All Eyes are Watching

A Short Story

This is a warning to those of you who think you are alone. You’re not.

We go about our daily lives oblivious to the world and our environment around us. We are focused on our tasks and responsibilities. Many of us escape to the wilderness on occasion to get away from it all, to be alone. But are we?

While in pursuit of an alligator in Everglades National Park I grew quite excited when I saw one on the move. If you have ever seen an alligator in the day you will notice that quite often they are just sitting there motionless taking in the warmth of the sun or cooling themselves in the water. At night they come alive for the hunt. As it was beginning to get dark I saw this one gator on the move. I was excited! Where was he going? What was he up to? Did he decide nightfall was a good time to hunt? Did something or someone catch his eye for supper? He was moving in the water parallel to the shoreline, so I followed. I began to take pictures of this active reptile in hopes of getting a very powerful and ominous photo of this gator in the water with the dark lighting and gray tones. Hoping to get a picture in this lighting with his eyes aglow. Alligator’s eyes glow in the dark when light hits them. They give this very ominous and foreboding red glow. I thought that would be a great picture, the grays and blacks with red eyes staring back. The only problem is night was falling fast. It was that time of evening when the light is just enough to cast silhouettes but still see enough to make out the gators body in the water. It is also that time of day when the light goes so fast you just blink and it is gone. So I had to move quickly, plus to make matters worse my gator was on the move toward darker shadows away from the open light. So I just started snapping pictures. I took the first one.

I took it with a simple digital camera so I could see the result right away. Too dark. I could just make out his one red eye reflected from the flash watching me. Walking quickly to keep up I took another.

Much too dark. Now it was so dark I was having trouble seeing where I was going, but I was determined to get a really cool picture of this gator’s eyes. I am certain he was quite aware of my presence. There was nothing separating him from me except a couple yards of grass on the shore. Still I needed to move a little closer to the water and keep walking…and snap.

O.K. It was time to head back. Those pictures were good enough. I figured I’d just leave him and his friends to their business.

Never assume you are alone, especially in the dark.
You think you’re alone but......…All Eyes are Watching!

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