Alligator Antics

It was a normal day in Lakeland. The sun shined high above the different trees flowing in the breeze. The various lakes glistened, and the August heat meant the air was sticky after the afternoon rain.

Jerry was finally off of work from the Publix. His shift ending brought him to his afternoon walk down the road to his apartment.

He leaves the store and begins his short walk. There were birds flying around everywhere. Mosquitoes near any small pond or puddle meant he always needed to swat them away.

After a couple minutes he turned off the main road to the street his complex was on, when there in front of him on the sidewalk was a small alligator. This gator was only four to five feet long. Its dark green scales still wet, it must have just climbed onto the sidewalk from the nearby retention pond.

Jerry looked at it, before starting to make his way around it. The gator stared at Jerry. Cautiously he stepped to the side before he heard a raspy voice yell “Stop!”. Jerry turned his head around to see who spoke, but no one was near him. He heard the voice again. “Look down here at me.”

Jerry instinctively looked at the alligator. “There is no way you said anything. I am hearing things.” Jerry proceeded to go home but he heard the voice again yell at him.

“Stop!” This time Jerry looked right at the gator. “There you go. I am talking man.” The mouth moved in a creep hybrid manner. Jerry saw this alligator obviously was different.

Jerry was frozen. Normally most things now do not bother him, but this is different. Slowly, he mustered the ability to talk. “So, you are real? A gator that talks.”

“Yeah. I’m real. My name is Al.” The gator reassured him of this reality in as calm of a tone his raspy voice allowed.

“I feel like Amanda put something in the cookies she shared with everyone.”

“Man, this is not a drug hallucination, this is real life.” Al screamed. “I decided to join you as your friend, and I am not leaving you so get ready. Did you know about us alligators? I think through you we can inform everyone well.”

Jerry looked at this animal, puzzled by the fact that in less than five minutes he now knows a talking alligator named Al. Jerry asked “We? There is no we. Leave me alone.”

“Ah see I can’t. I need you to help me and like I am an alligator so if you say no I do have teeth that can take an arm. Let’s get started on this so we can all live happier sooner.”

Jerry knew he couldn’t fight the gator. He calmed down again and said fine, but when they get to his apartment he wanted to go and get some food from the nearby Wendy’s. He asked if Al would join. He said yes.

When they got to the apartment they hopped into Jerry’s truck. It was a small older truck. The blue shined in the beating sun. The leather bench seat was luckily in the shade of the surrounding trees.

On the drive over there Jerry paused Al from his speech on what fish tastes better. “Hey, we are almost there. Do you need like any food?”

Al peered directly at Jerry, never moving his head to do so. Quickly he said “I need anything with meat. I am a carnivore Jerry. I know you know this. You froze the moment you saw me.

“I did not!” Jerry spouted quickly. “You wish you were that scary. You are only like four feet long. I have thrown bigger gators than you.”

AL sneered at this. But that was all. He wanted Jerry to hurry up and get him some food. “So, like how far is this place?”

“Not far. Okay?”

“Okay man. Hey, did you know that out in the swamps the animals actually help the gators by…” Al continued his impromptu podcast on nature in Florida as only a Gator would know.

When Jerry pulled up to the Wendy’s drive-thru he ordered their food. Al sat comfortably enough as a gator could while he waited for Jerry to finish. His tail hung off the seat and curled underneath.

When the lady opened the window Jerry gave her some cash. She kept the door open and as quick as possible Jerry took the opportunity. He slid his hands under Al and picked him up.

“What are you doing?” Al yelled. He was not comfortable with no warning.

“I need to move you so the food can sit there.”

“Oh,” said Al quietly. He accepted the logic enough to calm down and stop squirming. Rapidly Jerry looked through the opening of the windows. In one fluid motion before the lady turned around Al went soaring through the air, through the car window, the building window, and landing on the hard tile floor of Wendy’s with such a THUD the lady turned around and saw an alligator.

As Jerry drove off to escape his annoying alligator addition, he heard the lady screaming bloody murder. Al Shouted “YOU SON OF A BITCH! IF I SEE YOU AGAIN I WILL EAT ONE OF YOUR GODDAMN LIMBS!” Jerry didn’t care. He knew after the drive he made the right decision, even if he may get arrested.