This weeks words to work with were:

Vantage Insipid (without distinctive, interesting qualities) Collar Spit Captivity Adrenalin Predicate (to proclaim, assert) Shield Colossus Scratch Mercury Evaporate

My Uncle Harry was on the outside most insipid of men. In many ways he was indistinguishable from the blobs of crap you saw on the pavement as you walked around town. It wasn’t his fault, it was how he was, nature, my mother used to say, can be cruel at times.

Uncle Harry was my dad’s brother and it was probably because my father walked out on us when I was five that my mother predicated such thoughts about her brother in law.

Uncle Harry was well over six feet in height, even when he sat he was tall. He wore starched collars all year round and I would see him most days as he walked along our street on his way to work at the timber yard where he was the company bookkeeper.

From my vantage point perched in my bedroom window I could see all there was to see about Uncle Harry. His height gave him a sense of a colossus, but when I looked behind his grand façade all thoughts of grandeur about my Uncle evaporated.

My mother would often say he wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire. She’d argue that an adrenalin rush for Uncle Harry would be getting out of a chair.

To say my mother was somewhat prejudiced of Uncle Harry is to put it mildly.

But he wasn’t totally devoid of personality and interest. I once had to deliver a message to him from mum, as she wouldn’t go near him. He invited me in and I was captivated by the sight of a large shield on the living room wall.

He explained that it was the family shield that his father had made when he was a child. It was an impressive piece of woodwork to say the least. Ornate carvings, gold lettering, a coat of arms of a rising stallion against a setting sun, something I had never seen.

One thing about Uncle Harry’s place struck me. Everything was meticulously clean. Not a speck of dust, not a scratch on any piece of furniture.

Then he showed me his room and my mouth fell open. I was about fifteen when this day occurred. I stood at the door and suddenly realised a lot of things about my Uncle Harry.

He was a single man and no one had ever questioned why but that day I understood a little more about my Uncle Harry. On the walls of his bedroom were poster size images of Freddie Mercury.

Turns out Uncle Harry had met Freddie once and they had become good friends.

I learnt that day that even the most insipid of us can be of interest to others. We just don’t always mix in the same circles do we? Uncle Harry led a solitary life but it was predicated by a love he once knew.

Written for: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/wordle-26/