Tick Tock Croc

Tick Tock Croc

I could not take my eyes off Pixie Hollow, the island where the fairies live, it was beautiful, always glittering with gold pixie dust. It has become a habit of mine to admire their fantastic island from my boring one, Croc Creek, but today is different, today is the day I visit Pixie Hollow. 

Mama Odie, the Voodoo priestess, promised every creature in Croc Creek one wish, provided they present an outstanding gift to her. It seemed like a fair deal, I had asked creatures who had visited Mama Odie, for gift ideas. They all told me to go big and glamorous, to find rare herbs or artifacts. So I decided to give her the rare glass flower. I searched the highs and lows of Croc Creek to find her the glass flower. 

At mother’s, the aroma of her famous feather hat stew was eluding, making me nostalgic. I remembered the first time she cooked her stew, its uniquely delicious taste, the taste mother claimed to have come from the hand of a white feather hat pirate. This stew is the major reason I wanted to go to Pixie Hollow because it is my dream to be a chef at Pixie Hollow. Ordinarily I would not be allowed to become a chef because of gender roles that insisted males hunt while females cook. But since I swallowed an alarm clock when I was three, it had earned me the name Tick Tock Croc as well as made me too noisy to hunt. 

Mother only cooked her special stew on special occasions, making me curious about what we were celebrating. I walked closer to the source of the aroma to ask mother about the celebration. She began to tell me about how she dreamt I would become a talented chef. It was not until she unwrapped the luminous glass flower from a napkin that I understood.

After eating mother’s stew I set out for Mama Odie’s. It was a long way down the Creek but every step felt worth it. I was overwhelmed with joy, I was finally going to be a chef in Pixie Hollow. As I approached the entrance of Mama Odie’s shrine, I heard an old screeching voice call my name. A three feet figure with a snake around her neck emerged from the shadows. 

“What do you want Tick Tock Croc” she hissed. 

With all the courage in me, I presented the flower and told her I would like to go to Pixie Hollow. The snake on her neck let out a loud laugh, and without a second glance, Mama Odie said, “Join’em with the rest” while signaling to form my flower to a huge flower vase of glass flowers. I was devastated, Mama Odie rejected the flower I had searched endlessly for and most importantly denied me my ticket to Pixie Hollow. She told me to return when I find a more valuable gift for her.

Walking out of Mama Odie’s shrine was a moment I had fantasized about for years, I fantasized myself skipping out, to jubilate with my family. Yet I was walking out with my head down in bewilderment. I walked lazily to the highest part of the creek to look at Pixie Hollow. As I got to the top I heard a voice hiss my name, it was Mama Odie’s snake, Juju. he coiled beside me, staring at Pixie Hollow. 

“You know” Juju started “Mama O doesn’t hate you… she just wants you to give from your heart not your mind.”

I looked at him shocked that he thought my glass flower was not from my heart. 

“I searched tirelessly for it…for years,” I said, almost yelling at Juju.

Juju signed, “Your heart not your mind.” he repeated.

 In that instant I was a ship approaching the shores of the island. And there it was a pirate in a white feather hat. The idea immediately struck me to make Mama Odie mother’s feather hat stew. I rushed to the harbor to meet the feather hat pirate in an intense duo with a flying boy in green. The ship was in chaos, children were tied up to a pole, while some were ferociously fighting the ship’s crew, and a fairy was struggling in a lamp case. My gaze returned to the pirate, I waited impatient for him to fall into the water. The flying boy put one of his hands behind his back, dearing the pirate with his short dagger. The tied up children were free and the ship's chaos increased. Finally, the pirate tripped, falling straight into my mouth. I could hear the children on the ship cheering me on as I forced the stubborn pirate into my mouth. The pirate fought Yelling "smee!” at every move he made. I continued to chase him to the middle of the ocean. 

If my day could not get any worse, I watched as whale emerge from the sea with its mouth open swallowing the pirate. I was lucky to have not been eaten, but I was so angry that the whale had swallowed my only shot at getting my dream.

I swam home slowly while trying to accept my heartbreak. Thinking about how I would never become a chef at Pixie Hollow. As I approached Croc Creek I heard stage sounds like drums beating and creatures singing. There was a party and all the creatures of the creek were jubilating alongside the boy in green, the cheering children and a fairy. I crept quietly away from the party, but Juju saw me and yelled: “He is here!” 

The whole crowd shifted to face me then they began to parade towards me. They cheered me on saying I was courageous enough to chase the pirate which they called captain hook away from terrorizing the whole of Neverland. The fairy even offered to take me to Pixie Hollow to become a chef.

So there I was admiring my to be home from the shores of Croc Creek.