Friday Fiction: Recalling The Boy

Family memories

Photo by 童 彤 on Unsplash

Here’s this week’s Friday Fiction. This post is for paid subscribers only.

One of my lesser-known tales, from It Will Be Quick.

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Recalling The Boy

“Not for sweets, toys, or computer games.”

Dominic read the last line again, grimaced, then crumpled the paper up and threw it across the bedroom. It bounced off the wall and rolled on the floor near his desk.

He was right to be angry.

Uncle Tom had gifted him money – a lot of money. The only good thing he’d done for Dominic since leaving the country. It was potentially great – everyone at school would be jealous – if he could spend it.

But he couldn’t. Not yet. The document stated that the money was to be kept in trust until Dominic was sixteen (a whole year away!). And even then it was only to be used for university and a limited number of other “worthy” uses – but “not for sweets, toys, or computer games.”

The silly phrase made out that he was still a kid.

It just showed how little Uncle Tom had known about Dominic in the last few years. Dominic hadn’t seen his uncle since he left for New Zealand when Dominic was eleven. Uncle Tom had written letters, and phoned, but Dominic rarely replied to letters, and found speaking on the phone uncomfortable, until he eventually signalled his mum to say that he wasn’t home on the rare occasions that Uncle Tom rang. That became even less frequent in later years. Sometimes just at Christmas.