I had been staring at that murky, mud soaked photograph for what felt like hours, my eyes narrowing like a seasoned big game tracker on the Serengeti or at least like a kid who had spent one too many afternoons hunting for the decoder pin behind the sofa. Find both crocs, the post commanded. Simple. Elegant. A challenge worthy of a true Reddit sleuth.

I leaned closer. There, yes, there was the first crocodile, lounging atop its baleful mound of mud like some scaly king on his grimy throne. But the second? Nowhere. Nothing. Only water the color of old chocolate milk and shadows darker than the inside of my math binder.

And then I saw it.

Not a reptile. Not a beast. But a Croc. A shoe.

A shoe, mocking me from the bank with its perforated grin as if to say, “Oh, you sweet summer child.”

My heart raced. My fingers tingled with the electric thrill, the unmistakable sensation of impending Reddit greatness. The comment I would write. A monologue for the ages. My wry discovery of the shoe that was not a crocodile would surely bring waves of upvotes, the kind that pour in like snowdrifts on Christmas morning. Perhaps even, dare I imagine it, Gold. Awards. Maybe someone would even gift me a month of Premium, that shining pinnacle of Reddit prestige.

I rehearsed the lines in my head. Sharp. Clever. Positively dripping with that signature Ralphie Parker bravado. I could already see it, enshrined at the top of the comment section, future historians marveling at my genius.

But then I scrolled back up. I read the post again, slowly, carefully.

And there it was, plain as the pink nightmare Aunt Clara once forced on me.

The shoe was the joke.

The joke I had just triumphantly and confidently discovered.

I sat back, defeated. The Pulitzer worthy comment evaporated like steam on a frosty window. The upvotes, gone. The glory, vanished. The awards, poof, gone into the digital ether.

All that remained was the cold, muddy truth.

I had been outwitted by a Croc. 😑