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Alexander and Sheila, the Wonderful Enchanted Alligators
A joyful children’s adventure about friendship and two very unusual alligators. Join Jonathan and Jane as an ordinary summer day turns into an extraordinary journey filled with transformation, laughter, s’mores, baby alligators, and the wonder of God’s heavenly world.
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Jonathan, who is a wonderful child that you’ll be getting better acquainted with in this story, felt a still, small voice waking him out of a very deep and very cozy sleep. He sat up and stretched and said, “What’s up, Father?”
You see, Jonathan could speak and see and hear in all of heaven. And his favorite person in heaven was Father God. All the other angels and creatures also loved Father, so he had a lot of company out in heaven, all who loved the Father. And he felt connected to all of heaven.
There was a call and kinship and a love among all the creatures and angels of heaven that Jonathan shared and was a little in awe of. His best friend, Jane, was the same. She could see and hear, and they were almost inseparable. They were separated by one year, but that was about all. They lived in different homes and spent an awful lot of time together, which they enjoyed very much.
He was wondering in a happy way how he would spend this lovely summer day. Jonathan heard the Father say, “Get up and go to the lake. There’s an old friend there who wants to see you, and someone new that I know you’ll like.”
Jonathan got up and washed his face and put on his outside clothes. He cheerfully walked through the kitchen, gave his mother a kiss, and grabbed a warm breakfast biscuit on his way out.
Jonathan was eleven at the time. He didn’t have to ask permission to go out into the woods around his home or into the small town. School was closed for the summer, and he reveled in the freedom of that, and his parents happily gave it to him.
Jonathan had learned to hear God and obey Him and, at a very young age, was safe and responsible far beyond his young years. His parents treated him more like he was seventeen years old than eleven. They got along very well together as a family. They touched in when needed but largely went through the chores and fun of life guided almost exclusively by the Holy Spirit and Father and enjoyed each other very much. Even the chores got taken care of with very little planning or discussion.
There was a strong angelic presence over the property. There were some very large and powerful beings who lived on and looked over the property and considered it their home as well as their charge.
On his way to the lake, Jonathan stopped at his friend Jane’s house. She was an early riser and was always up for an adventure, so he had no doubt that she would enjoy coming with him. He cheerfully knocked on the door, and her parents let him in with a smile.
Jane was already up and ready to go because Father had told her to get ready to do something fun. As they walked to the lake, Jonathan shared his biscuit with Jane.
He heard two very loud splashes as they got to the lake. One was very large, and the other was about half as large, but both were substantial. As he moved toward the bank of the lake, Jonathan and Jane saw two gray-green heads sticking out of the water. One was somewhat smaller and more delicate than the other, but still quite large, with large bulbous eyes staring at them from out of the water.
The larger of the two called out and said, “Hello, Jonathan. Hello, Jane. Good to see you again.”
It was Alexander the alligator. They had already become friends, but the new friend’s name was Sheila. They were introduced, and Jonathan and Jane came forward, and Sheila was introduced as a dear friend.
Sheila said to them, “I have heard of humans, but I’ve never known any. And I heard of you from Alexander. He speaks of you often. I’ve been fascinated and would like, if you will allow it, to be friends with you and to find out more about you.”
Jonathan and Jane thought this was a great idea and agreed to it right away. They spent a little time chatting and getting to know each other.
Jonathan, ever curious, asked, “I’ve met Alexander before, but where do you live?”
Sheila answered, “Would you like to see for yourself?”
Jonathan said, “Oh, yes.”
Jane wanted to see as well because they were lively children and never grew bored or despondent. They were happy, and almost everyone was happy to see them.
Sheila said, “Children, come closer to me.”
Both the children came forward and wondered what she wanted. She reached out with her stubby arms and touched them both gently on the head with her claws.
The children started to shimmer and shake, and both of them changed into alligators about eight feet long. They were not as big as Sheila or Alexander, but they were substantial, with large bulbous eyes, lots of bumps all over their green and gray bodies, and quite a few jagged, sharp alligator teeth in their jaws.
Jonathan was so surprised he almost fainted. Jane was a little more flexible and immediately jumped in the water and started swishing her tail. She was able to swim faster than she ever had before.
Both children were fascinated with their new bodies. Jonathan, ever a boy, swam out into the middle of the lake and found the biggest floating sticks and logs he could find and happily bit them in half with his new powerful jaws.
After a while, they had races. They both won about an equal amount and also wrestled a little bit with their new strong bodies, which was again pretty much an even match. Then they played games of tag.
Sheila and Alexander sat on the bank in the sun, as alligators like to do, and happily watched the children play.
After a while, the children became a little concerned, realizing that they were now in eight-foot-long alligator bodies, and wondered what their parents might think.
They said, “Excuse us, but how long will we be alligators?”
Sheila and Alexander reassured them. “We will have you home by dusk in your human bodies because, you know, some adults get very upset when you come home in different bodies than what you left with.”
Jonathan and Jane were delighted and thought that was a good plan.
Sheila asked them, “Would you like to come and see where we live?”
And Alexander said, “Follow me.”
The children both cried out, “Yes, we’d love to!”
Alexander led the way and dove deeper under the lake water. Sheila came behind him, and the two children followed behind. They splashed through the water, going deeper and deeper.
Finally, off in the distance, there was a shining green and blue light.
Alexander said, “Do you see that shining light? That’s my home.”
They swam for quite a ways farther and came up to a large door. It was a large wooden door set with beautiful jewels, and engraved in the door was the word Home.
Alexander came forward to the door, stared at it for a moment, and said, “Open.”
The door slowly opened and granted them entrance into the house.
The inside of the house was pleasantly cool, and a soft golden light radiated from veins of real gold set into the walls. The light of the walls, if you touched them, instantly invigorated you and made you feel refreshed. So the children happily dragged their tails along the edge of the walls and felt quite good until the adults finally called them into another room.
There were no stairs because alligators are not made for stairs. But there were long ramps that connected everything together. There were trophies set into niches in the wall, some for winning games that the children had never heard of. There were also shields on the wall for bravery in the heavenly military and quite a few awards that had to do with alligator community awards for service and kindness to alligators and humans.
Alexander and Sheila were both very honored in the alligator community and were obviously alligators of great stature.
Sheila, ever the perfect hostess, led the way to a beautiful stone fire pit where a bright blue fire burned. The flames could be commanded to burn hot and high or low and slow. A pleasant warmth radiated from the fire pit, and a lovely smell came from the flames.
“Who’s hungry?” Sheila asked.
Alexander and both the children shouted, “We are!”
Sheila went into a cove and came out with several boxes of graham crackers, big bags of marshmallows, and flat pieces of chocolate.
“Who wants s’mores?”
“We do!” Alexander and the children shouted.
Sheila, surprisingly capable with her small front legs and claws, began to roast long skewers filled with marshmallows. As they heated and browned and popped, a delicious smell filled the room. She would take the molten marshmallows, put them on top of the chocolate, and squeeze them between sandwiches made of graham crackers.
The children and Alexander all sat in a circle around her with their jaws wide open, and she would throw the fresh, hot, bubbling s’mores straight into their mouths. Alexander ate thirty, and both the children ate fifteen apiece. Sheila snacked along the way and seemed to be happy and full when they were done.
Alexander and Jonathan, ever curious, asked, “Where did you get the graham crackers and the marshmallows?”
“At the grocery store,” Sheila said with a smile, but she wouldn’t explain any further.
All through the meal, loud thumping and scratching and rattling had been coming from behind a large door set into the wall. The children, on their best behavior, had been too polite to ask what it was, but they couldn’t contain themselves any longer.
So they said, “What’s behind that door making all that noise?”
Sheila smiled and said, “Would you like to meet my children?”
The children said, “Oh, yes, that would be great.”
Sheila went over to the door and said, “Open.”
As the door slowly opened, out poured twenty twelve-inch-long baby alligators, all very excited. They swarmed all over Jonathan and Jane with their little sharp claws, which tickled even through the hard hide of the children’s alligator bodies.
The children laughed and rolled and played with the baby alligators for quite a while.
After a while, Alexander said with a smile, “Call for the light of Christ and the blood of Christ onto the children and see what happens.”
So the children, who had done this many times before with other angels, did it again.
All the baby alligators stopped what they were doing and rolled over on their backs as one, with their white bellies showing, and kicked their feet in the air very happily as they enjoyed the power of God coming over them.
The children played with the baby alligators for quite some time, actually lining some of them up and having races and making small bets as to who would win and who would lose.
Alexander’s favorite he called Blackie because it was blacker than the other alligators, and Jane’s favorite she called Whitey because his belly was so white.
When it became time to go home, Alexander said, “Children, it’s almost dusk. It’s time to get you back.”
So they lined up and made their way to the door, swimming together under the water, each one catching a fish or two along the way. When they got to the bank of the lake, they all crawled up and walked up the muddy bank.
They gathered in a circle on top of the bank. No one else was around. They all paused, not quite willing for the day to be over.
Sheila said, “Come close, children.”
She reached out with her short arms and put a claw gently on each of the children’s heads. They started to glow and shimmer and very soon were back in the same human bodies that they had started the day with.
Jonathan and Jane hugged both Alexander and Sheila around the neck and said, “Oh, thank you so much for a lovely day.”
Alexander and Sheila hugged them back, careful not to hug too hard because now the children’s bodies were not as strong as they had been when they were alligators.
They said, “Goodbye for now, children, but we would really like you to visit again. Also, we’ll keep an eye on you from afar. And if you ever really need us, just call us with your mind.”
The children promised that they would and made their way home slowly, marveling at the day and not talking much.
When each of them got to their homes, they gave their parents a long embrace, went into their bedrooms, and fell face down on their beds without undressing. They fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Both sets of parents looked on in a knowing way, knowing that something wonderful had happened, but giving them time to rest and to share with them in their own time.
And that’s the end of the story.