The following confused me....unless Josh's mom was his father's 2nd wife???? Yet the timeline would then be confusing as well???
Something in him that makes him not want to be around me. I wonder if Vienna put him up to this? I could see it. She’s been the present one.
“What happened?” I blurt. As soon as the words escape my lips, I slide down in my seat. “Sorry,” I say.
His hand grips his glass. Condensation drips through his fingers. He blinks a few times and gazes out onto the green. A breeze flutters through my hair. There’s something swimming in his eyes.
“You remember your mom’s mother’s funeral a few years ago?” he asks, finally.
“Yes, that was when I last saw y’all.” There’s no forgetting that.
“Do you remember what Calvin was wearing?” He’s still looking out at the view.
I try to fly back in my memory. It’s been harder recently, things seem to escape me. I can’t seem to think back further than four months ago and that just replays in my dreams over and over again. But some pictures flash in my head. Of course, it was a funeral, so it was a lot of black. Nothing about what Cal was wearing stands out to me.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”
“It was so small. I tried to explain to him that a funeral wasn’t the best time to wear something like it. But he insisted. He wanted to and we let him because it made him happy. It was a rainbow pin. And Blair put eyeliner on him.” My uncle's lips begin to quiver. “And your father—my brother, took me aside later and asked me why I would let my son look like that. To wear something like that.
“And he told me I should be ashamed of my family and that he would not be taking you around us anymore because he didn’t want you to pick up ‘learned behavior’. I couldn’t believe it. At his wife’s funeral, he thought to do this. And I was just as shocked that he thought this way. We grew up with loving parents who taught us to love our neighbors. But he was right in what he said, he refused to talk to us, visit us. Your mom would often reach out and try to do things behind his back, but it was hard on her and us. And the kids would always ask about you and I nor Vienna could ever explain why their cousin hadn’t come to their birthday. I don’t think they know now. I’m so sorry, Jonah. We should’ve… should’ve tried harder. We weren’t there and now we are and I’m sure it’s a whirlwind.” He finally looks at me and a single tear falls down his cheek.