This One and Magic Life by Anne C. George Page B

says.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œA gator. Asleep on the road. Managed to get in both lanes. He don’t want to, but they’re trying to get him to move.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œVery carefully.” The woman and Hektor both laugh appreciatively. She wipes sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm. The little round crochetpiece dangles for a moment in the air. She holds it out for Hektor to see. “A bedspread,” she explains. “Our youngest is getting married.”
    â€œThat’s pretty,” Hektor says. “Well, let me go see what’s happening.”
    He starts away and then turns back. “Who’s marrying her?” he asks.
    â€œA boy from down Gautier. Nice boy. Just got out of the Navy.”
    â€œNo. I mean the priest.”
    â€œYou mean the preacher? Brother Edwards from Ruhama Baptist. That’s where we go. Why? You need a preacher?”
    â€œI’m looking for a priest who lives around here somewhere. You know one?”
    â€œMaybe you mean Father Audubon. They say he used to be one. They call him that because he likes birds.”
    â€œDo you know where I can find him?”
    â€œNo. Bouchet at the store could probably tell you, though.”
    â€œThanks. Where’s the store?”
    â€œDown the road. We’ll get there after while, I guess.” She wipes her forehead again.
    â€œThanks.” Hektor walks back to his pickup. “It’s an alligator across the road,” he tells May. “Come on, let’s go see what’s happening.”
    â€œHey, that’s great.” May jumps from the truck and starts running toward the front of the line of parked cars.
    â€œWait,” Hektor calls. But May doesn’t slow down. She pushes through the small crowd and disappears. “Lord God,” Hektor hears her say.
    â€œExcuse me.” He wedges between two men and grabs May’s arm. On the road before them is the largestalligator Hektor has ever seen. It stretches at least ten feet across the middle of the road. Dead, Hektor thinks. But even as he is thinking this, the alligator moves its tail slightly. Twelve people move backward as one. Hektor snatches May back so hard she is airborne.
    â€œDon’t you ever do that again!” he hisses.
    â€œWhat?”
    What? Put yourself in danger? Leave me?
    â€œSay ‘Lord God’ like that. And get so close to an alligator.”
    â€œI just wanted to see him.”
    â€œSo did Captain Hook.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Hektor sighs. He is raising a culturally illiterate child who won’t test well and who will never make it into a good college and it’s his fault.
    â€œThat gator’s Big Ben,” the skinny redheaded man beside him says. “He does this ever now and then. We just wait till his nap’s over usually. Yell at him some.”
    â€œHow long does he usually sleep?” Hektor asks.
    â€œDiffers.”
    â€œI thought Big Ben was a bear,” May says.
    â€œThat’s Gentle Ben.”
    â€œBig Ben’s a clock, though.”
    â€œRight. Goes tic toc because it swallowed Captain Hook’s arm.”
    â€œWhose arm, Papa?”
    â€œI’m not sure.” Hektor turns to the man next to him. “You want me to call the Highway Patrol or something? There’s a phone in my truck.”
    â€œWon’t do any good. But I sure would like to call my wife and tell her why I’m late.”
    â€œSure. It’s that blue pickup.”
    â€œHow does it work?”
    â€œI’ll come get it for you.” Hektor turns to May.“Move an inch and I’ll send what’s left of you to the reform school.”
    â€œWhat’s the reform school?”
    â€œYou don’t want to know.”
    â€œYou’re not going to send me to the zoo to shovel elephant doo?”
    â€œSame thing.” Hektor leaves a grinning May and accompanies the man to the pickup. While the phone is doing