Americium
By: Terri Talley Venters
“Holy shit!” Terri said.
The American Alligator sunned himself
on the bank of the retention pond. The sun touched its reptilian hide and he
raised head, like he owned the joint.
“Mom, language.” David
said, shaking his overgrown blonde head and rolling his blue eyes. The
thirteen-year-old already had the teenage attitude down pact.
“David, look!” Terri
pointed to the gator on the bank between the retention pond and the tidal marsh
leading to the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida.
“What the…” even David
couldn’t act nonchalant about this. “OMG! That big gator is in our backyard!”
Standing on the rock next to the screened-in pool, he placed his hands on his
hips, looking incredulous.
“It’s the start of
mating season. I hear the gators move from pond to pond in search of a mate.”
Terri said.
“Mating season?” David’s
face, drenched in adorable freckles, looked at his mother.
“You know, how babies
are made?” Terri laughed, knowing the embarrassing response before it even
happened.
“Ugh, Moooom. You’re so
embarrassing.” He retrieved his iPhone 5 from his pocket, snapped a picture and
then typed away. Within 30 seconds he’d blasted all of his social media and
texted his friends. “This is so cool. We have a gator in our back yard.”
“Wait until your father
sees this. He’s on his way home from work now.”
“Can I go fishing?”
Davis asked.
“Absolutely not! That
gator could eat you! It could eat me, just like that.” Terri snapped her
fingers.
“What’s for dinner?”
David asked like a typical teenager, always hungry and worried about his next
meal.
“Dad is bringing home
sushi for us and chicken fried rice for you. Oh, that reminds me, I need to thaw
out the ahi tuna for Daddy to sear.” Terri turned and entered the house through
the wall of glass doors leading from the screened-in pool to the gourmet
kitchen.
Opening the freezer side
section of the side-by-side stainless steel refrigerator/freezer, Terri
retrieved the frozen bag of Publix brand ahi tuna. She walked to the butcher
block, dropped the bag on the counter, and pulled out the large Wustoff butcher
knife to cut the tuna.
Glancing up, she froze
at the site of David. He stood on top of a stone bench along the perimeter of
the pond, less than twenty feet from the gator. She watched in horror as David
lost his balance on the sloping bench. Attempting to catch his balance, he
waved his arms and leaned backwards.
“David, Nooo!” Terri
screamed as she watched David fall face first in the water, hitting his head on
a granite rock along the perimeter. He lay still as the gator dropped into the
water and swam towards her son.
Terri had already
started sprinting out the door towards her first born child. After hurdling the
fence like a track and field star, she ran like the dickens.
Still holding the large
butcher knife, she shouted to the gator. “Oh no you don’t, mother fucker!”
Just before the gator
got to David, Terri jumped through the air and landed on the gator’s back. Its
head turned and opened his mouth towards her. With her left thumb, she gouged
one eye and stabbed its other eye with the knife. The gator struggled as it
moved its body sideways and snapped back. Terri pulled the knife out and
stabbed its head again and again.
The gator backed up into
the water, dragging Terri down with it. Once it got in deep enough water, it
started twisting in a gator roll to drown its victim. Holding her breath, Terri
circled around in the water with the gator and continued to stab. Bubbles formed
at her lips as the air escaped her mouth. Her lungs burned as she continued to
stab the gator. Then everything went black.
***
A bright light shone in
her eyes and she squinted. “Am I in heaven? Is David okay?”
The light turned off and
she opened her eyes. The smile of a handsome man looked into her eyes. The sun
set behind him with lush palm trees swaying in the breeze. “Are you an angel?”
The E.M.T. laughed. “No,
ma’am. I’m with Jacksonville Fire Rescue. Do you remember what happened?”
The scene of her son
falling into the pond and hitting his head flashed through her mind. “How’s
David?”
“I’m fine, Mom, just a
concussion,” David said, holding an icepack on his bandaged head.
“Oh, thank God,
sweetheart.” Something squeezed her hand and she turned to see her husband of
twenty years at her side, holding her hand.
“Hi, honey, I’m home.”
Garrison smiled down at her. Then he kissed her cheek. “You saved our son’s
life today. That was eight foot gator you killed. Guess it’s gator tail for dinner tomorrow.”
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