Maybe the New Jersey woman was right about that rogue panther.
I turned slowly, straining to hear the sound again so I could try to place it. The woods grow all around the animal area, close enough for the tallest hardwood trees to throw shadows across half of Ollie’s pond. A mockingbird sang. Dragonflies hummed. Whatever else was out there was silent now. I turned back to the gator.
“You didn’t hear anything, did you, buddy?’’ My voice sounded unnaturally loud and hearty, like I was trying to sell something.
Ollie wasn’t buying. He was so still, he might have been an alligator-hide duffel bag with a head. But he can move plenty fast when he’s motivated.
I peered into the dark shade of the woods. Laurel oaks lifted their branches. Air plants nestled in the crooks of the trees. All of it looked ordinary. Yet, I sensed unseen eyes watching me. A clammy rivulet of sweat worked its way past my waistband, rolling down the gully of my lower back.
Then, I heard the rustle again, nearer now. Something was moving toward me through the trees. I backed up, hard against the concrete of Ollie’s wall.
The rustle got louder. Moving faster. Coming closer.
My heart pounded. Every nerve cell screamed, “Run!’’ but I had nowhere to go.
Whatever was in those woods was in front of me. Ollie’s pond was behind. And I was frozen in between, as motionless as a rabbit in the moment before its predator strikes.
Loud, angry voices suddenly rang out from my left.
“And I say it’s this way!’’
“Is not!”
I turned from the woods. A sunburned man with a camera and a woman in a Hawaiian-print shorts-set were arguing at a fork in the trail. The debate: which path to follow for the parking lot.
I’d never been so happy to see two human visitors. My slamming heart slowed. My lungs clocked back in on the job. I gulped in a big, shuddery breath.
For the first time, the woods had seemed like a threat, not a comfort. I was afraid. That must be how my sister Marty feels all the time, I thought. I didn’t care for it much.
The rustling in the woods was fainter now, moving harmlessly away. Scanning the shadows, I saw nothing but trees and palmetto scrub. Feeling somewhat foolish, I hurried into the bright sun of the clearing.
“Hey, there! How you folks doin’?’’ I called to the tourists, as friendly as a Wal-Mart greeter. “Parking’s to the right. But why don’t y’all have a look at the alligator first? Ever seen one up close?’’
The woman started tugging on her husband’s Hawaiian shirt, dragging him at a run toward Ollie’s pond. “Oh, Hal! An alligator! Get the camera ready, honey!’’
I joined the visitors at the concrete wall. I could smell coconut-scented suntan cream.
“Where’s Bobby, Hal? He really should be here to see this,’’ the woman said.
“The last I saw, he was stalking off through the forest to get his Nintendo game out of the car.’’ Hal looked at me and shrugged. “Kids. What’re you going to do?’’
Judging by the size of his dad, whose flowered shirt could have been the tablecloth for a party of six, Bobby could be big enough to make the sounds I’d heard in the woods.
I asked, “Would your son normally stay on the nature path?’’ We’d groomed it, clearing away brush, after the woman in the tiny shorts complained her legs got scratched.
“He’s thirteen. What do you think?’’ Hal’s voice had an aggressive edge. “Bobby’s not so good with rules.’’
He held up his camera. “I’d love to get my wife in the picture, too. Is there any way Ev can climb down and get close to the alligator?’’
Rhonda’s warning about the S-word ran through my mind.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,’’ I said evenly. “Ollie hasn’t been fed today.’’
“Oh, that’s something we could do, Hal!’’ Ev took an excited little hop up and down. “Alligators are supposed to love marshmallows. A man at the RV camp where we’re staying says one in the canal will climb right onto shore. The alligator opens his mouth, and the man just tosses in the marshmallows, one after the other.’’
No S-word. No S-word. No S-word.
“I hope your RV neighbor’s not too attached to his arm,’’ I said. “A couple of years ago, fishermen in Lakeland found the body of a man who’d been missing for a while. A gator got ’em. In the same lake, trappers killed a three-hundred-pounder. All the residents had been feeding him. That’s illegal, by the way. They opened the gator up, and there was the poor fisherman’s forearm. It was still intact, in the alligator’s stomach.’’
Ev ran a hand down her own arm, glancing nervously over the wall at Ollie.
“Alligators are wild, unpredictable creatures.” I could hear the annoyance seeping into my voice, but I plowed ahead. “You have to realize, they’re dangerous. They’re not costumed characters at Walt Disney World, ready to pose for tourist pictures.’’
“We get it, we get it.’’ Hal stuck out his chest. “We’re not stupid. You don’t need to take that high-and-mighty tone with us. You don’t have to be rude.’’
Uh-oh.
“Sorry.’’ I backpedaled. “I didn’t mean to sound nasty.’’ I flashed them a smile that would make Rhonda proud. “It’s just that people who feed alligators cause a lot of problems, both for the people and the gators. They’re naturally skittish of humans. But if someone feeds them, they learn to associate people with food.’’ We all looked down at the gator in the pool. “Missing one eye and part of a foot hasn’t done much to slow Ollie down. And it hasn’t done a thing to diminish the power of his jaws and tail. He’s here because he got a little too close for comfort on the eighteenth hole at the new Kissimmee Links country club.’’
Hal let out a low whistle. “That’s a hell of a water hazard.’’
“Did he kill someone?’’ the woman asked.
“Not yet.’’
I recited the facts I knew by heart from my lectures to the kids: Biting strength more fearsome than a lion’s; eighty razor teeth; a tail that can break a man’s—or a woman’s—leg.
Then I agreed to take a picture of the two of them leaning against the wall. I climbed onto a step stool I dragged over from the shed. With that and my height, I could angle downward to get Ollie in the background and the stupid couple in the foreground. I took four or five shots from different angles. The visitors left with all their limbs. Everybody was happy.