Uncle Ralph

A great little suburbia-fable inspired by an iconic John Hughes film about discovered/welcomed serendipity of duty.

A life-fable inspired by the iconic John Hughes film Uncle Buck (John Candy). Enjoy (and thanks for reading), 

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A special suburban family in New England had a real crisis on their hands and had no choice but to ask one of their old friends, a chess-set craftsman who'd befriended the dad/husband of the Boston nuclear-family but who'd exhibited very eccentric if affable qualities. The man, 'Uncle Ralph' (as he'd liked to be called!), hoped to reconnect with the dad/husband of the family on some future-friendship term(s) and found he'd be able to when this old-pal called him and explained his father had passed and needed someone to babysit his kids for the week while he was gone.

UNCLE RALPH: Sure, I'll do it, Teddy!
TEDDY: Hey, thanks Ralph; I bet the kids will love you (and call you 'Uncle Ralph' too!); we've also got a teenage daughter.

UNCLE RALPH: Cool; thanks for this temp-paid opp to connect with your awesome fam; I'll be there, Teddy (great).

'Uncle Ralph' showed up on-time at the New England suburban house and took the instructions from Teddy/Elizabeth (the wife/mother) and learned of the duties/responsibility required to be the ideal guardian for the household/family while Teddy would be away to tend to his father's passing. 'Uncle Ralph' befriended the kids and somewhat didn't get along with the older teenage-daughter (Lizzy) but started to befriend her while insisting he use his special Toy-Story chess-set to teach her the game, and perhaps play on Facebook, since she'd become a real 'Facebook-IQ' nerdist in this world.

UNCLE RALPH: This place is really nice, Lizzy...you should be truly grateful; a guy like me, a wanderer, simply doesn't have.

LIZZY: Who cares, 'Uncle Ralph' (you're weird!); though I love the chess-set from the Toy-movie; I live here always, right?
UNCLE RALPH: Maybe you should consider why such a 'place' would remind you of the simple calmness of life, eh?
LIZZY: Geez, I wonder if a 'place' like this just might bring us 'closer' together, hmm.

UNCLE RALPH: Good enough, I guess (for now!).

When the kids drew Uncle Ralph a drawing of a UFO, he looked up some recent New England arts inspired by citizenry-alien reports/sightings/claims which he used for inspiration for some backyard marshmallow-tales, but then Uncle Ralph discovered this faerie-tale had a dark twist, after all.

UNCLE RALPH: What the hell were you doing sneaking out to get to this wild-and-out teen-party behind our backs, Lizzy?
LIZZY: What'd you care, 'Uncle' Ralph, hmm?

UNCLE RALPH: I'm glad I yanked you outta-there and back home with your brother/sister who're fast-asleep, BTW.

LIZZY: Right-o; alright, I'm sorry.

Uncle Ralph stood outside that night (late) after Lizzy got home safely and finally started to make amends with him and with her own rebelliousness! He stood outside that night, thought about his wandering-salesman position as a chess-set craftsman/salesman in the United States. That's when he thought he saw a bizarre alien-craft soaring in the starry-sky, a real UFO! He thought about that drawing the kids showed him earlier and the backyard-tales he told them about (drawn from Internet-lore). He thought about the simplicity/serendipity of life and perhaps why a UFO would simply 'coast-by' this simple/cool place called Planet Earth.

LIZZY: Hey, Uncle Ralph; I'm apologizing again for that behavior I exhibited; I'd bore a grudge against mom.

UNCLE RALPH: Stepmom, I know, I know; maybe we could both unwind today with a little Toy-movie chess, eh?
LIZZY: Hmm.

Teddy/Elizabeth returned from the family-funeral outing and were joyous to find the house/family in good-keep and 'Uncle Ralph' in great-spirits and shocked to discover a change in the otherwise 'fiery' and rebellious 'spunk' of elder daughter Lizzy. 

TEDDY: Geez, you did really well, Ralph.

UNCLE RALPH: I've only an alien-craft and Toy-Story chess to thank (ha!).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)