Okay, so this is a story I wrote a few months ago at the request of my sister to entertain her during a really long stats class one night. Some of you have already read it, and it's not my usual kind of post, but I figured I should post it so that I don't lose it or forget about it (I'm not really a creative writer, either, so bear with me). Also, when writing this story, I asked for some prompts from Denise, and she told me that I had to include: a bus, a radio, peanuts, "alligator-hunter man", and a "chef good with a knife." Here goes...
Once upon a time, there was a nondescript and rather ordinary man. His name was Marvin, and he was a bus driver. Marvin lived in Florida, and he worked very hard at his job, sometimes driving eighteen hours a day, in hopes that one day he would be able to retire north. Six days a week he drove his bus, picking up all kinds of passengers, most of them usually quite old (this is Florida we're talking about). The old people complained and made trouble for Marvin all the time, but he kept on working, holding on to the hope that his patience would one day get him to the beautiful cool weather and four seasons of the northeast.
One Saturday, one that seemed like any other Saturday, Marvin was getting ready to start his route, to pick up the usual blue-haired ladies and bald-headed gentlemen. Marvin couldn't wait for the day to be over, so he could enjoy his one day off before another week started, and he had to go back to the same old routine. On this Saturday, as on every Saturday, Marvin's job was to drive tour buses to the Everglades, where the passengers would get on boats and tour the swamps, getting thrills out of seeing all the alligators that inhabited the area. Marvin had never toured the Everglades - he had never even seen an
alligator, except in the movies and on TV. His job was to wait with the bus until his passengers came back, full of exciting tales about their encounters with the beasts. Marvin loved hearing their stories, since that was probably the closest he would ever get to seeing the alligators himself. But if any of the passengers had been paying any attention as they told their stories to each other, they would have noticed Marvin glancing back at them with a wistful look in his eye. Alas, they were too concerned with their own lives to notice the nondescript and rather ordinary man driving the bus.
So Marvin started his route, and with a bus full of old grandmas and grandpas and their children and grandchildren who were visiting, Marvin pulled onto the interstate on the way south to the Everglades. The radio droned on in the background, and Marvin heard - heard, but didn't give it a second thought - that there was a tropical storm coming. The meteorologists expected it to miss the mainland, but not by much. Marvin kept driving. He noticed the sky was getting overcast. As he drove, he munched a handful of peanuts, a snack perhaps as nondescript and ordinary as the man himself, and thought about all the adventures his passengers would have that day, and how he wished something adventurous would happen to *him*.
As he pulled the bus into the park, it started raining. It was one of those storms where you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. As the passengers let out disappointed cries, realizing that their tour of the swamps would have to be called off, Marvin struggled to see well enough to guide the bus safely into the parking lot, where he turned it around carefully and prepared to drive back to the interstate...until the bus' engine sputtered and died. The passengers groaned at the thought of being stuck on the bus any longer, and Marvin put on his raincoat and galoshes to go out and check the engine. As he went out, his thoughts were a million miles away - or at least a thousand, as he dreamed of the day he would be away from all the horrible heat, the hurricanes, and the hum of complaining voices waiting for him on the bus. He was so distracted, in fact, that he didn't notice the pair of dark, reptilian eyes staring at him through the sheets of rain from across the parking lot.
Marvin surveyed the engine with an experienced eye, quickly found the problem, made some adjustments, and soon the problem was fixed. Relieved that he wouldn't have to face the surprisingly vituperative anger of his octogenarian patrons, he put away his tools and turned to make his way back onto the bus. When he turned, however, his heart skipped a beat, as he realized he was face-to-face with a sixteen-foot
alligator. Marvin marveled at the obvious power of the creature, and at the same time wondered why he had ever wished he could pay money to tour its habitat in hopes of ever seeing one. He stood, frozen with fear. On the bus, one of the passengers, Jilly, a small girl of about seven years, had wandered to the front of the bus, impatient from the long trip and tired of listening to her ancient grandmother tell her stories that all inevitably began with "when I was a little girl..." Jilly peered out the front window and gasped as she saw the bus driver and the
alligator, staring at each other, not five feet in front of the bus. She called out to her grandmother, and all the passengers on the bus flocked to the front to see the nondescript and rather ordinary man, motionless, and the sixteen-foot beast, its tail whipping back and forth with a force that could obviously knock Marvin off his feet without any trouble. Jilly's grandmother grabbed her and covered her eyes, and the other passengers began to panic, certain that they were about to witness an
alligator tearing a man to pieces.
Marvin stood, stared at the creature, on whose face he swore he could detect an evil and - was it hungry? - glare. Was it possible for alligators to lick their lips? Did they even have lips? Or tongues? Marvin thought he saw the creature do so. He wished he were back safe on his bus, and wondered why he had ever wanted adventure. The
alligator began to move forward, very slowly and deliberately. Suddenly, Marvin remembered a TV show he had once watched, "
Alligator Hunter Man," in which the host often wrestled and captured the beasts. But that guy usually had a pole and a net, maybe some rope...and plenty of people to help him out if he got in any serious trouble. Marvin had none of that. He kept staring at the
alligator, still motionless, still frozen in fear. He had no thoughts of anything else in the world. For now, there was only him and the
alligator.
Then, to Marvin's great surprise, the
alligator, now only a few feet from Marvin (and with what Marvin had decided was definitely a hungry look in his eyes), staggered and fell. Marvin's eyes widened. He was sure that he should be dead now. What had happened? Minutes later (but it felt like hours), he was finally able to lift his gaze from the creature, after it had heaved a final breath and those reptilian eyes had closed, no longer to keep Marvin frozen in their gaze. And what should he see, but a woman! Now, to the other passengers on the bus, this woman had looked nondescript and rather ordinary. She had sat by herself and kept quiet the whole trip, and no one had noticed her slip off the bus when Marvin's standoff began. But to Marvin, this was the most beautiful woman in the world. He glanced at the
alligator again, and noticed for the first time two long knives, piercing into the
alligator's tough, scaly skin. He also noticed the rain start to subside, as the sun began to peek through the clouds.
He stuttered out a few words, breaking what had seemed like an eternal silence: "Wh-what? H-h-how?"
The woman gave him a shy smile, and explained that she was a chef, renowned the world over for her knife skills. She was visiting from New York City, and was planning on going to her aunt and uncle's house to make a special 50th anniversary dinner for them right after the tour, so she had all her equipment with her. She had never seen an
alligator either, but she had watched the same "
Alligator Hunger Man" program as Marvin, and thus knew exactly where the
alligator's weak spots were. Marvin, having regained his composure by this time, walked closer to her, thanked her, and introduced himself. She introduced herself as Meg, and asked timidly if he would want to come as her guest to her aunt and uncle's anniversary party. He accepted quickly, and the two of them walked back onto the bus, shocked as they climbed its stairs to remember that there were other people in the world. Marvin quickly took his seat, and Meg made her way back to hers as the other passengers cheered. Its engine long since repaired, the bus roared to life when Marvin turned the key in the ignition. The rest of the trip was uneventful, as the passengers all buzzed with excitement about what they had seen. Only Marvin and Meg were silent, for this was not just some funny little story that they'd share at parties a few times, then forget. No, this was a story that they would tell hundreds of times, for the rest of their lives, whenever people asked husband and wife how they had met, a story that would always surprise whoever had asked, for it was surely not a story you would expect from two such nondescript and rather ordinary people.
The End.
