AMI-1816: Larry

Larry stared into the burbling, black water swirling with an eerie tranquility. Weight flocked to his chest. Surely, he would be fine? It was a straight shot from point A to point B, and he was a crocodile, after all—crafted by nature to reign in the water. So why was it that fear gnawed at him so tenaciously? “I’m a crocodile,” Larry muttered under his breath, clenching his grinning jaws in a futile attempt a...

Larry wasn’t what you would call a “hands-on dad.” Sure, he could barbecue with the best of them and assemble IKEA furniture—not without some questionable leftover screws, but still—he shied away from things that required delicate manipulation, like Rosie’s math homework or, heaven forbid, repairing electronic toys. He was meant to get his paws dirty with sputtering car engines, dig into artificial monoliths and get their gears turning again, not dai...

Larry stood in the sweltering heat, beads of perspiration trickling down his forehead like tiny rivers cascading down a mountain’s ledge. His gaze was fixated on the broken AC unit sprawled in front of him on his work bench, the mechanical beast now lying in ruin after a strenuous life had worked it to death. In his hands, he clutched an array of tools, each one glinting in the sun like Excalibur awaiting its rightful owner. “O-kayyyy,” he whispered to him...

“Rosie,” the crocodile rumbled. The girl turns away from her drawings to look up at Larry, who mysteriously holds something behind his back with a goofy smile across his grinning maw. He knelt to the girl’s level, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “I got somethin’ for ya.” Curiosity danced in Rosie’s gaze and she hopped up on her two pink little legs to sway idly. She absentmindedly twirled the ends of her soft brunette curls around one claw, her little body buzzing wit...

On a brisk autumn morning, in Sagware Park, where the first rays of sunlight break through the foliage above, and you get that tingle in the back of your mind. A whisper of a memory or a dream of a place that feels both warmingly familiar and entirely unknown. Larry found himself exactly in that swath of land so drenched in sun, so lush, it's like walking through the very heart of a fantasy. Here, autumn is not just a...

Arms deep in the mouth of a decrepit car, working to get the engine roaring to life again like it once had so many years ago, he heard it.   “Mrroww…”   Over the clamor of wrench clanking against metal, and rusty creaks of the popped hood, he heard a strained meow from behind him. Larry throws a cursory glance, brow furrowing. ...