Uncle Jack

Kayla had long learned to see past the veneer of truth to the deeper story whenever her Uncle Jack was visiting and recounting what had he had been up to since he’d last been in town. It was surreal to her how he expected her and her parents to trust his multitude of lies, and even he barely pretended anymore, making up events and accomplishments as easily as idioms fell from her English teacher’s mouth.

There was a shift in his demeanor this time though, when he stood at their door in the rain, holding a single duffle bag, no glib smile, and his shoulders slumped in shame, causing Kayla to do a double take to be sure in was the same man who’d bragged that he’d be sailing around the Caribbean in his brand-new yacht for the entirety of this month. “I need help,” he said simply, his quiet, uncertain voice betraying his honesty.

She let him in, and they stood awkwardly in the entranceway for a moment, until Jack broke the silence, stating, “It’ll be hard to admit that I’m actually a washed-up failure to your parents, but you’ve always seen exactly who I actually am, haven’t you?”

Kayla nodded at the accuracy of the observation, and replied, “I never thought that I’d ever respect you, but if you continue to change your tune, then perhaps I finally will.”

.

I challenged myself to include these prompts while writing:

GirlieOnTheEdge’s Six Sentence Story challenge – shift

Pensitivity101’s Take Seven – lies, pretend, story, true, tune, single, double, trust, betray

Fandango’s One Word Challenge – idiom

Word of the Day Challenge – surreal

Ragtag Daily Prompt – rain

Your Daily Word Prompt – exact