Georgia lived on the twelfth floor of a tall apartment building. Every afternoon, when she got home from school, she took the elevator up to her apartment.
One day she came home and pushed the up button, just like always. But when the door slid open there were six alligators crawling around on the floor of the elevator. Georgia didn’t know what to do. She was way too tired to walk up all twelve flights of stairs.
Instead, Georgia went next door to her friend Alvin’s house and borrowed his stilts. She pushed the up button and hopped on the stilts. When the elevator door opened she was able to step inside without the alligators being able to reach her. She had to be very careful where she stepped, because if she put the stilt on an alligator’s back it would be all bumpy, and also the alligator would probably move, and then she would fall off.
So Georgia stepped carefully in the spaces between the alligators. They snapped at her, but they were only able to take a few bites out of the hem of her skirt. So that was okay, but when she got to the buttons she couldn’t reach her hand down far enough to bush the number twelve button. The stilts made her too tall.
So Georgia got back out of the elevator, left the stilts by the elevator door, and went to the grocery store. She bought some hamburger and went back out to the elevator. This time, when the door opened, she threw the hamburger in the far corner. The alligators ran to the hamburger. Georgia pushed the button for the 12th floor and hopped back on the stilts.
All of a sudden the alligators were all fighting over the hamburger. They bit and scratched each other and hit each other with their tails. They thrashed around so much that they knocked Georgia off her stilts. She fell on a rough and bumpy writhing pile of alligators and teeth. Fortunately, the alligators were so busy fighting each other that they didn’t even notice that she was there.
Right then the elevator door opened. Georgia leaped out. When she got to her apartment her moms were chopping onions and green peppers for dinner.
“Hi honey,” her mama Sue said. “How are you? What did you do to your clothes? They’re practically shredded.”
“I’m okay,” Georgia said. “Only there are alligators in the elevator.”
“’Alligator’ and ‘elevator’ - that almost rhymes,” Mama Sue said. “Hey, I’ll be right back. I forgot to buy hamburger.”
“But I told you, there are alligators . . .” Georgia said. But it was too late. Her mom was already gone.
A moment later Georgia heard a shout.
“What was that?” Mama Janine said. She ran out the door before Georgia could stop her. Georgia ran down the hall after her. Mama Janine stepped into the elevator without looking, screamed, and jumped up to the ceiling. She hung from the light fixture, just out of reach of the alligators. Right next to Mama Sue. The elevator door closed. Oh no.
Georgia wondered how to rescue her moms. Then she wondered what the alligators were doing in the elevator in the first place. I bet they were trying to get to the swimming pool on the top floor.she thought.
Georgia put on the stilts and pushed the up button. When the elevator came, she stepped carefully in between the alligators, underneath her moms. The pool was on the fourteenth floor, and that button was right next to the button for the twelfth floor, too far down to reach with her hands. Her moms wouldn’t be able to hang from the ceiling long enough for her to get more hamburger. Now what?
Georgia balanced on one stilt to kick the number fourteen button. She managed to get the button pushed, but then she wobbled wildly back and forth—and then fell off the stilts completely. She landed right on the alligators. They all attacked her at once. One of them took a bite out of the hood of her sweatshirt.
Then the door opened. The smell of water and chlorine filled the elevator. The alligators stopped biting her and ran down the hall.
Georgia’s moms dropped off the ceiling. They hugged her, kissed her, thanked her, and banged on her back. Then they all went off to buy hamburger.
