Chapter Text
Joe Shooter was deposited on his great uncle's doorstep with more or less no ceremony. It had been a long day, travelling to the house where his great uncle lived, but not very eventful. The Meltzners had been in a hurry to get rid of him, he felt, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. They had three children of their own, and all of them seemed to like him. There was Theodore, Susie, and Louise, and they were all quite kind children.
“Why does Joe have to leave?” Louise had asked that morning, hugging his leg. “We like having him here. Why can’t he live with us?”
“Because,” Mrs. Meltzner had said briskly, stopping for a scant few seconds to check her hair in a mirror, “He has a family member who is willing to take him, and we simply don’t have the space for an extra child.”
“He could sleep with me.” Theodore offered. “The girls already share a room, it wouldn’t be too different from how things are now.”
“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea, sport.” Mr. Meltzner said, pausing behind his wife to straighten his tie. He turned and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Now, while we’re gone you’re in charge, okay, Theo? Keep your sisters out of trouble.”
Theodore had nodded solemnly, shooting Joe a look before quietly heading back to the living room, pulling Louise with him. Susie followed them, sending a small wave to Joe as she left.
Joe waved back, smiling sadly. Even though they were all several years younger than him, he had enjoyed the time he had spent with them. He imagined that it was similar to how actually being a part of a group of siblings would feel; a gaggle of children all playing together and looking out for one another as they navigated life. A small, mournful part of him wished he could have that all the time, but he knew it wasn’t for him.
As he climbed out of the car, rain drizzling onto his hair from the low, grey clouds overhead and slowly making it fall limp, he looked up at the large house in front of him. It was as grey as the sky, maybe slightly darker, and very imposing. It was three stories tall, and had an abundance of windows. All were dark at the moment.
“Well, this is it.” Mrs. Meltzner said. Joe jumped. He hadn’t noticed her getting out of the car, so absorbed had he been in scrutinising the house. “Goodbye, Joe. I hope you’re comfortable here.” She patted his sodden hair and then surreptitiously attempted to wipe her hand on her skirt. Plodding back to the car, Mrs. Meltzner gave one last look over her shoulder before getting in the passenger seat and riding away, leaving the small boy and his singular suitcase on the doorstep of a relative he had never met.
Joe slowly walked up to the front door, examining it as he went. It was an old door, one with many missing chips of paint and scuffs along the bottom and sides. Taking a deep breath, he knocked. The sound echoed, and he could hear it fading far inside the house.
After a few moments, the door opened and an older gentleman looked out at him. He was wearing clothes as drab as the house he resided in, and had a long face with neatly combed white hair and a trim white beard. “Oh, hello.” He said gruffly. “I suppose you’re Joe Shooter, aren’t you? Well, you better come inside.”
He retreated into the house, leaving the door open behind him. Joe cautiously began to follow. The house was just as large and empty as he had guessed it to be, with high arched ceilings and big rooms that faded into shadow at the edges.
“I am your Great Uncle Henry,” The man began once Joe had entered the house and shut the heavy front door. “You may refer to me as such or as ‘Uncle Henry’. I have enrolled you in the local school and you will start tomorrow. I expect that you’re tired after a long trip, so I shall show you to your room and you can spend the rest of the night in there. Do you have any questions?”
Joe shook his head, before remembering that his uncle was looking ahead and not at him. “No, Uncle Henry.”
“Good.” Henry nodded once to himself, seemingly satisfied with his nephew’s lack of queries. He headed up a staircase and turned down a long hallway leading away from the landing. There were paintings hanging on the walls, but it was too dim to make out what they were of. Joe thought that maybe one or two might have been of either the ocean or the sky, judging by the amount of blue, but he wasn’t certain. A moment later, he stopped, turning to look down his long nose at Joe.
“This is to be your room. Please keep it tidy.”
He did not appear to have anything else to say, so Joe simply nodded. Henry nodded back at him once again and disappeared back down the hallway, presumably heading to his own room.
Joe waited until he could no longer hear the creaking of the floorboards under his uncle’s feet, then carefully opened the door. It creaked, and he winced at the loud, squeaky sound splintering the silence. He pulled his suitcase with him into the room and ever so slowly closed the door after him, shoulders up around his ears until he heard the soft click of the latch.
He relaxed, looking around the room.
It was sparse; a barren cube of light grey floor, walls, and ceiling with a bed in one corner and a dresser in the other. Joe looked tiredly between his bag and the dresser before deciding to deal with it in the morning and flopping onto the bed. It creaked ominously, but when nothing else happened he sighed and rolled over. Tomorrow he would start school.
Tomorrow would be an adventure! Maybe he would make some friends. He didn’t think that he’d ever had friends before, since there were so few children at his parents’ fancy parties. But there would definitely be children at his school, and children his own age! Maybe he would be able to find people who liked being around him the way the Meltzner children did. With that hopeful thought in his mind, he drifted off to sleep.