The Alligator Smugglers and the Time Machine

THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL

The alligator smugglers, Pete and Sam, were really very lucky with their green orangutans and midnight blue alligators (they especially like smuggling blue alligators). The alligator smugglers could just sit around and drink coffee while their "pets" did the housework and errands.

The only thing that Pete and Sam missed was the excitement of searching for other blue alligators. There was none left in the world and they thought that space was too risky--mainly because the blue alligators were too slippery and smart in space. There was nothing that Pete and Sam could do.

But one day the phone buzzed in the middle of the night, and Sam answered it. The minute he answered it, he looked confused.

"Who are you? On Planet OZO you say?" A big pause. "Yes, we'll be over right away."

When Sam hung up, Pete was all ears. Sam said, "He wants us to go over to planet OZO" (that's a planet in space) "and collect a free blue alligator over there. Boy, Pete, here's a chance for some adventure. Let's go right away!"

It did not take them very long to get out some steering wheels that they had made before and steer right over to OZO. When they arrived they could not see any sign of life except for a tree way off in the distance. They walked toward the tree to see if they could find the caller's house somewhere around it. When they were almost to the tree, a net settled over both of them and they realized that they were trapped. Then someone stepped out from behind the tree. It was green elephant, their worst enemy! He had been given this name by the smugglers because sometimes he turned a very strange dark green. How could they have been so dumb as to walk right into a trap? They wondered if they would even get an alligator.

"Ha-ha," laughed the green elephant. "Now I think that you will be my slaves, both of you. Now what do you think of that?"

So Pete and Sam had to work for the green elephant for what was probably going to be the rest of their lives.

THE ESCAPE

One day when Pete was cleaning the green elephant's bedroom, he noticed something that looked like a big box with buttons all over it. He showed it to Sam, who was cleaning another room. Sam was about to crawl inside the box and investigate when green elephant called "What's going on in there?" and Sam scurried back to resume his work.

But Pete crawled inside. He pressed a whole lot of buttons and then found himself back at the alligator smugglers' hideout! But he could not read to get back to OZO with it, so he decided to use his own method with the steering wheels. Then he remembered that they were at OZO anyway, so what was he going to do? He decided that anyhow he had escaped and that was the good part.

Sam, meanwhile, had troubles of his own. As Pete had escaped Green Elephant was making Sam work doubly hard and he couldn't keep up. Green Elephant was also looking after Sam more closely than ever so he couldn't get away.

At night Green Elephant had the burglar system working, only it worked from the outside so Sam couldn't get out!

So Sam had an idea. When Green Elephant asked him to take out the garbage, he was careful not to take out too big of loads so that the burglar system would sound more often, and that was what happened every time he went out the door.

Finally, Green Elephant got a little upset and shut off the burglar system. The first part of the plan had worked!

Now Sam had to keep Green Elephant from remembering to turn the system back on. This wasn't too hard as Green Elephant was very forgetful. But just in case Sam wanted to keep him distracted. He was extra bad so that Green elephant wouldn have to keep reminding him to get to work and so he would forget about the system.

Then night came. Sam waited until he could hear Green Elephant snoring and then he quietly sneaked out onto the back deck. He was nervous and was still wondering if the system would go off when he was almost off the deck. But there was no sound, and gradually Sam became calm again. He slithered out into the moonlight. Oh, no, he had forgotten the steering wheels! Quietly Sam went back and got the steering wheels. On the way out, he was Green Elephant stretching and waking up! He must have had a bad dream! Sam ran out onto the deck, jumped, landed on the grass, grabbed the steering wheels, and went straight back to the alligator smugglers' hideout for a nice rest.

Out on the grass a while later, Green Elephant searched with his flashlight. "I was sure I heard a thump out here," he said to himself. And do you know what? I just betcha he did.

THE BIG BOX

Sam jumped own from Green Elephant's deck and sprained his ankle. He heard the sound of the burglar system droning on and on. Soon a big searchlight probed through the blackness and Sam was found. Green Elephant was very angry. He even had a branding iron ready for Sam. It was coming closer and closer....

Sam jumped up. He had been having a nightmare, but it had all seemed so realistic. He was glad he was safe in bed in the alligator smugglers' hideout.

Now that Sam was awake and the smugglers were back together again, they both noticed that their orangutans and blue alligators were gone! This was a great surprise to them and they also remembered that they were supposed to get an alligator at planet OZO. But Pete said, "Never mind, let's explore this box that I brought here," and so that they decided to do.

They realized that the whole place was not just a box, but there were also two secret door that led to two different passageways. Sam, who had taken reading lessons in Liechtenstein, could tell that one of the passageways was for a rest area and the other was to tell if you wanted to change your age during--wait, wait, wait, I suppose I'm saying things almost before I explain them. Anyway, Sam soon found out from reading that the big box was a time machine and you could go wherever you wanted in time into the future or into the past. And when you went into the future or the past you could go anywhere you wanted to go, even to Never-Never land.

But now I'd better get to the age passageway. Whenever you are time traveling you can change your age to whatever you want (you can't go back below -8 months). You can be as old as you want though.

It was good that the owner's manual was on the time machine. If it hadn't been, then Sam couldn't have read how to use it and Pete and Sam would have been considered smugglers (which, of course, they are anyway. Heh Heh Heh....)

EXPERIMENTING WITH THE MACHINE

Well! This time maching was something new! The alligator smugglers almost decided to knock off looking for blue alligators and start searching for time machines, but they were alligator smugglers and they could make do with only one time machine. And while they had it, they decided to do some experimenting.

Pete laughed wildly when Sam grew to become a 1,000 year-old alligator, and Sam laughed even harder when Pete became a squabbling three-month old. Then they changed themselves back to their normal ages (which I don't know, so you'll just have to guess.)

"I'm heading off for Never-Never land," said Pete, before Sam could stop him. Fortunately Sam was in the time machine as well so they went together. They saw all the pirates and they were so busy watching most of them that they didn't notice one sneaking up on them. Fortunately Peter Pan recued them both, just seconds before the pirate was going to grab them and throw them in the water. When Pete and Sam saw the ticking crocodile they almost ran for their lives, but when they realized that he was almost like them they quieted down a little. Then Pete noticed that the crocodile was blue in color (that morning he had gotten into Captain Hook's medicine cabinet and eaten a radioactive pill) so he asked Sam if he wanted to catch the crocodile. They almost decided to, but they thought it might be too dangerous. They also didn't like the idea of a clock ticking inside one of their pets. So they went back to the alligator smugglers' hideout and got ready for more adventures.

"This time let's go forward in time 500 years," suggested Sam, and that's what they did. Since they both were hungry, they went into the store to buy an apple. But when they saw the price they were horrified! $500.00 per pound! They were almost ready to leave when they saw an advertisement. It said, "Go to 555554 High Street and mow lawn. Owner will pay $5000." Pete was definitely ready to try it, but Sam couldn't mow lawns. As it turned out, in two days Pete had earned $20,000, and he was ready to try something else. They both noticed a subway that ran at the speed of light and decided to get on for a ride. It was $10,000 per person (or alligator), so they barely had enough. When they got on they were both almost cut in half until someone spread speed-proof jackets over them. On impulse, Pete asked, "Have you seen any midnight blue alligators around here lately?"

The man who had spread jackets over them, whose name turned out to be Waldo Whale, looked at them quizzically and then replied, "Oh, there hasn't been any of them around for about 300 years." This piece of news greatly surprised Pete and Sam, but they tried to enjoy their trip (which was very hard to do). Suddenly they saw a sign ahead which said: Other end of universe, 10 light seconds away. Pete and Sam quickly controlled the time machine and made it go back to the alligator hideout.

Back at the hideout, Waldo Whale's words kept running through Sam's mind. And suddenly, right out of thin air, Sam had an idea.

TWO IDEAS

Sam told the idea to Pete and Pete almost laughed out loud at it. He wondered why he didn't think of it himself. But it was only an idea, not a plan.

Pete and Sam jumped into the time machine and went back into time about 1100 years. And you should have seen all the alligators (especially, of course, the midnight blue ones). Now I'd suppose you wonder why, if there were so many of them, that they didn't mention, at least, how many blue alligators there used to be in the history books? The reason is, and it is a very simple one, that all blue alligators are afraid of people. Only one person in the whole world has ever caught a glimpse of a blue alligator, and that was Leif Erickson, the first person to touch America. After the alligators saw him, they all went to space onto planets like OZO, TX, and especially QB. Of course, there were a few brave ones who stayed in caves on Earth that no one had ever explored before. But eventually even these were pushed out too, and now they are virtually extinct on Earth but are everywhere in space. And as for Leif Erickson, he saw so many other "strange animals" during his visit to America that he totally forgot to tell everyone else about the blue alligators.

Anyway, Pete and Sam were having the time of their lives watching all the blue alligators. They soon realized that blue alligators love trees and they are munching on them all the time. In fact, it seemed like all they did all day was eat trees and drink water. Pete liked this kind of diet and decided that he was going to try it when they returned home.

Then Pete noticed that Sam was going to make a net. "You can't catch alligators just with a net," he told Sam.

"I know," Sam replied. "I'm going to have to make some sort of a trap and end up with them in the net."

"I have an idea," said Pete. "You could make a pit with a door on it and then let them chase you until you come to the pit. Then right after you go across it I'll open the door and they'll fall in."

Sam did not have time to object, becasue the blue alligators had heard Pete behind the shrubbery. Sam would have to start running now!

THE TRAP

Both Pete and Sam started running not a second too soon. "It looks like Pete's idea is not going to work," thought Sam, as he felt the blue alligators' breath hot upon him. A moment later Pete disappeared! Sam couldn't do anything but keep on running.

As it turned out, Pete's plan was working even better than he had expected. Pete had fallen into an already made, very deep pit. When he hit the bottom, he found a tunnel extending one way from the pit. Pete was very glad of that, because that way he would not have to be hit by all the midnight blue alligators which just might come crashing down after him.

Pete decided that he had a lot of time before Sam could lead the blue alligators over the pit he was in, so he thought he would explore the tunnel. He walked a ways down it and found that the tunnel became two tunnels. He walked down the left one and came to another fork. This time he walked down the right one. another choice. Left, right, left, right, right, left. Pete became scared and he knew that he was lost. He didn't have enough sense to turn around and keep going straight, which would have returned him to the pit.

Pete was getting more and more lost when suddenly he heard a tremendous bang from what he thought was the middle of the pit. He ran back toward it and suddenly found himself in the midst of some blue alligators. But Pete gathered his wits and sent the humongous net that Sam had made over every one. Then he ran the rest of the way to the bottom of the pit. He then realized that he couldn't climb up so he had to call Sam. Pretty soon Sam came, but he fell down into the pit too so now they were all stuck in the pit.

Eventually, they got out another way through the maze of tunnels (of course, this took a long time, and I can't tell about most of it). But on the way through Sam told Pete what had happened to him. "They were chasing me all over, and I could feel their breath on me all the time," he said. "But once when I looked behind me they had totally disappeared. That's when I heard the crash. I guess that somehow I led them right over the pit you fell into." That was when they got all the way through the tunnels and spotted the time maching standing near them. They realized that it was not nearly big enough for all of the blue alligators. In fact, they could only take about two! So they chose two that actually wanted to go and zoomed back to modern life.

The alligator smugglers enjoy their life now, even though they do not have as many pets as they used to, because the ones they have now are nicer. The smugglers drink coffee and go on adventures, sometimes with their pets, in the new time machine.

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