Uncle's Ranch

Prompt: [You hadn’t expected the hot air balloon to be filled with two dozen baby animals, but when your great uncle sends you a modern-day ark, you roll with it.]

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My uncle has a really cool ranch.

I loved visiting as a kid. Handfeeding the baby goats, petting the alpaca, chasing after the surly barn cats. All of it. I remember how his eyes lit up when we talked, happy that someone else took interest. (Even if it were just a six-year old that liked the 'fluffies.')

Did I ever meet his wife? I remember the vague outline of a woman, but the memory's too old for me to say. She could've been a friendly neighbor for all I know.

Quick correction, my uncle had a really cool ranch.

Yeah, I didn't believe it'd turn out this way either. He loved animals. He really, really loved animals, enough to dedicate his life to it. It isn't like having a dog: waking up to let them outside, going to work, then playing fetch in your living room. These animals were his work. He woke up at dawn every day. Attending to dozens upon dozens of animals was no small feat, and by the time he finished the sun was well on its way to setting. And I thought that was just so damn cool. When my mom wants to embarrass me she brings up the times I refused to go out anywhere without my "farmer clothes" (actually just a cowboy Halloween costume, not that I knew the difference.)

But really, I was just some kid. Maybe I wanted to be a rancher back then, but I also wanted to become a scuba diver, a video game developer, and M*ckey M*use.

I saw him less and less as I grew up. I'd be too busy with clubs or homework or piano practice to make the drive, and his appearances at family gatherings became less frequent. Looking back, he kind-of... smelled like he brought the barn with him, which didn't exactly make him a beloved guest at Christmas.

No matter how much fun my uncle and I'd have skipping rocks across the lake at sunset, life went on. I had to go home to go to bed to get up early for school the next day, where I'd fuck around with my best friend during morning period. Until I didn't have homeroom period with him anymore, and before I knew it we would pass by each other in the hallways without a wave or a smile.

But that's all normal, isn't it? It was normal that I never called Uncle while his number gathered dust in my contacts list for a decade. Anybody, anybody who says they could've done differently by my uncle is lying. Nobody would expect this madman to hoist all of... all of this onto you.

That's why I didn't expect myself to take up the offer either.

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