An Alligator in the Milk Box

Kate was just putting on her favorite striped sweater when she heard the doorbell ring. Still in her pajama pants, Kate rushed down the stairs.

“Mom! Mom! Is the milk here? Is that the milkman?”

“Yes, come help me unload it,” Kate’s mom called back.

Kate loved Saturdays. Every Saturday morning, the milk was delivered. Kate liked milk just fine, but that wasn’t the reason she loved the milk deliveries so much. Kate loved them because the company that delivered milk wasn’t just a milk company. It also sold cookies. And Kate loved cookies. One chocolate chip cookie arrived every Saturday, just for her. Most of the time, Kate had to wait until after lunch to eat her cookie, but every once in a while, Kate’s mom let her eat it right away.

Kate watched her mom unpack the milk boxes and waited for her cookie. When she saw it, she grabbed it right out of the box. Kate was about to ask her mom when she could eat it, but suddenly something huge began to rise out of one of the milk boxes. It grew taller and taller, and it was big and green and scaly. It had beady eyes, which Kate stared at until they blinked and scared her so much she dropped her cookie. It was undeniable: an alligator had just come out of her milk box.

Kate did what any reasonable kid would have done in this situation. She ran away.

Kate bounded up the stairs, hoping she could hide from it and that her mom would fix this. Her mom could fix anything. Kate jumped into her bed and pulled the covers over her head. A couple minutes passed and Kate began to wonder if her mom would be able to fix this after all. Eventually, she decided to pull the covers off her head. She slowly looked around her room. Then she gasped.

The alligator was in her room. And it was sitting on her little blue chair. The chair was wooden and painted blue and it had been her chair since the day she was born. It was Kate’s favorite spot to sit. 

“That’s my spot! Don’t sit there!”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I’m sorry,” the alligator said. It stood up in a much more graceful way than one would expect an alligator to. And on two feet, too.

“Can you talk?” Kate asked, amazed.

“You can talk. Why shouldn’t I?” The alligator said kindly.

“You’re an animal,” Kate responded, matter-of-factly.

The alligator turned it’s head to the side so it could make eye contact with Kate. Then it smiled, which should have been creepy because it was an alligator, after all. But Kate found that she liked the alligator’s smile very much.

“I am an animal,” the alligator responded.

“Do you have a name?” Kate asked.

“No. Do you have a name?”

“I’m Kate. I’m five years old and I’m in kindergarten and I’m one of the fastest runners in my class.”

“That’s nice.”

“I think you need a name. Can I call you...um…” Kate paused for a second, thinking. “Chocolate chip?”

“Is that a good name?” The alligator asked, tilting it’s head in curiosity.

“It’s a VERY good name,” Kate said. “I wish it was my name but my mom won’t let me change it.”

“Very well. My name is Chocolate Chip,” Chocolate Chip said pleasantly.

“Okay! Where are your clothes? I think you should be wearing clothes,” Kate observed. 

This was the start of the most extreme and the most important fashion show of Kate’s whole life. After ripping two of Kate’s shirts and one pair of her pants, it was clear that Chocolate Chip would not fit into any of Kate’s clothes. Kate decided she would have to get some of her mom’s clothes for this alligator to be properly dressed.

Kate told Chocolate Chip to stay put, to which Chocolate Chip responded with immediately freezing in place. Then Kate left her room, quietly shut the door behind her, and snuck into her mom’s room. Kate couldn’t find anything with patterns in her mom’s drawers, except for a pair of argyle socks that seemed much too small for an alligator. In the closet, though, Kate was able to find a dark blue sweater with some orange stripes on it. Kate grabbed the sweater, knocking over a couple hangers in the process. Normally, she would have picked the hangers up, but she felt it was more important to get the sweater to Chocolate Chip as fast as possible.

“Hey, I got you a good sweater,” Kate said, once back in her room. 

“What makes it a good sweater?” Chocolate Chip asked.

“It’s striped. My favorite sweater is striped,” Kate explained.

Chocolate Chip accepted this answer and tried on the sweater. It was a little bit tight, but not too bad. Kate felt very proud of herself.

Suddenly, Kate heard her mom’s footsteps coming up the stairs. 

“Quick, Chocolate Chip! Hide!” Kate said frantically. In hindsight, she wasn’t sure why she needed to hide Chocolate Chip from her mom, but in the moment it felt very necessary.

Kate’s panic grew when she discovered Chocolate Chip wouldn’t fit inside her closet. Kate finally decided to just throw her blanket over Chocolate Chip and cover all parts of the alligator as best she could. The door knob began to jiggle and Chocolate Chip’s snout was still out, but it was too late. Kate hoped her mom wouldn’t notice.

“Kate, why did you drop your cookie downstairs? Even if you don’t want to eat it, you can’t just leave it on the floor.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to! I still want to eat it!” Kate exclaimed.

“Alright, honey. You can eat it after lunch,” Kate’s mom said, already turning away.

Kate quickly closed the door after her and uncovered Chocolate Chip.

“Why is your mom so large?” Chocolate Chip asked.

“She’s pregnant,” Kate sighed. “She’s got a little baby boy in her tummy and it’s going to come soon. It makes her all tired sometimes, or just really weird. I hate the baby. I don’t want it to come.”

“Oh,” Chocolate Chip responded. “Well, at least you did not get in trouble for having me in your room.”

“I don’t know. I would have gotten in much more trouble if Mom wasn’t pregnant. She would have spent a lot more time talking with me about it.”

“So you wish you had gotten in trouble?”

“No!” Kate began to get frustrated. She marched to the other side of the room and turned her back to Chocolate Chip. It was silent for a while, and then Chocolate Chip spoke.

“Well, you’ve liked spending time with me today, haven’t you?”

Kate didn’t respond. Chocolate Chip continued.

“If you have a brother, you will be able to spend every day just like you’ve spent with me this morning.”

Kate took this in, thought about it, and then turned back around to see Chocolate Chip.

“Do you want to play Candy Land?”

Kate and Chocolate Chip played Candy Land until Kate’s mom called her down for lunch. 

“Will you be leaving now?” Kate asked Chocolate Chip.

“Yes. I’m going to go through the window.”

“Are you ever going to come back?”

“I don’t know. But I will miss you.”

Kate felt sad but she knew it was okay to be sad when you said goodbye to someone. Chocolate Chip left through the window and Kate went downstairs and ate her lunch.