“What do you say? You want to go rogue with me?” She hitched her purse over her shoulder.
“Been a while, but I think I can remember how to turn on a camera.” Reuben grabbed one of the camera bags and a tripod by the exit. “They said it went in near the Market at the trailhead. You driving or am I?”
Lucy grinned and snatched her press pass from her desk. “You’re driving. Let’s go find our gator.”
“Hey Lucy, what’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?”
“What?” She played along.
“No idea, but we’re about to find out.” He winked at her.
When they arrived at the river, a small crowd had gathered around the edge of the water. A couple of uniformed police officers stood guard. Lucy distracted them with reporter questions while Reuben slipped past.
He didn’t waste any time. The camera was on his shoulder, rolling video immediately. It may have been awhile since he lugged one around, but no one would ever guess.
The huge, muscled gator sat near the edge of the water ripping apart what appeared to be a giant chuck roast. Several police officers and three handlers in khaki shirts inched toward the escaped reptile. Reuben kept a step behind them with the camera.
Lucy glanced to the scuffle taking place by the water. An older man with white hair, dressed in head-to-toe khaki, looped a hook around the distracted gator’s head. Then he hopped on the back of the six-footish reptile like a cowboy and held the beast tight. It took two more of them to straddle the head, hold the mouth closed, and wrap black electrical tape around the snout.
Reuben remained only a breath away, getting the whole thing on film. Lucy gave mad props to him for not balking as the heavy tail thrashed near his feet. That video was going to be fantastic.
With the gator secured and placed back in its metal cage, Lucy clicked into reporter mode and collected sound bites.
“How did the gator escape from your vehicle?” she asked the lead handler.
The gator wrestler who had some kind of animal teeth strung on a necklace appeared ready to conquer the depths of the deepest jungle in camouflage cargo pants, brown work boots, and a khaki bush shirt.
“Weeeell, this isn’t the first time ol’ Jack here’s made a break for it. First time he’s ever made it outside the trailer, though. I figure we’ll take ’em back to Florida. His travelin’ days are through.”
“What would you say to the people worried about Jack’s well-being on the road?”
“I’d say if they’re worried about ’em, then they don’t know Jack.” He smirked.
And there you had it. They didn’t know Jack.
She wrapped up the interview, and the gator-wrestlers let her get close to the now-resigned-to-his-fate beast.
Lucy loved her job. This little adventure would move her forward, out of Confluence.
This was right, the moving on. She played those words on repeat in her head—and would until she believed them.
She adjusted her collar and buttoned up her suit jacket before the green light of the camera turned on. Reuben cued her, and she smiled her best I-know-what-I’m-talking-about grin into the lens. “It’s a jungle out there, Confluence, but this big guy is on his way back to Florida tonight. Thanks to Jack’s handlers and a few first responders, the Confluence River is safe once more. To Jack the alligator, all we have left to say is, ‘Later Gator.’”
Intoxicated on adrenaline, they hurried back to the station to get the story ready for the evening news.
The station buzzed with preparation for the upcoming broadcast. She didn’t have much time to put together the segment, so she plunked herself in an editing bay to clip the snippets of sound and video together. Her image filled the screens, and she lost herself in the little room. Everything in her hummed with elation when she added the final voiceovers. She tapped a few buttons, sending the story to be stacked into the show—just in time.
“Lucy, don’t go crazy, but I posted some of our video online.” Reuben shifted from foot-to-foot just outside the editing room.
She glanced up at him. “What’d you post?”
“The gator wrestling and then your stand-up afterward when he kind of did the alligator I’ll-be-back smile behind you, and you said, ‘Later Gator.’”
She laughed. The beast had done a decent impression of Schwarzenegger—for an alligator.
Whatever. The full story would be on the news in under an hour anyway.
“The thing is—” Reuben shuffled uncomfortably again. “I have a bit of a following online and well…now the video is trending. There are memes, too.”
