FFftPP – In My Defense

“It was instinct. I just let go of them.”

That was what I said when people start screaming and my boss grabbed me, asking “What the Hell happened? What did you do?”

It was what I told Animal Control when they started yelling at me.

It also forms the core of my legal defense. I have decided to represent myself, since nobody else is quite as capable of understanding the sheer, instinctive fear I felt in that moment.

Am I legally responsible for the three deaths and twelve hospitalizations? I don’t think so. I just did what anybody would have done in that situation.

Technically, yes, I was in charge of the alligators. Or crocodiles. I can never tell them apart.

Yes, I had… exaggerated the extent of my experience with animals to get the job.

But the way they growled… I think anyone could be forgiven for dropping the leashes and all his equipment, forgetting he’d left the habitat door open, and running for his life while crying like a little girl.

Your honor, the defense rests.

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Word Count: 169

This is for this week’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner. Thanks to rogershipp for running the challenge!

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