“Ray, hurry up, he’s here!”  A few knocks on the front door confirm my sister’s exclamation, and I hurriedly finish making my bed.  My annoying sand-brown Chihuahua yaps away as my dad opens the door and none other than Uncle Joey walks in wearing a smile.  “Uncle Joey!”, my sisters cry in unison.  “Hey you two!”, is his reply.  He wraps them up in his big grizzly bear-like arms, and his laugh echoes around the house.  I walk up and squeeze him as hard as I can, and he returns the hug, but much harder.  He smells like trees and grass, summer breeze, and like always, a small hint of chocolate. 

With a voice louder than smashing plates in the middle of the night, and a smile that crinkles up his dark tanned skin, he pulls from his pockets three bags of M&M’s.  One for me and each of my sisters.  This small tradition always lights up my sisters’ faces, and they excitedly grab their bags and empty them within seconds.  I take much longer, for I know it will be a while before he hands me M&M’s again.

My uncle Joey didn’t visit often; he was always gone working and scarcely had time to see us.  But the few times that I got so see his salt and pepper hair, and play rock, paper, scissors with him, I would enjoy as much as possible.  What I didn’t know was that this would be the last time I heard his hearty laughter, the last time he made a joke so funny I would cry, and the last time he would hand me an enticing bag of candy.

It was a fairly sunny day; hot, but not enough to make you sweat after a few minutes outside.  It was during those few minutes as I was riding my bike with a friend, that my dad came out with a pale face and shaky hands.  I stopped my bide, and in the few seconds it took my dad to reach me, I knew something very, very bad had happened.  The next few minutes revealed that my Uncle Joey had been in a car accident, and his condition was bad.  The car ride to the hospital was a mass of tears and confusion.  Being only eleven, it didn’t make sense to me why they couldn’t save Uncle Joey.  In fact, nothing could have been more confusing.