Casey, the saltwater crocodile reclined in the Adelaide river under the hot sun, waiting for meat to be thrown by Mr Hanson. Did he love her? She wasn't sure. She considered eating him. In bygone days of energetic youth, a hairy suntanned arm had once slipped from her jaws. Now to her disappointment he threw the meat from above and had built a fence. The fence did not protect Casey however, from her one source of dark, unholy torment: the sneaky, squeaky, snappy little light brown terrier named Pippa.
Pippa's attacks were brutal. Systematic. Humiliating. Her growly, gremlin snap was so painful that Casey's amber eyes watered and slowly closed. She'd open them again and swipe with her khaki tail before bubbling under the brown Adelaide River to safety. But Pippa always wiggled away.
Passing tourists adored, filmed, posted the attacks online. Pippa became a young youtube star. Fame went to her head and she became ever more daring in her ambushes. Casey had had enough. No one considered her self-esteem as she brooded discontentedly in the river Adelaide, or was forced to retreat into its muddy waters. She had to do something. She decided to wait. She'd wait for Pippa to make a mistake.
It happened one hot Saturday. A boat packed with camera clutching tourists sailed by and Pippa ever transparent, chose this moment to strike. Instead of the usual nips to the tail and back feet, she vaingloriously ran straight out in front of the face of the great, discontented crocodile. All of Casey's pent up rage and frustration was released in one decisive snap. A sinking of teeth, a twitch of a leg, and Pippa was no more. The more ghoulish tourists kept on filming as Casey dragged her carcass into the blood red river to finish her off.
Pippa's fur wasn't delicious or even digestible, but revenge tasted sweet. Reporters flocked in the hot sun, to Mr Hanson. To Casey's delight, he was supportive: 'Casey didn't do anything wrong.' he said. 'She's a croc'. Casey felt affirmed in her identity, and also by the fact that he didn't seem to miss Pippa, whose nickname, she discovered, had been the rather derogatory 'Dumb Blonde'. 'How true' thought Casey, and licked her lips.
Casey now had everything she wanted in life: to eat the meat thrown by the hand of Mr Hanson – who nearly loved her- to bask unmolested in the hot sun, to grow fat and die. And give or take a human finger, this is exactly what she did.
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Tales of Disturbance
Science FictionA young teenage girl, haunted by the memories of her father's execution, attempts to escape a cruel regime by night. A solitary woman, abandoned by her husband, inadvertently plays into the cruel hands of 'the state'. In another totalitarian regime...
