. She was a Marine Biologist, and frequently went on longer trips away during the summer, off to some island chain somewhere to do research. She was quite the character, with so many amazing tales of animals and cultures all over the world. I was always fascinated by her stories, and it was a big part of why I chose my major.