mysterious and hidden relationships

mysterious and hidden relationships

fiction
edward w pritchard

There was something mysterious and hidden about my Dad's relationship with my cousin Ray for it didn't include or involve my Mother and was nefarious and secret. There was five lost years in my father's life after he left the air force in world war two until he met my Mother and I never heard anyone talk about what he did in that time, not even once. My family didn't talk much in those days for we were on the brink of being dysfunctional but we were normal in all other ways.

Ray was my father's nephew and my father had taken care of Ray for a while after he returned from the war where my Father had been a reluctant soldier; for him the war disrupted and destroyed his love of music. He had wanted to played piano professionally or violin and the war had dashed those hopes permanently and that wish was forever vanished.

Ray used to come over to our house once in a great while or once or twice I saw him at my Father's parents house where we didn't go much for their house was not welcoming or hospitable.

Ray when he was young was distinguished and defined by hitting a bullet with a hammer and breaking his arm. Later he was killed in a horrific car wreck down in the steep slick mountains of West Virginia. He was on his way to see his new girlfriend after just getting a scholarship to study acting at the University there. The forces of disorder and chaos intervened and my cousin Ray died and has been gone for a very long time. Since he died the earth has traveled through space toward the mystic somewhere about 25 billion 237 million 560 thousand miles. I am not sure if we are closer to Ray now or farther away. For I don't know the direction if any exists in space, the earth is heading in it's race.

I have been thinking about where things go when they are gone and if they ever existed at all.