Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
Once upon a time there was a frog who had no pond. He lived in a sock. Now this may seem like a strange place for a frog to live but he felt safe in his sock and he was happy.
The frog had been collected from a small town’s pond when he was just a tadpole, swimming happily with thousands of other tadpoles, some friends, but most family. The gene pool is pretty limited in small town ponds. He and a bunch of other tadpole mates had been scooped up in a glass jar one bright spring day and taken home in a little girl’s backpack.
The little girl was very attentive to her collection of tadpoles in the glass jar. Every day she would bring them tiny bugs she had collected on her way home from school. Some of the tadpoles died but three of them lived on to become beautiful, green, handsome frogs. Just like Hugh Jackman, except in frog form. The little girl moved them into a large fish tank which she filled with rocks, pond weed and a few of her favourite Smurfs to keep them company. She loved taking the frogs on her adventures outside, stuffing them in her pockets and letting them loose on the lawn while she let her imagination rip, telling them stories of magic unicorns, fondue fountains and frog princes.
One day, the frogs discovered that, by jumping on Papa Smurf’s head, they could reach the ledge of the fish tank. Two of the frogs decided that this was their opportunity to escape. “It’s boring here”, one said. “This place is so not hip for frogs”, said the other. So they jumped out of the tank and made their way down the hallway outside the little girl’s bedroom.
Because of that, the little frog they left behind was very, very scared. She didn’t want to leave the little girl. He was happy where he was, he got food, and tickles and stories and he liked living in the fish tank. But what if they were right? What if there was a better life ‘out there’? Perhaps the other frogs might be on to something and he was going to miss out on the adventure of a lifetime if he didn’t follow his friends. But as he hopped around the corner of the bedroom, trying to catch up, he came upon the most horrifying sight. As he looked to the right, he saw one of his friends being sucked up by a very noisy monster with a very long nose. Turning to the left, he saw a very large shoe stomp carelessly on his other friend. Reversing quickly, he hopped frantically around the little girl’s bedroom and jumped into an odd sock that had been kicked under the bed.
And because of that, the little frog had found a new place to live where he felt safe. Even though it was dark, it was nice and warm and quiet. It smelt of the little girl’s feet which made him happy. He loved her and trusted her and needed her. So he stayed in there, barely brave enough to breathe, until finally the little girl came home.
The little girl burst into tears as she ran into her room at the end of the day. Her mum had made up a story to lessen the pain of the day’s events but the little girl wasn’t fooled. She knew her frogs had escaped and guessed they’d come to an unfortunate end because they were nowhere to be found and no one was saying anything believable about where they could be. She didn’t understand why they would want to run away or what she’d done wrong.
There was a pain in the little girl’s heart that she’d never felt before. She just knew it was breaking in half and nothing anyone could say could possibly fix it. Ever. But then she saw the sock move. She stared at it in disbelief. After a few seconds, it went right OFF! Bouncing around, bumping into the bed leg, tumbling across the rug. And when she finally caught it and peeked inside, all she could see was the biggest, brightest frog smile you could ever imagine. She rubbed her eyes and her heart grew warm and strong as her smile took over her face. “I love you” she whispered to her very special friend, still smiling in his sock.