Hey! Is That a Yellow Crocodile?
By Varun Raj, 11

Our family lives on the banks of a river. We specialize in fishing, tourism, and boat rental.

Everyone has a job. My father fishes and sells his catch at our little shop. My mother runs the cash register and is in charge of the boat rentals. I hand out brochures.

We live quite close to the Everglades. A stream runs along, close to the house. I love getting in our little motor boat and churning up the water. Oops! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Rohan Mohan. Please, forget about the rhyme. My parents were in a good mood when I was born.

I hopped out of bed. I trudged to the bathroom, showered, and ran outside. After making sure that my junior boating license was in my new wallet, I jumped inside the boat, and revved up the motor.

It was still dead.

Appa had been tweaking the boat in some way. He had stomped into the house at two in the morning yesterday.

I went inside. Amma was staring at me, as if I had just broken into a bank. “You know you can’t get in the boat in the morning,” she said. I plopped down in front of my toast and chomped it down in about three bites. “By the way, your cousin Kailash is coming with Ravi mama, and Sita mami.”

Great. Kailash was 3 years old.

Kailash is asking me five billion questions. Nine-year differences aren’t very pretty.

They had arrived two hours ago. My aunt, uncle, and parents had been chatting their mouths off in the living room.

I asked if I could do something. My mother gave me a big jar of turmeric. She told me to put a dot on our new boat. Apparently it was a South Indian tradition. They told me to take Kailash with me.

We were approaching the river. All of a sudden, Kailash started jumping up and down rapidly. It was really annoying. I got close to the boat and opened the lid of the jar. Kailash was jumping so much that he knocked the jar out of my hand.

Splash! Two and a half pounds of turmeric powder fell into the river!

“Kailash!” I screamed.
All of a sudden, there was a flicker in the water. I saw a green body, a tail, and really sharp teeth. Scared of the yellowish powder, it swam away. A 12- foot crocodile had been waiting to pounce on me and it probably would have killed me!

I ushered Kailash back to the house. I explained what happened in five words. Kailash had saved my life.

I never called my cousin annoying again. Life is good.