Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

“You can look now,” said the kid who encouraged me to uncover my eyes.

We’d found two seats in the packed venue, two near the front. Loud, thumping rhythms mimicked my heartbeat. “Daa-duh…Daa-duh…” The theatre was pitch-dark, except for the screen’s lighted, toothy image.

I was a quick study; when the music cued the shark’s appearance, I covered my eyes. It was June, 1975. Now, everyone knows to get out of the water when that sound track plays.

The sad commentary for this week is not a shark, but an alligator. Where was the sound track? Was there no sinister warning, no ticking sound coming from Disney’s alligator?

Walt Disney World. Disney offers a magic kingdom where the hype suggests families are protected and safe, especially at a private Disney resort. On a Disney beach, the feeling of safety while on vacation seems a promise. Far from the realm of possibility is a real-life alligator snatching a child who plays at the water’s edge.

Wendy and her brothers, even the little one with the teddy bear, lined up to walk the plank as Captain Hook stood guard. The horrid alligator circled, ticking a warning, with a wind-up clock in his belly. The audience understood that sinister, red-eyed menace, the one licking his toothy chops, would eat stuff. He could eat Wendy and the boys and the teddy bear, for that matter. I covered my eyes.

I was terrified, then…at the alligator’s evil intent, the warning: tick-tock, tick-tock. No tragedy, though. A rescue, instead.

I was jumpy in the movie theatre when Daa-Duh...Daa-Duh…blasted from the surround-sound. I covered my eyes.

That’s when the kid got my attention and told me I could look.

Jaws eating a boat is not real. In fact, he now hangs at WDW-Universal Studios and Rich and I’ve been photographed beside him.

The alligator that made his way down the aisle during Playhouse on the Square’s production of Peter Pan was not real, but Rich changed seats in a heart-beat.

Terrorists are real. 9/11 was real. And all the other tragedies we've had to face lately have been very real.

This stuff happens...sad stuff, scary stuff, horrible stuff.

Florida’s alligators do not care about Walt Disney World’s rules.

They are real.

This world is so real, sometimes, I don’t want to look.