Norma Slogsack had spent her entire life trying to figure out how to get
her grandfather to reveal his secret about Grandmother's wooden leg. It
seems that each time she even hinted at the subject, her grandfather would
go into hysterical laughter for at least ten minutes. When the laughter
finally subsided, he would pat Norma on the back and say, "Someday I'll
tell you that story - when you're older."
Year after year Norma asked about the wooden leg and got the same response
until one year when she was twelve, her grandfather couldn't stop
laughing. After an hour, he was rushed to the hospital, where he was
sedated. When he finally regained consciousness, he called Norma over to
him and said, "I can't go thru *that* again, so I'll have to tell you.
"You see, your grandmother used to work in the circus, where her talent
was having Cleo and Randolph, two crocodiles, carry her around the main
tent with her feet in their mouths. On day, Randolph was startled when the
clowns' jalopy backfired, and you can imagine the rest. The strange thing
is that your grandmother claims that the experience caused her to have
telepathic communication with all crocodiles..."
Suddenly Norma's grandfather stopped short, when he noticed that
Grandmother had come into the room, and was tapping her wooden foot
angrily.
"So, you finally told her," she hissed, "Now I suppose I'll have to tell
my crocodile friends that yet another human knows I can communicate with
them. You know what happened when I told them *you* knew."
Grandfather grew quiet and began trembling. Norma turned very pale and
insisted on her innocence in the whole matter.
"I only asked a simple question," she asserted, "and it was a totally
legitimate one. Why should I be punished for that?"
"I told you myself a long time ago that I couldn't reveal the answer,"
said her grandmother, "You could have let it go at that!"
Norma looked at her grandfather, who was still trembling. She wanted to
ask what happened to him, but somehow she didn't dare. She was having
another idea - to approach some crocodiles herself, and reveal her plight.
Perhaps they would be understanding.
The next day, she went to the zoo, where a crocodile immediately
recognized her, and what she knew as his voice came into her head.
"Has that weird old lady been threatening you?" it asked, "She has such a
think about thinking she's so special. Anyone can talk to us who's
willing. What she did to her husband is her own responsibility, and she'll
pay for it."
Norma then noticed Grandmother was entering the crocodile area of the zoo,
with a smug look of importance on her face. Before Norma could even
scream, her grandmother had rudely stepped into the mouth of a crocodile,
who promptly ate her.