Warning Signs

There's not a lot you can say about Patty Kerns that hasn't already been pontificated on at length. But there's one story about her that belongs only to me.

We were sitting on the porch when a gator came crawling from the swamp. It wasn't so unusual and we'd normally shout for the gardeners to come scare them away. But Patty wanted to prove she wasn't scared, so she started kicking at that gator with her brass-buckle shoes until it turned back from lawn.

She was only 8 years old at the time. I knew then we were all doomed.