The Metamorphosis

Mike and I are at the Polo Club, which is Mike's house in this instance. There's a back door in the kitchen that leads to a small wood porch. Right against this porch is a round, above ground swimming pool. The weather has been quite monsoonesque of late and the entire backyard is flooded. The pool is covered and I wonder aloud if an alligator could live in there. Certainly in this weather it would be appropriate. Mike lifts the edge of the pool cover and, as though my ponderings had summoned it, the snout of a large reptile is revealed. I tug Mike back toward me in fear of him falling in the pool or the animal deciding it could use a little snack. It seems like the type who would like white meat. It lifts its head up out of the water and comes toward us a bit. I pull Mike inside and throw the door shut as we go running into the house. The door must not have shut completely though, because the alligator pushes its way into the house. It changes into my physically and mentally handicapped uncle in the middle of the kitchen. Mike, assuming everything is okay now, goes upstairs to use the bathroom. I'm left alone with this incarnation of my uncle. He doesn't speak, but slowly shambles toward me, as though he's unused to his body. I'm uneasy and wish Mike hadn't left me here alone. My fears are confirmed when the human body shifts back into that of the largest alligator known to mankind. It fills the entire kitchen and its tail winds its way out the still ajar backdoor. It inches closer and I scream. Mike comes running down the stairs and the reptile quickly resumes the shape of my dear uncle. We usher him back out onto the porch and close the door, firmly this time, behind him. The last we see of him is that impossibly long, green tail slithering back into the water.