Dead-or-Alive Alligator

 

                                                        Pet?

Some of my family stories are true to the letter, while others have been stretched yet maintain that kernel that started it in the first place.  The following was told to me by my brother, as his son had told him. My brother Don is a prolific talented story teller, but he insisted that this is true.

Late fall was coming on, with blast of premature snow.   Nathan Peck was a Chicago city engineer who worked with all departments. Nathan has a gift, one of many.  He makes friends, tells awesome stories, and plays the most unimaginable practical jokes on any vulnerable person.

The saran wrap across the toilet seat?  Amateurs.

 

Change out the black and white keys of the keyboard?  Smirk.

Collecting all the chairs from the waiting room and stacking them in the CEO’s office? Hmph.

In one freezing November in Chicago, Nathan received a call from one of the field workers who reported something that caused Nathan to race out the office and squeal out the parking lot.  

When he arrived, the guys pointed to the frozen specimen of a five-foot alligator, sticking out a drainage pipe. They wrapped orange cord under and around the frozen carnivore, and it took all eight men to dislodge the swamp dweller from the ice.

Their best guess was that it was someone’s pet that outgrew its welcome, and was thrown into the sewer.  During the warm season it did well with all the rats, but when there was a freeze, poor ‘gator found its way to a drainage tube, headed out that way, only to freeze to death.

 

Alligator in pond ice, somewhere
This is not the alligator from this story, just so you know.

It was dead, really dead.  Then Nathan said, “Boys, I got me an idea…”

Nathan returned to his office, drinking a cup of coffee while looking out a window.  “Well, I’ll be damned!  Look…” The nearest secretary Jenny (this was her 2^nd day of employment) leaned over and looked out.  She began a scream that went all the way to the next office, talking  illegibly. Jenny raced off to share her find. Nathan waved at his guys below, who picked up frozen fellow and carried around the next corner.

Jenny was hysterically telling a colleague what she had seen, when she glanced out the second window and saw the alligator staring at her window.  Off she went.

This went on a good fifteen minutes until a crowd edged outside and approached the beast, which was now under a mini-van, only tail visible.  While they were all standing five inches deep in snow, Nathan drove speedily from the parking lot on the other side of the building.

There you are: Nathan, still developing his talents.  How I love him.


** Nathan is now a bit older, but that spark of creativity still bursts into flame

now and then.

This story is from 2015, I think. Rewriting and new photos seems to be my forte.