Uncle Alexander
June 2, 2009
We should put our clothes away in their proper places.
We should not carelessly throw them around
for they will get dirty that way.
Georgina did not like to clean her room. When her mother would tell her to put her things away, Georgina would always say “Later” and continue with what she was doing.
One day, after Georgina said, “Later,” she noticed her mother looking very thoughtful. Georgina became curious, not knowing what her mother was thinking. At last her mother said, “We’ll see what Uncle Alexander thinks of this.” She then quietly closed the door. Georgina was totally confused. She didn’t have an Uncle Alexander. What was her mother talking about?
That night, it took Georgina a long time to fall asleep. When she finally did, she had the strangest dream. A man was busily moving around the room and throwing all her clothes that were on the floor onto her bed. She was being buried alive! In a panic she woke up. And then she really panicked for it wasn’t a dream. There was a man in her room and he was busily throwing clothes on top of her bed as if she wasn’t in it!
For a few moments, she couldn’t talk. But finally, she managed to get out a “Who are you?”
He looked down at her and replied in a very matter-of-fact voice, “Uncle Alexander, of course.”
Georgina blinked. He seemed harmless. That is as long as you didn’t count trying to bury her alive under her own clothes. “I don’t have an Uncle Alexander,” she informed him.
Shrugging this off, the man replied, “Of course you do. I’m him.” And then he dumped another pile of clothes on top of her.
Georgina was getting really frustrated with the whole situation. “I do not have an Uncle Alexander!” she wailed.
“Well if you don’t have an Uncle Alexander, then why did your mother say she was going to see what I thought about this?” Georgina couldn’t think of a thing to say. So he dumped another pile of clothes on her bed. With the clothes now spilling on to the floor, Georgina was beginning to fear she wouldn’t be able to get out of her own bed. “Stop” she demanded, but he ignored her and seemed to reach even more quickly for the next pile of clothes.
“Please stop” she asked, remembering the wonderful effect this word had on adults.
Immediately the man stopped and stood there. “Ah! Are you talking to me?“
Georgina blurted out in frustration at a situation over which she didn’t seem to have any of her usual control, “Of course, I am. Who else would I be talking to?”
He frowned and reached to pick up another pile of clothes.
“I’m sorry,” said Georgina who now was almost buried under the mountain of clothing. “I’m not used to seeing people, sorry, Uncles, picking up my clothes in the middle of the night.”
“Well of course you’re not. Your poor mother has never asked me for help before.”
Georgina decided she had better get out of her bed while she still could and tumbled onto the floor. She asked, speaking politely this time, “Why are you here?”
“Because your room is such a mess. You throw everything on the floor and your mother has to keep picking up after you. If she didn’t, you’d never be able to find anything.” Uncle Alexander looked around and said, “Shocking. Just shocking.”
Georgina looked around and found she had to agree with him. It was a mess. And looking at it now, it did seem shocking. And embarrassing. And worse, hopeless. She looked up at her uncle and said anxiously, “If Mom sees this, she’ll pass out. What can I do, I’ll never be able to clean all this up by morning.”
Uncle Alexander smiled at her for the first time. “Would you like me to help you clean up?”
Realizing that all he had really been doing was move the clothes she had left lying around, Georgina nodded and said gratefully, “Oh, yes please.” Together, they began to put all her clothes away. It wasn’t easy because there were so many clothes on her bed, on the floor, on the chair, desk, lamp: everywhere! As Georgina began to have to put all her clothes away herself, she realized just what a pain it was to have to do this. And her mother did it every week.
Eventually they got every last bit of clothing put away. Georgina was exhausted as she got back into her bed. She smiled up at her uncle and impulsively threw her arms around his neck and breathed a sleepy “Thank you” into his ear as he kissed her on the cheek and said “Good night.”
The next day, Georgina’s mother came in and looked around in amazement. She looked at Georgina questioningly. Georgina explained, “Uncle Alexander was here last night and helped me.”
Her mother laughed. “Ah yes, that was something my mother used to say to me. There’s never been an Uncle Alexander in our family.”
Reader Comments (4)
It also reminds me of "Little Eddie Beacher" in our family. Whenever my uncle did something he was going to get in trouble for, like walking in the wet cement, he claimed it was his bad friend, Eddie.
BTW, can this uncle come and organize my house?! LOL! Yes, I know, if I didn't have an over abundance, this would not be a problem. If only my paradigm shift had come before acquiring so much...
"Indiana" Kristine, it was a pleasure meeting you and Alexzandra Monday evening. You have found a very special group of practitioners. They and I look forward to getting to know both of you better. And I'm glad you discovered what that nice man in China said to you when he saw your chanting beads!
Benny. Is he real? Or unreal? And, what is "real"? ;-)