Uncle Sal Gets a Visitor (Episode 1)

Giacomo Piccoli hung up the phone. His mother told him he should go and visit his Uncle Sal across town. Giacomo didn’t see much of the man since Uncle Sal joined a cult. It was one of those cults whose members dress in robes, but not bath robes. More like graduation robes. And they talked about how much they love rice pudding. Or something like that. Giacomo would never know because he’d never go and hang out with the cult. In any case, he had his orders from Momma, and she’d keep asking until he went to visit Uncle Sal.

Giacomo knocked on the door and without even looking to see who it was, Uncle Sal called, “Come in.” He wore a green robe and held a bowl of rice pudding in his lap. Giacomo was greeted by the sounds of an intolerable singer. He sounded like the guy on what was the name of that show, Mayberry. He sat down, and in attempt to break the ice asked, “What are you listening to, Uncle Sal?”

“Jim Nabors.”

Uncle Sal offered nothing more and Giacomo had no idea how to continue the conversation. The two men sat in silence interrupted only by Jim Nabors and the clink of a spoon against a bowl. Only after the side of the record ended did Uncle Sal speak again. “Why dontcha put on another one-a them Jim Nabors albums?”

Giacomo stood and walked to the record player. He pulled another Jim Nabors album from the shelf and set the needle on it. Then Giacomo looked at the rest of the records. The Who, The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Uncle Sal had all the classics. He turned and looked at his uncle, who had finished his rice pudding. “Uncle Sal, how come you like Jim Nabors so much?”

“Son, don’t you read the Bible? It is written, ‘Love thy Nabors on thy shelf.’”

This episode featured:
Danny Dingleberry as Giacomo
Seth Muncheese as Uncle Sal
and
Jellybean Merengue as the rice pudding

Tune in next week when Uncle Sal says, “Yes, I have been to a Turkish prison camp.”

[written 8 August 2007]