Read by Adam Verner Big Fish meets The Notebook in this emotionally evocative story about a man, a woman, and an alligator that is a moving tribute to love, from the author of the award-winning memoir Rocket Boys -- the basis of the movie October Sky. Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam the father of the author were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando, where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen yes, that Buddy Ebsen. But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsies dreams of a life with him were crushed, and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer. Unfulfilled as a miners wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house.
