The Everglades- Alexa Acker

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The Everglades


The forecast read nothing but 85 degrees and sunny for the next week. My spoiled sister and brother complained they were bored with going to the pool, so my mother decided, it's time to "get back to nature." She always says that when she's had enough of seeing our profiles engrossed in our electronics.  We headed East into the Everglades. How wild could the middle of Florida be? As we drove, the road went from an 8-lane highway to a two-lane road and she took a right onto what looked like a dirt road. We finally arrived at Captain Jack's Airboat Tours. As we checked in for our excursion, I noticed the accents were twangy and country.  Our airboat operator, Marcus, had long, stringy blond hair and was missing a front tooth. He was very friendly and explained that we would drive at idle speed for the first 15 minutes and then we'd need to put on our earphones because we would pick up speed as we headed out into the vast Everglades to see "nature." As we idled out, I did get a strange feeling and felt the hairs raise slightly at the back of my neck. I glanced down at my phone and saw that I had no service.  Mom was certainly getting her way this time.

As we turned a corner and entered a narrow canal lined with mangroves, Marcus asked that we put on our earphones. All of a sudden, the boat lurched forward as he fully employed the engine and next thing I knew, we were emersed into the everglades. It felt like we were going 80 miles an hour through a never-ending maze of mangroves. Twenty minutes later, Marcus cut the engine and the boat lulled to a stop. Marcus started calling, "Charlie" as he threw chum in the water. Within seconds, a 500-pound alligator was slithering through the water towards our boat. I was in awe at the size of this creature. Marcus said he grew up in the Everglades and used to walk barefoot through the mangroves. He said he had no fear of this massive creature. The more we expressed out unease, the riskier he became. He started rubbing the alligator's forehead behind his eyes. In a nanosecond, the alligator snapped its jaws around his forearm and pulled him into the water. He had Marcus in a death roll. We screamed for help and then there was a silence and stillness as we realized Marcus had disappeared under the water and even worse, still no bars on my phone.  We were 45 minutes by boat into the heart of the Everglades with no phone access and no idea how to get back to civilization.


 


Comments

  1. DanielleNovember 18, 2019 at 5:14 AM

    I love this story and I really thought it was real to begin with!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 19, 2019 at 10:30 AM

    I thought this story was real at first! When I went to Hilton Head Island over the summer I saw a bunch of alligators. They were huge, but it was fascinating to see the animal in the wild.

    ReplyDelete

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