AHuman

Happy Pride Month, everyone

Meghan ran away from home three days after her 18th birthday. She had money saved up, and her plan was to take a bus all the way across the country to San Francisco. What she would do after she got there was hard for her to imagine, but she was smart—as smart as any 18 year old can be—and she trusted her ability to persevere.

She didn’t make it to San Francisco. Something else came up, instead.

Her bus stopped at a truck stop in a dusty middle-of-nowhere, in the dusty middle of Nevada. It was a pretty big travel center, the kind with showers and more than one option for food to eat. But it was more than just that. It was the kind of travel center that pulled in customers by pretending it was a tourist destination. This truck stop’s claim to fame: Al the crocodile, who you could see in his enclosure for the price of a bottle of Coke. Pay enough, and they’d let you feed him.

Meghan paid for the ticket. She saw Al. She saw that his enclosure wasn’t all that great. It wasn’t actively harmful, but she knew enough to tell that Al’s life was subpar. Meghan looked at that crocodile, and her future became so clear to her, it may as well have been written on her soul: she was going to get Al the life he deserved.

Getting hired at the truck stop was easy. Harder was actually getting put in charge of Al’s care. Harder still was convincing the owners to let her make meaningful changes to his enclosure.

It all became easier, later on, once she had bought the whole place and ran it herself.

On Meghan’s watch, Al lived as best a life he could. He had been an old crocodile when she met him, and, when he died of old age, Meghan was happy to see the crocodile exhibit shut down.

She turned it into a rescue center for reptiles and amphibians. For the price of two bottles of Coke (with additional donations always appreciated), visitors could see the ones who were well enough to be on display—at a safe distance, in a way that didn’t stress them out, using the most up-to-date care and enclosure guidelines that she could find. The truck stop was successful; she could afford it. She got a reputation for the quality of her care. She advocated in the state of Nevada for commonsense exotic pet laws that put emphasis on the welfare of animals.

There came a day when she met a guy. She’d met plenty before him, but this one was different. He worked for the local ISP, and he was the technician sent out when she was annoyed about her internet speed. He had bushy eyebrows and a quick smile. What Meghan would say later was that it was love at first sight.

Her husband always had to one-up her, though, by saying that, for him, it was love before sight. According to him, when she called up the ISP to demand a technician come fix her internet, he heard her voice and knew he wouldn’t be complete until he was by her side. Meghan always rolled her eyes at him when he said that. He always sounded so sincere, though, and it left her feeling something bigger maybe than even love, when she considered that he might actually be telling the truth.

He had a nephew who needed a home. They raised him up, and he is Meghan’s son.

She waited until her son was out of college, himself. Then she decided it was time to go back. She enrolled at the age of 48 in an online undergraduate program, and she will finally be graduating with a Bachelors in biology after her next term. She is immensely proud of what she has accomplished.

to add to their earthly to-do list 📋