Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The story unfolds at the upscale Wengler home; all the characters who appear in the scene are female. Eloise Wengler is a middle-aged and jaded suburbanite housewife in an unhappy marriage to Lew Wengler. Mary Jane is her former college roommate who works part-time as a secretary. She is a divorcée. Neither woman graduated from the college they attended together. Ramona is Eloise’s eleven-year-old daughter. Socially inept, withdraw and bespectacled, she is accompanied everywhere by her imaginary friend, Jimmy Jimmerino. Grace is the Wengler’s African-American maid.

Mary Jane visits Eloise at her home and they spend the afternoon reminiscing about their college years, chain-smoking, and drinking themselves into stupors. Ramona returns home, and Mary Jane gushes over the girl. Eloise commands her daughter to divulge the particulars of Jimmy Jimmerino to the guest, and Mary Jane declares the make-believe boy “marvelous”. Ramona retreats outdoors to play.

The women resume their drunken and desultory ramblings. Eloise relates the story of a young soldier, Walt Glass, whom she fell in love with when single. Killed in a freak accident while serving in the Pacific, she still clings to his memory, and expresses bitter regret that she married Lew. Eloise embarks on a tirade against men, and Lew in particular, who lacks, she feels, the traits most lovable in Walt – “humor” and “intelligence”. She relates an event in which she and Walt were running to catch a bus, and she sprained her ankle. Referring to her ankle in good humor, Walt had said, "Poor Uncle Wiggily…” In divulging the details of Walt’s death, Eloise breaks down, and Mary Jane attempts to comfort her.

Ramona reenters the room and having overheard her mother’s remarks, announces that Jimmy has been run over by a car and killed. The woman continue drinking until they fall asleep in the living room. After dark, Eloise is woken by a phone call from her husband Lew, and after a short, sarcastic exchange, hangs up on him.

Grace, the live-in maid, approaches Eloise and respectfully asks that her spouse, who is visiting Grace, be allowed to stay the night due to the severe weather. Eloise curtly rebuffs her employee and denies the request.

The drunken Eloise goes upstairs to Ramona’s bedroom where the child is sleeping. Her mother, turning on the light, sees the girl lying at the extreme edge of the bed. Eloise realizes that she has assumed this posture to make room for an imaginary friend. Flying into a rage, the exasperated Eloise takes hold of Ramona and drags her to the middle of the bed, and orders her to go to sleep in that position.

As Eloise steps toward the door, she begins to repeat the words “Poor Uncle Wiggily” again and again. Sobbing, she tucks in the frightened girl and leaves the room. Downstairs, she awakens Mary Jane from her alcohol-induced slumber, and weeping, beseeches her dismayed friend to reassure her that as a freshman in college, she had been “a nice girl”.