My father and I walked out the back door and into the back yard of a cottage in the country. I heard my brother Chris, sitting at the end of the yard, laugh. My father walked around to the side of the house, sat down and began talking to me. He told me he could see a cayman lying not far from the house. Suddenly he jumped up because he realized another cayman was lying next to the house only about a meter away from him. He had startled the cayman and it slid over a bank close to the house.
I was surprised to see the cayman. Could Chris be in danger if any caymans were around where he was? I walked back to get Chris and found that he was no longer there. I called my father – when neither of us could find Chris, I concluded that a cayman had eaten him. I found a lot of what appeared to be something like cayman bodies lying around; some of them were big enough to confirm my belief that they could eat a human. Nevertheless my father seemed unable to believe that Chris had been eaten.
I walked back in the house; my mother was in the kitchen. Then I looked in the next room and saw Chris (6-7 years old) sitting on a stool. What a relief! I walked over and kissed him on the cheek. I asked my mother about it and she said she had gone out to get him. I told her we had thought Chris had been eaten by a cayman. Then I also said that when my father came in she should not tell him Chris was in the other room. Finally my father did walk in and my mother asked him about Chris and whether he thought he might have been eaten by a cayman.
I meanwhile walked back outside. It gradually occurred to me that we were living in a swamp, perhaps somewhere in Florida. I was intrigued by the abundance of animal life in the area. I figured beaver were probably in the swamp and in my mind imagined a beaver poking its head above the water.
I could see that the level of the swamp was high due to the overflowing of a nearby stream. The water was rushing past at points and large waves of water perhaps three meters high were being created. I thought that I needed a boat and that I might have to return to work for a while to earn some money to buy one. But still I wouldn't be able to go over the waves of water even if I had a boat.
I wondered if any trappers were in the area. I was really disgusted by the idea that trappers could still legally come in and trap wild animals. I felt it was my duty to try to protect the animals.
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