Say Uncle
Chapter 11

Standing in the door way between the main room and the backroom, Anthony stood, staring at an elderly sheep woman who was in turn observing him and rubbing her chin a little; the jeweled wristband she wore jangling as she did. It was silent for a few moments before the elderly woman broke the silence asking to Ms. Susan, “is this the boy?” The blue bird nodded, the sheep then reaching into her purse for something. Watching her pull out a piece of paper from her purse, Anthony made a few observations of his own of the woman. Clearly from a family of wealth the jewels on her jewelry said this loud and clear, however the biggest example of this being shouted was the muscle that stood behind her. Dressed in well tailored two piece suits was a gorilla and an alligator, both no older then twenty five give or take a few years; in their prime they could obviously do a lot of damage. After looking over what ended up being a picture that was printed on plain paper the elderly sheep gasps, then abruptly makes her way over to Anthony, hugging the caught off guard wolf.


After half a moment of silence Anthony finally asks as the elderly sheep lets him go, “I do know you from some where ma’am?” she responds shaking her head no, but then saying, “no you’ve never seen me before, but I owe you more then I ever could repay.” moving past the two body guards, entered the store two much younger sheep, identical twins wearing matching outfits to the letter. The elderly sheep responds calling the girls over, Anthony could almost feel the body guards staring at him waiting for him to make one wrong move, but ignoring them the elderly woman says, “these are my granddaughters, Arie and Sally and they would not be here right now if not for you.” scratching his head Anthony responds; obviously having no clue as to what she was talking about, “uh what did I do?”

The elderly sheep laughs a little then explains, “a few weeks ago you protected your nieces from an attempted kidnapping you remember?” he nods saying as he felt Annie and Jenny hiding behind him now, “yeah I remember now, I had reporters hounding me for days till I talked to them about it.” She nods going on as the girls went about poking through some of the candy displays, “after they were arrested the police got them to talk about their operation, later that week a swat team raided their warehouse, where they found my darling grandchildren, along with a lot of information they used to track down and convict the groups leader. You see that is why I owe you more then I can ever repay, because of your actions I got my granddaughters back, and the police caught one of the most wanted men in the country.” Smiling he says scratching the back of his head, “it was nothing really, I mean I couldn’t just let them grab up my nieces, I swore to these girls I’d protect them after all; I‘m happy to see you got your granddaughters back though.” The elderly sheep protests as he played down his role in the events, “nothing, my dear! nothing is helping someone my age cross the street, nothing is helping a young child get their toy out a tree, saving two lives couldn‘t be further away from nothing. I insist you come with me to our mansion so I can properly reward you.”

Anthony says getting embarrassed as he watched the sheep sing his praises, “no, no you don’t have to reward me.” She responds taking her cane from the gorilla, tapping it on the ground a few times, “nonsense, if you don’t allow me to reward you for this I will take it personally.” Anthony chuckles a little as the twins now tugging on his hands start to make him move, the elderly woman asking Susan, “miss, may I take your helper here for the day?” The blue bird nods with a smile waving him goodbye as the twins pulled him out the door, followed after by Annie and Jenny. Once outside he spots a limo, black and very expansive looking, and he asks as he as was nearly pulled into the vehicle, “wait, what about my car?” The sheep laughs saying, “don’t worry dear, one of my guards will drive it to our home for you.” Finally being pull and pushed into the limo by both the twins and his nieces he looks over to the gator, who was politely asking for his keys, looking over to the sheep who nods Anthony hands his keys to the gator who then closes the door. Patting the seat next to her, the elder sheep beckons him to take a seat, which he does not having much of a choice in the matter, and as he does and buckles himself in she presses a button on the wall saying as some sort of intercom chirps on, “take us home please.” in moments the vehicle was in motion, driving to where ever the mansion the sheep lived in was, and it was a quiet ride, the four girls having some soda’s and Anthony talking with the elderly sheep, telling him about how they owned a large construction company that was reasonable for most of the current construction projects going on along this coast alone.    

After about an hours worth of driving, they finally arrived at their destination, and by the looks on their faces, they had never seen a house so big. By far not the biggest mansion in the country it still had a fair size to it, asking the elderly sheep how big it was she stated that it was four stories tall, with ten bedrooms alone, about five bathrooms, two garages, and a large exercise room with the latest work out gear available. The limo finally pulls up the front of the building where they are greeted by more bodyguards and some other staff such as butlers and a few maids. Getting of the limo brought Anthony to whistle at how nice the place looked, clearly they put a lot of money into maintaining their property and it showed, hand cut hedges, and season flowers planted throughout the front of the building. Anthony states admiring the building and its front yard, “this place looks great ma’am, you clearly know what you like, makes our little apartment look like a hole in the ground.” she laughs inviting them inside where within moments the girls were whisked away by the twins who most likely wanted someone to play with, leaving Anthony and the elderly woman to walk in the entrance foyer where she asks, “would you like something to drink dear?” He nods accepting her offer and following her to a room. Inside the room she lead him two was a very well maintained and decorated room, clearly a sitting room, complete with several shelves of books and a fire place. Rolling in a cart, one of the maids brings in a bottle of wine with a pair of glasses.

Anthony says as the maid pours him a glass, “I’m only eighteen.” The old sheep says with a chuckle as she accepts her own glass, “I won’t tell if you wont dear.” He laughs then accepts the glass, the maid then excusing herself and leaving the room. The sheep takes a drink then sets it on a coaster which sits on a side table near her chair saying once she does, “so tell me a little about yourself dear.” he nods, taking a drink of the wine he was offered, if only to be polite, then says setting his glass down, “well till earlier this year, I lived alone in this little apartment complex, it’s a little run down, but still being in high school with but a part time job, it was all I could afford.” She asks before taking another sip of her wine, “you don’t live with your parents dear?”

He shakes his head no saying, “well no, you see, they were killed when I was little in a mugging.” She says setting her glass down, “I’m so sorry dear, I do remember reading about that horrible event in the news paper some time back.” He nods saying, “yeah it was hard at first, luckily my brother lived in town and took me in, I stayed with him for a few years, my niece Annie loved playing with me, I pretty sure I broke her heart when I left.” She asks folding her hands under her chin, “why ever did you leave dear, where you not happy?” he shakes his head no stating, “no, no nothing like that ma’am, you see my sister in law was nine months pregnant, they only had a three bed two bath house, with me in the spare room they had no room for the new baby.” He pause, and takes a drink from his wine before going on, “one night I heard my brother and his wife talking about where to put the baby when she was born, she suggested the room I was in, he then asked where I would sleep. In the end it nearly caused an argument between the two of them, my brother flat out refused to kick me out.”

She nods as he set his glass down on continued on, “my brother took me in when I had nothing, the last thing I wanted to cause him trouble, so that night I packed up my stuff and left, leaving only a note; from what my brother told me, it was Annie who found it and broke into tears after reading it, after which she ran into my brothers room at four in the morning crying at the top of her lungs unkie A is gone, unkie A is gone.” she nods continuing to listen to his story, “in my mind, I knew I did the right thing, but every day afterwards, my heart told me to go back but I didn’t want to be an additional stress on my brothers marriage; he had a cub on the way and plans to make for her, the last thing he needed was his little brother being a leech.”

She nods saying as he finished up his story, “well if you ask me, you did a very noble thing, but you needn’t go so far as to leave in the middle of the night dear, family helps out family honey, I sure if you had talked it over with your brother and his wife, the three of you could have made arrangements.” He nods taking another drink, then saying, “perhaps, but knowing my brother he would have but they didn’t have a lot of money at the time, they couldn’t afford to help me and still be able to get ready for the new baby.” She nods then asks finishing off her wine, “so I take it you’re baby sitting the little ones for your brother so he and his wife could have some private time perhaps?” she giggles showing the intent in her words, but the saddened look in his face made her stop, he then said, “I wish it were only that, but I’m afraid the truth behind me and the girls being together is much darker. About a month ago. . . . My brother and his wife where pulling into their driveway . . . When a drunk driver struck their car.”

The old sheep clasps her hands over her mouth, Anthony lowering his head to try and hide a few tears goes on to say, “and what’s worse is Annie and Jenny where on the porch when it happened, they were in such shock that despite a terrible storm they ran off into the city. They showed up on door step my hours later, soaking wet and Jenny crying on Annie’s back. At first I scolded Annie for bring her sister out in a storm like this, but moments later I got the call from the police.” The elderly sheep wipes her eyes giving Anthony a moment to wipe his own, saying afterwards, “I’m so very sorry my dear, I can only imagine what it must have been like for you and the girls, oh why must the good die so very young.” there is silence for a few moments as both Anthony and the old sheep finished their glasses of wine, The old sheep nods then says suddenly remembering, “oh my goodness where are my manners, all this time we’ve been talking and I never told you my name, I’m sorry dear I must look like some forgetful old ewe.” He smiles saying, “its not a problem ma’am.” She responds setting down her glass, “you don’t have to call me ma’am, my name is Shery dear, you may use my name, or if you’d like the girls like to call me nana.” He smiles noting her attempts to get up then getting up himself offers her his hand, which she accepts gratefully.

Once on her feet she says motioning for Anthony to follow her, “I think its time to give you that reward I told you I’d give you.” He nods and follows after her figuring it was pointless to tell her it wasn’t necessary, then following her into another room, the items in this room where much, much older then anything else in the house. Once inside the old sheep approaches a display case with many old but expensive looking items locked in it. Taking a key from her pocket, she unlocks the case in front of her then opens it calling his attention to an item she was picking up. It was clearly a very old charm made out of gold with a gold chain and very ornate engravings. She then says with a smile after closing the case, “this charm here was given to my great, great, great, great grandfather a very long time ago.” He nods as she goes on, “you see, one day it had been raining for weeks the rivers were swollen and where treating to flood, in an attempt to stop that from happening the town got together to build a sandbag wall.” She goes on wiping off the charm, “during the process of making the wall, a child fell into the river, a young boy no older then four. Without a second thought my great, great, great, great grandfather jumped into the river and held onto the boy, doing his best to keep them both above the water. After being washed down river for miles they where finally saved. The boys father was a metal smith in the town, a well known metal smith his family was quite wealthy as well.”

Walking over to Anthony she goes on, “when he brought back the metal smith’s son, he was beyond words, he wanted to pay my ancestor for his actions but he refused. So without my his knowledge the metal smith, with his own hands made this, swearing that from that day forward my great, great, great, great grandfather was his sworn brother, he gave him this medal as a sign of that oath. Anthony my dear, I want you to have this charm, from this day on you a part of my family, a son to me.” He takes the medal from her afterwards she wraps him in a hug saying, “it is only a small token of my immense thanks, I can never truly repay you for what you’ve done for this old woman.” He nods saying as he took a look at the solid gold charm, “thanks nana, I’ll keep it happily.” She says with a smile leading him out of the room, “please my dear, you’re my sworn son now, call me mother.” They both stop for a moment and share a laugh, then as they are about to leave the room all four girls pop up out of nowhere, Jenny saying as she tugged on Anthony’s tail, “Uncle A I’m getting hungry, can we go home and have dinner?”

He smiles and says scooping the cub into his arms, “sure sweetheart, I believe its about time we left anyway it is getting dark.” Before he could make a move however, the old sheep has whipped around him and says, “nonsense, if you are hungry then nana shery will have the cooks make dinner, and no I won’t take no for an answer my dears, so you just follow me and I’ll show you the dining room.” Jenny laughs following after the old sheep followed by Annie, Anthony looking down at the twins Arie of which says after a giggle, “I wouldn’t try arguing with her, once nana has made up her mind there is no stopping her, just ask dad.” He smiles then following after them twins made their way to the dining hall to find dinner had already been made and served and sitting at the table as another sheep in a very well tailored suit. Getting out of his seat, The sheep said as he reached out and offered Anthony his hand. “you must be the one who was the key part in getting my daughters back.” Anthony nods shaking his hand, the sheep braking his character for a moment pulling Anthony into a hug, afterwards saying, “you have no idea how much this means to me my friend. If ever there is anything you want, and I mean anything just say the word and I’ll make it happen or die trying.” Anthony nods the sheep then saying as he regain his composure, “My name is Scott Moonleaf, you’ve already met my mother and my daughters, I’ve taken the liberty of having dinner made, knowing how mother is.” Anthony nods and takes a seat next to the well dressed sheep, who says the moment he sees it, “I see, so mother has given you the charm has she, I’m guessing she told you the story of that little charm did she?” Anthony nods, Scott then saying, “well then on behalf of myself and my daughters, let me be the first to welcome you to the family brother, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Anthony nods thanking him, but then looking over at his nieces and seeing how their were eating like wild pups that had not been fed in weeks. He lifts his hand to scold them, but with a chuckle Scott points over to his mother who is basically doing the same thing, only in a much more polite and practiced way. Laughing Anthony picks up his fork and begins to eat his dinner.

~some time later~

Its late as the cold of the night air clung to Anthony’s fur as he and Scott were out on a balcony, enjoying the view and the crispness of the air. Scott asks setting down a glass of wine, “you sure I can’t temp you with a glass brother?” Anthony nods saying, “nah, I’ve already had some with your mother, plus I have to drive home soon.” Looking back inside Annie and Jenny are sleeping on a couch, having nodded off playing with the twins who were also asleep. Scott chuckled a little before setting his glass down then asking, “So Anthony, were do you live?” Anthony responds sitting up in his chair, “me and the girls live in an apartment down town, the complex is a little run down, but its all I can afford, especially now that I have to take care of the girls.” Scott nods saying as he swallowed a bit of wine, “yes mother told me about your brother, you have my deepest condolences. Your apartment, how big is it might I ask?” Anthony scratches the back of his head before responding, “well like I said it’s a cheep apartment, its only a one bed one bath.” Sitting up Scott asks, “and you are sharing that small space with two little girls? Where do they sleep?” Anthony responds sighing, “they sleep in my room, I’ve taken to sleeping on the couch, the bed is hardly big enough for the two of them, for the three of us, they’d practically have to lay on top of me to fit.” Scott nods then saying as he shook his head back and forth a little, “no, no, no, that simply won’t do.” Standing up the sheep says, “no brother of mine will be raising children in such a small environment, follow me brother.” raising an eyebrow, Anthony gets up and follows the sheep who leads Anthony to his office, where the sheep says, “has mother told you about the families construction company?” Anthony nods, watching Scott take a large rolled up paper out of his desk then unrolling it.

Looking on the paper Anthony can only guess that its plans for some kind of planned community, which he was reassured when Scott said, “I have been working on this for some time, I wanted to help out the housing market so we build an entire housing area of low cost homes not from this very mansion. Now there is still many houses to be build however. . .” Pointing on the map he calls Anthony’s attention to a small section of it before going on, “I have four blocks build and already having families lining up to move in, and you my brother, are going to get one of those houses.” Anthony eyes open wide as Scott goes on to say, “they are lovely three bed one bath and one master bath homes, and as of now you own one of them, as a thank you for saving my daughters and because you are now my brother.” Anthony shakes his hand saying, “thank you Scott, thank you very much, if there is anything I can ever do to pay you back. .” Scott cuts him off abruptly saying, “No, No, No, this is the very least I can do, I am merely giving you a physical object, something that can easily be replaced, you have given me back something that I never could have replaced, as far as you need worry, I still owe you for two long life times of love and happiness.” Anthony nods asking as the moment passed, “so when can we move in?” Scott says rolling up the plans, “this weekend, I will be formally cutting the ribbon on these four blocks, and on that stage I will hand you the very first set of keys.” Anthony nods shaking the sheep’s hand. Looking at the clock on the wall, Scott says, “its getting quite late brother, perhaps its time for you to head back to your apartment?”

He nods and shakes his hand once more before heading back to the other room and collecting Annie and Jenny as well as his car keys, then after putting them both in the car and buckling them up, he heads home, with a smile on his face. for the first time he wasn’t just going to have some apartment or even a house soon he would have home, and not just any home but his home.


~End of chapter~