Tales of Uncle Ernest "The Pig" Chapter 3

Tales of Uncle Ernest – (Continued)

Section 3, “The Pig” – Chapter 3

That evening we were sitting across from each other on a double-seated swing underneath our maple tree. I remember bring pleasantly surprised when a june bug whirled by our ears towards the grape arbor, so I leapt off the swing and ran under the arbor to try to catch it. A June bug made a fine toy when tied to a string by its leg. The bug would fly in circles around your head and dive in different directions with a loud buzzing sound. But it was no good; I couldn’t find it among the broad grape leaves. When I plopped back on the swing, dejected, Uncle Ernest whispered, “Listen!” And, in a few seconds, I heard it too, the cry in the distance of a killdeer guarding her eggs. She had laid them on the bare ground of our field, and I was never able to find them, Nina, no matter how hard I searched.

Then Uncle Ernest went into the house and returned with his refreshed drink. I could tell he was as contented as he could have been under the circumstances. It was hot, and I could see the beads of sweat on his forehead and on his upper lip. After a long, grateful draw on his whiskey glass, and after wiping the sweat from his face and neck with his red handkerchief, he said, “Moose, do you want to hear more about my trip with Rocco?”

“You bet I do, Unk. I thought you’d never get around to finishing that story.” You do remember don’t you, Nina, when, the year before in Wilmington, Uncle Ernest started telling me about his adventures with Rocco on their way to Brazil? Good. I know I wanted to hear more of the story, so I asked him, "Do you have time to tell the whole thing?” Tilting his glass tentatively, teasing me with his hesitation, he said, “Uhhh … why sure, Moose, we should have plenty of time for that. Where did I leave off? My word, that was last year.”

“You and that wrestler, Rocco, had just got rid of that nasty, bearded loudmouth who wanted to invade Cuba.”

“Oh sure,” Uncle Ernest said, nodding his head, “now I remember. We were below Cuba, on a cattle boat, headed for Brazil. We were going to stay on Rocco’s brother’s ostrich farm and Rocco was going to show me around the country.

“Yes, indeed, we steamed along nicely off the coast of South America. We passed Venezuela, Guyana, the mouth of the great Amazon River, and after a while the captain told us that we had just sailed through the equator and that we were now in the Southern Hemisphere. I felt good about that, Moose, because I would finally get to see my bath water swirl down the tub counter-clockwise instead of clockwise, something I’ve always wondered about.

“Continuing on, entering Brazilian waters, we passed Salvador, went through the Tropic of Capricorn, and docked at the seaport city of Rio de Janeiro. After hopping on a turnip wagon headed for Rocco’s brother’s farm, we arrived and I met Rocco’s brother, Ricco.

“Ricco, a likable fellow like his brother, told us that he had turned his ostrich farm into a hog farm. He ran a complete swine operation, from sows farrowing piglets six inches long, to 300 pound porkers ready for market. He took us to our sleeping area, a straw barn next to a large farrowing house."  [To be continued Tuesday, 2/14/2012]