His and Mine / ZNN

7. Conversations

“Nunew?” Well, being surprised will be an understatement. When Mark called and said that Net will be taking his uncle to his condo to help, he was thankful and was expecting Net. But when it was Nunew who was at his door with a man with a small bag at his shoulder, he was both thankful and enthused.

“Hi! I’m sorry to be barging but Net had a quiz and couldn’t leave so he asked me to take Uncle Ted here.” Nunew explained when he saw the evident surprise on Zee’s face.

“Uncle Ted, this is Zee.” The man gave Zee a handshake and a smile.

“Great place you got here young man! Would have been nice if it wasn’t too wet!” At that, they all laughed.

“Thank you for taking the time to help me. These things are important to me. I was glad that Mark knew someone who can lend me a hand.” Zee gushed.

“Oh please! This is no trouble. When you're old, there’s not much that excites you, so an opportunity like this is hard to come by. Mark said that you collect vinyl?”

“Yes sir. These are passed down to me by my father and I treasure it a lot.” Zee explained

“It's just Uncle Ted, no need for the sir. Makes me feel ancient. Now show me where you need help.”

Zee ushered Uncle Ted to the room with Nunew following them behind. There were five wet boxes. The last box was where his father’s old phonograph was. When Uncle Ted learned of that, he quickly moved to it.

“This will need my attention first. It will be sad if the water got to its main parts. Was it still working?” Ted inquired.

“Oh yes Uncle, it was working fine before it got boxed.”

“Okay, I’ll deal with this first. Nunew, make yourself useful and help Zee unpack the other boxes. You don’t have any plans for today, right?” Uncle Ted said while slowly emptying the wet box on the floor.

“No, Uncle. I can help.”

“Good! Now Zee, show him how to wipe the vinyl properly. The sooner it gets dried the better.” Uncle Ted instructed the two boys.

“I’m sorry to be bothering you, Nunew. Not that I’m not thankful but what happened to Net again?” Zee inquired as he and Nunew started tackling a box of vinyl each.

“Well, I was on my way to our flat, Nat had a date with Max, and Yim and James were at the library so I was on my home by myself when Net saw me. He told me what happened and I volunteered to take Uncle Ted here. Net cant miss his test and I also know where you live. It wasn’t a hard decision to make.” Nunew stated.Zee moved closer to where he sat and handed him a rag to use on the vinyl. He showed him how to dry them avoiding making scratches that would render the said items useless. NuNew paid attention to what he was supposed to be doing. Uncle Ted told him on the way to the condo that old vinyl records are worth a lot. The level by which Zee was collecting surely meant that his items are valuable and probably cost a fortune. However, the story that he will hear from Zee will prove to him that apart from the monetary value of the collection, it was more the memories it represented that meant more to its owner.

“These were my dad’s. That was why I panicked when it got wet. The ones that I bought are over there. Those that got wet, were the ones that I and my dad collected through the years.” Zee started while wiping through the albums in his box.

“The vinyl was our thing. His and mine since I handed him the first one I had gotten from a garage sale. I didn’t like it that much at first but when I saw my dad smiling as I handed him that, as a young boy, I was happy.” “My dad is just a simple employee. He provided for our family well within his capacity, he loved my mom so much.” Zee continued with a smile on his lips and a look in his eyes that says that he was in a faraway memory.