Alligator

Alligator

By Andrea Basile

        Authors Note: For language arts class we had to pick one word from a student’s list. I chose the word “alligator.” This is a creative piece about my childhood memory of my mother taking me on a ride called “Alligator”. Tell me if my ideas are clear. I love Carson.

When you’re three years old, it’s very frightening to watch an alligator movie. But my dad didn’t care; he made me watch the movie anyway. See, my childhood was basically my dad renting movies, then giving them to me to see if they were any good. One day my dad came back from Blockbuster and handed me a DVD saying “Buddy watch this and tell me if it’s a good movie.” So, being the good child I am, I watched it. In the first couple minutes of the movie, I saw with my three year old eyes, a man being mauled by an alligator. After that terrible movie, I was terrified of going in lakes, oceans, bays, or any other type of water.

Seven years later, I’m finally getting over my phobia of water…until my mom decided to play a joke on me. My mother took me to Orlando for vacation, and while we were there she said “Andrea there’s this really cool ride I want you to go on.” My mom led me to the line, and I saw that the line led to a boat. I was thinking Oh, cool were going on a boat ride…I was sadly mistaken. When we got closer to the ride, I saw a block of wood that was engraved with writing…Beware. I was a little confused, but I didn’t think much of it. About 10 minutes later, it was our turn to get on the boat. Long story short, it wasn’t just a boat ride. It was a boat ride with a fake alligator attacking us. The boat rocked and shook, the boat driver started acting really scared, I was squeezing my mom like there was no tomorrow, water splashed everywhere, the boat tilted some more, and last but not least I saw things moving in the water. It was probably the scariest experience of my childhood. I thought I was going to die. In the end, I was shaking, terrified, and oh let’s not forget…my phobia was back.