The Jealous Uncle

Thick fluffy snow covered the earth and glistened as the moonlight lit up the wintery mix. It was the eve of Caroline’s first birthday. A normal family would be eagerly waiting this day. Blowing up balloons, baking a cake, and inviting their friends and family over to celebrate but it was quite the opposite for the Baker family. The Bakers spent the night before their daughter's first birthday in distress.

The Bakers have a long line of crazy in their family tree. One person in particular is Great Uncle Phil, the younger brother of Mr. Baker’s father. Mr. Baker and his brother, Jeff, were the only sane ones in the family. On the eve of the children's first birthday Great Uncle Phil would sneak into their homes in the dead of night and steal their children. The only way they knew it was him was from the signature he left on the crib. Caroline was Mr. and Mrs. Baker’s fourth child to have but the only one still remaining in their care. The Bakers and the police worked around the clock to find Great Uncle Phil but were never successful.

This year the Bakers and the police were determined to put a stop to this madness. On the eve of Caroline’s first birthday the police were stationed outside of the Bakers' house. The police had high hopes of finally catching the uncle. Hours and hours passed by with nothing in sight but an occasional neighborhood cat that scampered across the street. As the sun began to rise, the cops became hopeful that for whatever reason Great Uncle Phil had decided not to show up.

After a couple more hours of staying on watch the cops went inside the Bakers' home to make sure Caroline was still safely sleeping in her bed. As the cops approached the front door of the home, they heard a frantic scream. Throwing open the front door they sprinted upstairs to Caroline’s room. Where they found Mr. and Mrs. Baker curled up on the floor in pure panic and an empty crib marked with Great Uncle Phil’s signature.

The entire town searched for Caroline for months on end. After two years had passed the search for Caroline dwindled as did the hope that they would ever find her. On the day that would’ve been Caroline’s third birthday Mr. Baker’s joy vanished completely. Mrs. Baker tried everything imaginable to get him out of bed, but nothing worked. Mrs. Baker refused to give up hope. She replayed the day of Caroline’s disappearance in her head over and over again. She could never figure out how the police missed a man walking in the house. There were so many unknown pieces to Caroline’s disappearance that Mrs. Baker was determined to crack the code.

Each night Mrs. Baker would retrace the steps that she took on the night of Caroline’s kidnapping. One night while retracing her steps she passed through the foyer and heard a small creak in the floorboard below her foot. Immediately her concentration became interrupted. Mrs. Baker crouched down and noticed a wood panel in the floor was loose. Out of curiosity she pulled at the loose board.

Suddenly the board shot up exposing a staircase. The adrenalin kicked in and Mrs. Baker tiptoed down the stairs using the flashlight on her phone. Once she made it down the rickety stairs, a metal door greeted her. Mrs. Baker using her body weight pried open the door. What was behind that door changed Mrs. Baker’s life forever.

Mrs. Baker chose to never give up and to never lose sight of her joy and found not only Caroline but her three other children behind that door. It turns out Great Uncle Phil was living under the house the entire time in a soundproof room and would sneak out on the eve of the children’s first birthdays. Great Uncle Phil was a sick man and became locked up for life. None of this would’ve been possible without Mrs. Baker fighting for the joy her children brought her.

I thought this was the perfect meme for this story. (photo by tenor)

Author's Note:

My inspiration for this story was “The Jealous Uncle” from the Native American Hero Tales a Kodiak story from Unga Island by Stith Thompson. In the original story there was an unnatural uncle who would kill his nephews when they became a few years old. The children’s parents were terrified to lose their kids but didn’t know how to stop the unnatural uncle. The boy never gave up even after the unnatural uncle tried multiple times to kill him. The boy did everything that the unnatural uncle said to do. The boy ending up outsmarting the unnatural uncle and living a long and happy life.

I was inspired by The Jealous Uncle which helped sparked the plot for my story. Great Uncle Phil was created to resemble the unnatural uncle. Caroline was created to resemble the boy in The Jealous Uncle. I incorporated my theme of choosing joy by having the mother, Mrs. Baker, continuing to look for her children even when everyone else has lost hope. The idea of this story is to never lose sight of your joy and most importantly fight for the things that bring you joy. I hope you enjoy reading my story!