Uncle DAVE
A Halloween Story
by Don Ecker
All Rights Reserved
They held the memorial service this morning at 10:00. Mom demanded it be held at the church, she refused to have anything to do with any funeral home. She had her fill of those, she said, when she buried her parents. Of course there was no body, so why have any hassle or expense at a funeral home? The police are still looking for my uncle but I don’t think they will ever find anything. Blood was all that was left and they matched that to Uncle Dave. Do I think I know what happened? Well I do get ahead of myself and sometimes I have a bad habit of that. I suppose I should start at the beginning, That is if you’re interested. You are? Okay, but remember you asked.
My name is Brian Winston, of the “northside Winstons.” Well, that’s how my mother informs people. My dad’s name is William Arthur Winston, he’s the middle son. My mom’s name is Shelia Anne Lovy, from the “wrong side of the track” Lovy’s. That part of the family immigrated from Hungary 3 or 4 generations ago. She is really the one that is the “ram-rod” of the family, I guess that is where a lot of problems came from. You see, my mother never met a situation that she didn’t absolutely try to control from the get-go. Had Shelia liked computers she probably would have eased Bill Gates out by now and would be running Microsoft. Got the idea?
Oh, you object to my referring to my mother as Shelia? Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of her like a mother, she’s more like a Marine Corps drill sergeant. Well, that seems to be her shtick. I guess a little about mom might be of interest.
My grandparents, her father and mother, were both dead by the time she was 17. Now I will grant you, something like that is a hell of a trick to play on a kid. Maybe that was the problem, she didn’t get to be a kid anymore. She had responsibilities and they were Uncle Dave. When mom ended up taking over the family, Dave was just 9 years old. I heard the story a bunch of times from her, the damned state was going to take Dave away. If my mothers elderly grandmother, (my grandma’s mom) hadn’t come to live with Shelia and Dave, the state would’ve split the family. One thing you can never take away from Shelia, her backbone is solid stainless steel.
Now, just from what I figured out over the years, and from what Uncle Dave told me, Shelia forgot that she was Dave’s sister and instead acted like Napoleon Bonaparte. The upshot is they clashed, and from what I heard their clashes could have been mistaken for the big naval battle of the Monitor and the Merremack during the Civil War. Before Dave hit 12 years of age, right after his parents died, Dave was in his shell. He was about 12 or 13 when he came out of the shell and that’s when fireworks began. I guess Dave had a bit of the hellion in him. Of course it didn’t help that Shelia didn’t get to go away to school which had been her dream, instead she ended up attending our local campus in town.
Shelia met my dad on campus and they clicked. Well anyways, I was born 7 months after they married. Do the math, I did. When I mentioned it one time to Shelia during an argument about my playing football (don’t even ask how the one had anything to do with the other) she slapped me across the face. That taught me two things. My mother was VERY sensitive about my birthday and she had one hell of a right cross. I remembered both those lessons for a long time. I always remember when I learn the hard way.
Now a little about my dad, or as Shelia calls him when she’s pissed, William Arthur.
Shelia and dad were married in their last year of college. Of course I was on the way, but didn’t know it yet. Uncle Dave was still living at home and he was only about 14 or 15. Uncle Dave was just starting high school. Now dad isn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, but he is easy going and has a good heart. He works for his dad in grandpa’s furniture business. Well I guess I should say “furniture empire” because it is the largest in the state. Okay, the state is small but still..... .
Now most of my father’s life, from the time he was old enough to hold a gun, had been a hunter. His dad and two brothers all hunted and deer season was like Christmas and Easter all rolled up into one huge holiday. Sheila put a stop to that. As she ordered in her “imperial voice”, no firearm would ever have space in her house. She didn’t like guns, they were dangerous and the only thing they were good for was to hurt and kill things. Later I was to find out that my grandfather, Sheila’s dad, had been an ardent deer hunter. Go figure.
Uncle Dave took up hunting at age 16. I think in retrospect it was to piss off Sheila but Dave ended up loving to hunt and he did every chance he got. That ended up being another bone of contention in a never ending line of problems between Uncle Dave and my mother. What was really funny was that my dad would sneak out with Dave to go hunting. He kept his rifle and shotgun at his dad’s, if you can believe that. But things around the ol’ homestead kept getting worse as Dave approached graduation from high school. From what Dave later told me, they were really at each others throats by the time he did graduate. Uncle Dave waited until his 18th birthday and then enlisted in the Army. “Upwards and onwards” as he used to say. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Dave stayed in the Army for 6 years and would have probably made a career out of it but he was injured in a training accident. Dave, always a little crazy, (and I did agree in part with Shelia about that) had decided to go Airborne. He then volunteered for the Army Rangers. Dave said that the Ranger training was truly a ball buster but he stayed the course and graduated. It was later making a night parachute jump that his parachute malfunctioned and he landed bad breaking both legs and fracturing his back. The Army gave him a medical discharge and a pension and he came home after close to a year in military hospitals.
After the Army, Dave and Shelia got along a little better. Dave told me it looked like she was finally beginning to mellow a bit. I was about 12 years old then and Dave and I were really close. He would take me to the movies and we’d go fishing and camping. Dave used to take his .22 caliber rifle along and he taught me to shoot. I was surprised when I found out it had been his dad’s rifle the way my mother was about guns. I was treated like the son that Uncle Dave didn’t have.
Now Dave was quite the devil with the ladies. That also ended up pissing Shelia off. She thought Dave should find himself a lady and get married. I never could understand the way she acted. In hindsight I think she was angry that he could play and she never could. It was as if she were Dave’s mother and not his sister, except he was the one person she could never get over on.
I suppose it was about a month or so before Dave went missing, he called me and asked if I wanted to go camping with him on the upcoming weekend. I had been dating a girl, Brandy Thompson most of the summer and to be honest, it was becoming a bit hot and heavy. Brandy and I had just had a small argument, and if I were really to be honest told Dave “sure”, just to piss Brandy off. I thought that if I were gone for the whole weekend, it would give her time to realize how much she missed me.
Thursday night I told Shelia and dad that Dave and I were going camping for the weekend and were leaving Friday afternoon. I got my sleeping bag out, rounded up my mess kit, fishing gear, camping knife and all that stuff, looking forward to getting outta Dodge for a couple of days. Now that I had graduated school in June and was looking at starting college in the Fall, I thought some time in the woods would do me good. Not to mention that I always had a good time with Dave.
Dave got over to my house at 4:00 PM, we loaded up his pick-up truck and told everyone we would be back sometime Sunday. Dave and I then stopped at the grocery store and loaded up with essential nutritional items (you know, stuff like 2 thick packages of bologna, mustard, pretzels, potato chips, Kaiser rolls, a case of beer, Ho Ho’s, you know, essential stuff) loaded up the cooler and we took off. We were heading to Lake Vista, a real nice and out of the way place. Vista is about 80 miles north of home, so we figured to be on the road for about an hour and half depending on traffic.
Lake Vista is a beautiful spot. Tall Pines surround the lake with areas that you can pitch your tent and make a fire. During the summertime a lot of people camp there but now with summer over and the Fall fast approaching we didn’t expect to see many folks about. I was looking forward to drowning a few worms in the lake and Dave said he just wanted to crack open a few beers and ponder the sky. Dave had been dating a divorced chick he met several months before but I could tell that there was something going on with that, he was surprisingly quiet about her. I knew better than to push it, but figured after he had a beer or two he would fill me in.
When we got to the lake we found a place right away, some distance back from the water. Behind us was a wooded slope of a hill, and the place was totally empty. I did notice a van about half way around the lake from us, but there was not even one soul in sight. Dave and I pitched our tent, and it was dark now, we lit a lantern, made some sandwiches, munched some chips and pretzels and cracked open a beer. (Well okay, I may not be 21 yet, but Shelia wasn’t here!)
“Well Ace”, (I preferred Dave calling me Ace to Brian, he had since I was a kid and it drove Shelia mad) “this is the life, ain’t it?” I smiled as I took a sip of some of Milwaukee’s finest.
“Dave, you do tell the truth, don’t ya?” Dave snickered while he drank.
“Yeah, I guess. Tell me Ace, is Shelia hassling you about leaving for college yet? Just who in hell is she gonna ride when you’re gone, your old man?” He laughed, only half kidding.
“Well, that’s hard to say. She rides me more lately about the girl I’ve been seeing, I think she is worried that Brandy might end up the way she did in college. It makes her crazy! Which reminds me, how are you and eh …” It took me a second to remember what the girls name was that Dave was dating. “eh, Jennie, no eh, I mean Jeanie. How is that going?” Dave took a long pull from the beer he was drinking, killing it off. He tossed the empty can and immediately popped the tab on another.
“Jeanie? Oh, okay I guess.” He took a long pull of that beer.
“Ace, you know that is one lady that has me tied up tighter than a drum. There really might be something there. I’m not sure yet, to tell the truth. You know, she has a kid from her first marriage and her ex-husband is a real dickhead. A couple of weeks ago I was over at her place when he dropped by to see his kid. He was about “half in the bag” and when he saw me he got real huffy. He said a couple of things to her and I offered to take him outside just to ring his chimes a little bit. She started crying, the kid was crying, all in all a shitty little scene. Don’t know if I want to deal with that on a daily or weekly basis. I might end up removing his ass and I really don’t need the hassle.” I nodded as if I understood. I decided to change the subject.
“Say Dave, you notice how damn quiet it is? Damn near not a sound, matter of fact I haven’t even heard a fish jump. And, did you notice that van down there?” I pointed out the van for Dave. “I haven’t seen anyone else around here, no other campfires, no lanterns, nothing.”
Dave shrugged and took another pull on his beer. I leaned back and sipped at mine just enjoying the quiet natural beauty of the place. I yawned and then realized with all the fresh air, lake, the beer I had been drinking … I was ready to go to sleep.
“Dave, I’m gonna call it a day and hit my sleeping bag. You need anything before I do?” Dave leaned forward and shook his head.
“Nah, go ahead. I think I will do the same after I finish this beer, take off.” I nodded and went into the tent. I crawled into my bag and went out like a light.
Some time later, not sure how long, my eyes popped open. Silence reined, not a sound … no wind, no animals, nothing. The inside of the tent was as black as coal, I couldn’t see a thing so I grabbed my flashlight and not wanting to disturb Uncle Dave put my hand over the lense and turned it on. Now that a little bit of light was showing I looked around and I was inside the tent alone. Dave wasn’t here and my head felt like somebody banged on it. Now, that was weird because I only drank one beer. I don’t drink a lot but believe me when I tell you that a single beer doesn’t do to me what I now felt like. I wrestled out of the bag, got up to my knee’s and crawled out the tent. When I stood up a wave of dizziness hit me like a wall of water and I had to sit down. Now that was weird! Also, I realized I was sick to my stomach, and I had to hold on for a second because I thought I was going to upchuck. When the dizziness passed I looked around and no Dave. The campfire we had earlier had died out, Dave’s truck was there and I thought maybe he crashed in the cab. I struggled to my feet and stumbled over to the truck hanging onto the flashlight like a drowning man would grasp a lifeline. I switched it on and when I got to the drivers side looked inside and still no Dave. Another wave of nausea hit me and my head was really banging around and I wondered if I were coming down with the flu. Oh, great. I sat down and leaned up against the side of Dave’s truck until the nausea passed. When it did I looked around and suddenly noticed what looked like a huge campfire on the hill behind our campsite. The flames were really high and I wasn’t sure but I thought I saw somebody walking past the front of the fire. Really staring now another wave of mind numbing sickness passed thru me and I decided I had to go back to the tent and crash. I struggled to my feet, stumbled into the tent and down I went. Out like a light again.
continued......
A Halloween Story
by Don Ecker
All Rights Reserved
They held the memorial service this morning at 10:00. Mom demanded it be held at the church, she refused to have anything to do with any funeral home. She had her fill of those, she said, when she buried her parents. Of course there was no body, so why have any hassle or expense at a funeral home? The police are still looking for my uncle but I don’t think they will ever find anything. Blood was all that was left and they matched that to Uncle Dave. Do I think I know what happened? Well I do get ahead of myself and sometimes I have a bad habit of that. I suppose I should start at the beginning, That is if you’re interested. You are? Okay, but remember you asked.
My name is Brian Winston, of the “northside Winstons.” Well, that’s how my mother informs people. My dad’s name is William Arthur Winston, he’s the middle son. My mom’s name is Shelia Anne Lovy, from the “wrong side of the track” Lovy’s. That part of the family immigrated from Hungary 3 or 4 generations ago. She is really the one that is the “ram-rod” of the family, I guess that is where a lot of problems came from. You see, my mother never met a situation that she didn’t absolutely try to control from the get-go. Had Shelia liked computers she probably would have eased Bill Gates out by now and would be running Microsoft. Got the idea?
Oh, you object to my referring to my mother as Shelia? Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of her like a mother, she’s more like a Marine Corps drill sergeant. Well, that seems to be her shtick. I guess a little about mom might be of interest.
My grandparents, her father and mother, were both dead by the time she was 17. Now I will grant you, something like that is a hell of a trick to play on a kid. Maybe that was the problem, she didn’t get to be a kid anymore. She had responsibilities and they were Uncle Dave. When mom ended up taking over the family, Dave was just 9 years old. I heard the story a bunch of times from her, the damned state was going to take Dave away. If my mothers elderly grandmother, (my grandma’s mom) hadn’t come to live with Shelia and Dave, the state would’ve split the family. One thing you can never take away from Shelia, her backbone is solid stainless steel.
Now, just from what I figured out over the years, and from what Uncle Dave told me, Shelia forgot that she was Dave’s sister and instead acted like Napoleon Bonaparte. The upshot is they clashed, and from what I heard their clashes could have been mistaken for the big naval battle of the Monitor and the Merremack during the Civil War. Before Dave hit 12 years of age, right after his parents died, Dave was in his shell. He was about 12 or 13 when he came out of the shell and that’s when fireworks began. I guess Dave had a bit of the hellion in him. Of course it didn’t help that Shelia didn’t get to go away to school which had been her dream, instead she ended up attending our local campus in town.
Shelia met my dad on campus and they clicked. Well anyways, I was born 7 months after they married. Do the math, I did. When I mentioned it one time to Shelia during an argument about my playing football (don’t even ask how the one had anything to do with the other) she slapped me across the face. That taught me two things. My mother was VERY sensitive about my birthday and she had one hell of a right cross. I remembered both those lessons for a long time. I always remember when I learn the hard way.
Now a little about my dad, or as Shelia calls him when she’s pissed, William Arthur.
Shelia and dad were married in their last year of college. Of course I was on the way, but didn’t know it yet. Uncle Dave was still living at home and he was only about 14 or 15. Uncle Dave was just starting high school. Now dad isn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, but he is easy going and has a good heart. He works for his dad in grandpa’s furniture business. Well I guess I should say “furniture empire” because it is the largest in the state. Okay, the state is small but still..... .
Now most of my father’s life, from the time he was old enough to hold a gun, had been a hunter. His dad and two brothers all hunted and deer season was like Christmas and Easter all rolled up into one huge holiday. Sheila put a stop to that. As she ordered in her “imperial voice”, no firearm would ever have space in her house. She didn’t like guns, they were dangerous and the only thing they were good for was to hurt and kill things. Later I was to find out that my grandfather, Sheila’s dad, had been an ardent deer hunter. Go figure.
Uncle Dave took up hunting at age 16. I think in retrospect it was to piss off Sheila but Dave ended up loving to hunt and he did every chance he got. That ended up being another bone of contention in a never ending line of problems between Uncle Dave and my mother. What was really funny was that my dad would sneak out with Dave to go hunting. He kept his rifle and shotgun at his dad’s, if you can believe that. But things around the ol’ homestead kept getting worse as Dave approached graduation from high school. From what Dave later told me, they were really at each others throats by the time he did graduate. Uncle Dave waited until his 18th birthday and then enlisted in the Army. “Upwards and onwards” as he used to say. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Dave stayed in the Army for 6 years and would have probably made a career out of it but he was injured in a training accident. Dave, always a little crazy, (and I did agree in part with Shelia about that) had decided to go Airborne. He then volunteered for the Army Rangers. Dave said that the Ranger training was truly a ball buster but he stayed the course and graduated. It was later making a night parachute jump that his parachute malfunctioned and he landed bad breaking both legs and fracturing his back. The Army gave him a medical discharge and a pension and he came home after close to a year in military hospitals.
After the Army, Dave and Shelia got along a little better. Dave told me it looked like she was finally beginning to mellow a bit. I was about 12 years old then and Dave and I were really close. He would take me to the movies and we’d go fishing and camping. Dave used to take his .22 caliber rifle along and he taught me to shoot. I was surprised when I found out it had been his dad’s rifle the way my mother was about guns. I was treated like the son that Uncle Dave didn’t have.
Now Dave was quite the devil with the ladies. That also ended up pissing Shelia off. She thought Dave should find himself a lady and get married. I never could understand the way she acted. In hindsight I think she was angry that he could play and she never could. It was as if she were Dave’s mother and not his sister, except he was the one person she could never get over on.
I suppose it was about a month or so before Dave went missing, he called me and asked if I wanted to go camping with him on the upcoming weekend. I had been dating a girl, Brandy Thompson most of the summer and to be honest, it was becoming a bit hot and heavy. Brandy and I had just had a small argument, and if I were really to be honest told Dave “sure”, just to piss Brandy off. I thought that if I were gone for the whole weekend, it would give her time to realize how much she missed me.
Thursday night I told Shelia and dad that Dave and I were going camping for the weekend and were leaving Friday afternoon. I got my sleeping bag out, rounded up my mess kit, fishing gear, camping knife and all that stuff, looking forward to getting outta Dodge for a couple of days. Now that I had graduated school in June and was looking at starting college in the Fall, I thought some time in the woods would do me good. Not to mention that I always had a good time with Dave.
Dave got over to my house at 4:00 PM, we loaded up his pick-up truck and told everyone we would be back sometime Sunday. Dave and I then stopped at the grocery store and loaded up with essential nutritional items (you know, stuff like 2 thick packages of bologna, mustard, pretzels, potato chips, Kaiser rolls, a case of beer, Ho Ho’s, you know, essential stuff) loaded up the cooler and we took off. We were heading to Lake Vista, a real nice and out of the way place. Vista is about 80 miles north of home, so we figured to be on the road for about an hour and half depending on traffic.
Lake Vista is a beautiful spot. Tall Pines surround the lake with areas that you can pitch your tent and make a fire. During the summertime a lot of people camp there but now with summer over and the Fall fast approaching we didn’t expect to see many folks about. I was looking forward to drowning a few worms in the lake and Dave said he just wanted to crack open a few beers and ponder the sky. Dave had been dating a divorced chick he met several months before but I could tell that there was something going on with that, he was surprisingly quiet about her. I knew better than to push it, but figured after he had a beer or two he would fill me in.
When we got to the lake we found a place right away, some distance back from the water. Behind us was a wooded slope of a hill, and the place was totally empty. I did notice a van about half way around the lake from us, but there was not even one soul in sight. Dave and I pitched our tent, and it was dark now, we lit a lantern, made some sandwiches, munched some chips and pretzels and cracked open a beer. (Well okay, I may not be 21 yet, but Shelia wasn’t here!)
“Well Ace”, (I preferred Dave calling me Ace to Brian, he had since I was a kid and it drove Shelia mad) “this is the life, ain’t it?” I smiled as I took a sip of some of Milwaukee’s finest.
“Dave, you do tell the truth, don’t ya?” Dave snickered while he drank.
“Yeah, I guess. Tell me Ace, is Shelia hassling you about leaving for college yet? Just who in hell is she gonna ride when you’re gone, your old man?” He laughed, only half kidding.
“Well, that’s hard to say. She rides me more lately about the girl I’ve been seeing, I think she is worried that Brandy might end up the way she did in college. It makes her crazy! Which reminds me, how are you and eh …” It took me a second to remember what the girls name was that Dave was dating. “eh, Jennie, no eh, I mean Jeanie. How is that going?” Dave took a long pull from the beer he was drinking, killing it off. He tossed the empty can and immediately popped the tab on another.
“Jeanie? Oh, okay I guess.” He took a long pull of that beer.
“Ace, you know that is one lady that has me tied up tighter than a drum. There really might be something there. I’m not sure yet, to tell the truth. You know, she has a kid from her first marriage and her ex-husband is a real dickhead. A couple of weeks ago I was over at her place when he dropped by to see his kid. He was about “half in the bag” and when he saw me he got real huffy. He said a couple of things to her and I offered to take him outside just to ring his chimes a little bit. She started crying, the kid was crying, all in all a shitty little scene. Don’t know if I want to deal with that on a daily or weekly basis. I might end up removing his ass and I really don’t need the hassle.” I nodded as if I understood. I decided to change the subject.
“Say Dave, you notice how damn quiet it is? Damn near not a sound, matter of fact I haven’t even heard a fish jump. And, did you notice that van down there?” I pointed out the van for Dave. “I haven’t seen anyone else around here, no other campfires, no lanterns, nothing.”
Dave shrugged and took another pull on his beer. I leaned back and sipped at mine just enjoying the quiet natural beauty of the place. I yawned and then realized with all the fresh air, lake, the beer I had been drinking … I was ready to go to sleep.
“Dave, I’m gonna call it a day and hit my sleeping bag. You need anything before I do?” Dave leaned forward and shook his head.
“Nah, go ahead. I think I will do the same after I finish this beer, take off.” I nodded and went into the tent. I crawled into my bag and went out like a light.
Some time later, not sure how long, my eyes popped open. Silence reined, not a sound … no wind, no animals, nothing. The inside of the tent was as black as coal, I couldn’t see a thing so I grabbed my flashlight and not wanting to disturb Uncle Dave put my hand over the lense and turned it on. Now that a little bit of light was showing I looked around and I was inside the tent alone. Dave wasn’t here and my head felt like somebody banged on it. Now, that was weird because I only drank one beer. I don’t drink a lot but believe me when I tell you that a single beer doesn’t do to me what I now felt like. I wrestled out of the bag, got up to my knee’s and crawled out the tent. When I stood up a wave of dizziness hit me like a wall of water and I had to sit down. Now that was weird! Also, I realized I was sick to my stomach, and I had to hold on for a second because I thought I was going to upchuck. When the dizziness passed I looked around and no Dave. The campfire we had earlier had died out, Dave’s truck was there and I thought maybe he crashed in the cab. I struggled to my feet and stumbled over to the truck hanging onto the flashlight like a drowning man would grasp a lifeline. I switched it on and when I got to the drivers side looked inside and still no Dave. Another wave of nausea hit me and my head was really banging around and I wondered if I were coming down with the flu. Oh, great. I sat down and leaned up against the side of Dave’s truck until the nausea passed. When it did I looked around and suddenly noticed what looked like a huge campfire on the hill behind our campsite. The flames were really high and I wasn’t sure but I thought I saw somebody walking past the front of the fire. Really staring now another wave of mind numbing sickness passed thru me and I decided I had to go back to the tent and crash. I struggled to my feet, stumbled into the tent and down I went. Out like a light again.
continued......
