Alligator Boy

Once upon a time there was a little boy who had a wicked stepmother and a dad who, for reasons the little boy couldn't understand, refused to take his side. It appears to be a fact of the human predicament that a kid that gets picked on at home will get picked on in the playground too, and that was the case for this little boy.

He wept, he begged his dad, he begged his teacher, he prayed to what he had been told was a "Good God," all to no avail. Sometime in his fifth year, at about the same time that he lost faith in Santa Claus, he rethought the issue. He thought this way: waiting for somebody else to solve his oppression was like waiting for Santa Claus; neither are ever going to really show up. His conclusion? "It's up to me to either solve my own problems or else learn to live with them."

One Monday he put on the alligator mask and a big sombrero and went down to breakfast. The wicked stepmother began to pick on him and he growled and pounded the table loudly with his fist; "There is some shit I will not eat" he said quite firmly, and the wicked stepmother, aghast, became quiet and thoughtful.

The little boy wore the alligator mask and the big sombrero to school, and when some kids began to pick on him he growled and stamped his foot; "There is some shit I will not eat" he said quite firmly, and the kids became quiet and thoughtful.

It would be easy to say that he was happy ever after; but while he could go days and weeks without the mask, big sombrero, or being picked upon, a time would come when he would put them back on, and everybody knew, without him saying it again, that there was some shit he would not eat.

Photo and parable for The Woody Creeker by G. Stranahan.

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