Family is family, but more and more, people are realizing that only means something if they deserve the love and loyalty you have to give.

Things were different back in the day, of course, when someone had to look after the cantankerous members, no matter how much abuse they doled out.

OP’s friend was that person in her family, and most of the time, she and her cranky uncle got along great.

This is my friend Belle’s story and takes place in the mid 90’s when Belle was a senior in high school.

Belle had a cantankerous great uncle named Todd. Like many, many many people in Belle’s family, Uncle Todd had served in the Army.

After being honorably discharged, he took up the family’s homestead and worked as a farmer while the rest of the family lived in town about 20 miles away.

Uncle Todd was a real old salt. And when I say salt, I don’t meant “salt of the earth”, I mean “saltier than a sailor”. He was the kind of person who would sit on the front porch with his shotgun and a box of salt pellets waiting for any neighbor kids to try and steal from his prized apple orchard.

Needless to say, you were either on his good side or his bad side. Most of the family were, sadly, on his bad side.

Somehow, Belle got on the old man’s good side early on in life and he didn’t give her near as much grief. When she showed him her letter from West Point, he had tears in his eyes.

Beginning when she was a freshman in high school, she was hired to help him out as he was getting up in age. Every day, before sunup, he’d pick her up in his battered old Ford pickup and drive her to the farm.

Every time they arrived, he’d tell her “You’re my Battle Buddy. That means we look out for each other and you’re not to leave my side. Got that?”

She’d snap a salute and say “Yes, sir!”

They’d get about their day and at the end, Uncle Todd would drive her home and pay her for the day “for a job well done” and treat her to a Coke and a sandwich from the town grocery store.

Belle has many fond memories of that old man.

One day, though, his own foul mood got him into trouble.

That being said, there were some days that he’d be particularly grouchy. This particular story takes place on one of these days, right around Christmas time.

Even though most of the family was on Uncle Todd’s bad side, he’d still host Christmas dinner as tradition dictated. Once again, he hired Belle to help him prepare the house for the family.

Belle could tell the old man was unhappy about something so she decided to stay out of his way as much as humanly possible to avoid getting chewed out.

That being said, he growled and grumbled at her so many times that day that it got on her nerves and she wished that she had elected to stay home.

All that said, she was still being paid, so she decided to stick it out.

They were on the second floor of the house, cleaning out the rooms when Uncle Todd went to the storage closet at the end of the hall to get more linen.

Now I say “storage closet” but it was a small windowless room that was too small to be a bedroom, so it became a storage closet. The lock on this door was the type that would lock on the outside and unless you had a clothes hanger or knew how to disengage the lock on the inside, there was no unlocking it.

Unfortunately, it was a flimsy lock…so trouble was bound to happen.

Uncle Todd was in such a foul mood that he slammed the door to the closet shut after he entered. It was so loud that Belle jumped.

Unfortunately, he slammed it so hard that it damaged the flimsy lock. She heard him cursing and trying to unlock the door. Then she heard him bark.

She decided to take advantage of it.

“Belle!”

She stepped out. “Yes, Uncle Todd?”

“Darn door won’t unlock. Can you unlock it from your side?”

Belle decided to get back at him for his nasty behavior. “You’re my Battle Buddy, remember? I’m not supposed to leave your side.”

Cue a stream of curses from Uncle Todd that would’ve made a sailor say “Well I never!” He then finished with “You’re fired!”

Belle had just intended to let him stew for a few minutes while she found a clothes hanger to jab the lock. But he had sealed his own fate.

“I’m fired? Okay, I guess I’ll head home then. Have a good night! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait! I meant from being my Battle Buddy!”

“Bye!” Belle said.

“Get back here! Right now!”

Belle snickered as she left to the sounds of him cursing and begging her to come back.

It might be the first and last time anyone saw him cowed.

Now she had no intention of letting the old Salt stay there all night. Since he had the keys, she couldn’t drive the pickup truck so she elected to walk to the neighbor’s house…which was about a couple of miles down the road.

She was strolling down the side of the road when a squad car pulled over.

A young man looked at her. “What are you doing out here, ma’am?”

“Oh, my Great Uncle Todd Logan locked himself in his house and I was going to get help.”

“Todd Logan? I wasn’t aware the old man *had* any family.” He said.

“Yep, he does.” Belle said.

“Well, dang.” The young man said, thinking for a minute. “Hop in. I’ll help you get him out.”

“Thank you. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Nah, I was delivering some things to my grandmother’s. She’ll understand if I’m a few minutes late.”

Belle got in and the officer turned around, taking them back to the farm. Unfortunately, the lock was damaged to the point that jabbing the clothes hanger in the door didn’t work.

So the officer had to kick down the door.

All in all, he was there for maybe an hour or so. Uncle Todd was nice and quiet and mumbled an apology to Belle after thanking the officer.

And hey, she got something out of it, too.

Belle walked the officer back to the squad car and while they walked, the officer introduced himself as Adam Smith and asked for her number.

She gave it to him and they started dating after that.

Uncle Todd was a lot nicer to Belle after that.

Reddit’s gotta love this!

Some family traditions are worth keeping.

You can’t fire your battle buddy!

Some people can’t decide whose side they’re on.

This person says the story could have gone differently…

I love this novel.

Cranky old people are charming, in their way.

As long as that way is not horrible verbal abuse.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.