A Quick Report on Uncle Eli Waterpipe

First let me say this ain't supposed to be funny. Dorothy has discouraged me from writing about it because she says there is no way people will not think I am making fun of her old uncle. But I only do most of what she wants, not everything.

Dorothy's Uncle Eli was not at the wedding. He was in Beaver Gorge Memorial Hospital with several broken bones, multiple cuts and contusions, and a concussion of the brain.

Last week Uncle Eli and his wife, Aunt Ethyl, visited his old family home in Beaver Grove. It was the first time Eli had been there in fifty years. As you might imagine it brought back many memories. One memory we wish it had not brought back was how when Eli was a boy he "rode" the laundry chute from the first floor to the basement. You guessed it, he had to take that trip one more time even at his advanced age. He fit pretty good and the ride down was smooth enough, but the final destination of the ride had changed. Considerably. Seems the last people who owned the property had installed washer and dryer on the first floor and had no need for the chute. They had stored old garden tools (rakes, shovels, a hand plow, etc.) at the place where the basket for dirty clothes used to sit. Poor Eli hit bottom real hard and was knocked out. Aunt Ethyl got excited when he didn't respond to her calls and found him bleeding and unconscious on the basement floor. She was so agitated she could not remember the number for 911 so she solicited the help of a neighbor and finally got an ambulance to pick up her husband and take him to the hospital.

If you are laughing or even smiling at this it's okay, Eli is going to be all right. In a year or so.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle