The Prince of the Pond, page 6
“No.”
“Does it have llll?”
“Yup,” said Pin.
“All right, is llll at the beginning or the end of the word?”
“End,” said Pin. “At de beginning we.”
“We-llll,” I said. “The well. What’s the well?”
“De weyeh ow mating hoe.”
“Our mating hole is called a well?”
“Yup. Dat what human caw it.”
I looked at Pin with admiration. All the frogs I talked to admired me for knowing so much about the world. But Pin knew all sorts of things I’d never heard of. Still, what he was saying right now didn’t make me happy. “We’re going back there? Why on earth should we go back to the well?”
“No hag,” said Pin.
“But there’s no hag here either anymore,” I said. “You took her nose off. She won’t come back.”
“Hag come back,” said Pin. “Hag come back and take fawg.” He looked out over our frolicking froglets. “Hag eat aw de fawg.”
“No,” I said. “She’s afraid of you now. Anyway, if she comes back, you can pull off her ears!”
“We go,” said Pin. “Now.” He leaped into the water and swam to the bank. He croaked his loudest. “Come, fawg! We go now.”
A crowd of froglets swam to the bank and leaped out into the grasses.
“This is insane,” I said. “We can’t all live in the well. Where will we find food? How will we all swim about? It’s a terrible idea.”
But no one was listening.
I watched the bodies of my dozens of children hop through the grasses after their father, and I felt something I’d never felt before. It was a warmth that made my chest swell. It was pride. Yes, I would follow that crazy frog and all those crazy froglets. I would follow them, and we would find a way to survive. I didn’t know how, but I knew we would.
The trip took a little longer than usual, because the froglets weren’t accustomed to land travel. When we were finally close to the well, we heard a dreadful noise: the discordant voice of a human. I jumped onto a rotten log and looked around for the hag.
Pin spied the source of the voice faster than I did. “A woman,” he said.
I followed his eyes. A young human woman with great gobs of hair, a green lace dress, and something small and sparkly on her head was sitting in the grass by the well. She sang loudly. It sounded awful to my frog ears.
“Petty ong,” said Pin.
I listened more closely. There was nothing pretty at all about her song. “You have unusual taste,” I said.
Pin looked at me. Then he looked back at the human woman.
This human woman annoyed me. I didn’t like the odd way Pin looked at her. “What do we do now?”
“We wait,” said Pin. “De woman go.”
“Wait,” said the froglets, as they leaped forward toward the well. “Wait.”
“But you’re not waiting,” I shouted after them. “Come back here right now. Humans are dangerous. Remember the hag. Come back.”
The froglets continued their leaping. “She’s green. She can’t be all bad,” they screamed. “Our well, our well, our well.”
The first to reach the well was Jimmy. He hopped up on the well wall.
“Oooo,” said the human woman. She stood up beside the well. “What a cunning little frog.” She leaned her face toward Jimmy.
“She’s going to eat him,” I said. “Oh, Pin, she’s going to eat him.”
“No,” said Pin. “A woman not eat fawg. A woman cook fawg, den eat fawg.”
“No,” I screamed. “Don’t let her cook Jimmy.”
Pin leaped through the grasses toward the well with me by his side.
By now the human woman held Jimmy in her hand and stood back, watching the other froglets go diving down into the well. “My goodness,” she said. “It’s a frog invasion.” She leaned over the well. “One, two, three, four . . . why, there must be twenty frogs here. And they’re still coming!” She cupped her hand over Jimmy and walked back to her spot in the grass. She sat down.
She lifted her top hand off Jimmy. “There now, frog, don’t hop off. You’re the most beautiful green I’ve ever seen. Let’s be friends.”
Jimmy didn’t move.
The human woman laughed. “The idea of being friends with a frog! How foolish I sound.” She lifted Jimmy up, level with her face.
Pin and I were a leap away from her now. “Oh,” I whispered to Pin. “She’s going to put him in her mouth. She’s going to eat him after all.”
“No,” said Pin firmly. “De woman not eat Jimmy.”
The human woman spoke in a singsong. “Funny little frog. Dandy little frog. Let me take a closer look at you.” Her glistening red lips parted slightly. Her big white teeth showed.
“She is going to eat him!” I said. “She is, she is!”
“No!” Pin shook his head. “No.”
“Well, if she’s not going to eat him, what’s she doing with him?”
“I don’t know,” said Pin. “Maybe woman want pet.”
The human woman sighed. “I wish . . .” She shut her eyes and closed her hand once again over Jimmy. Then she brought her hands closer to her face. “I wish . . .” Her lips trembled.
“She’s going to eat him,” I screamed.
“No.” Pin shook his head again, but I could see doubt spring into his eyes. “No, it can’t be.” His voice was worried.
The human woman brought her hands all the way up, so they were touching her lips.
“Now,” I said to Pin. “Save him now, Pin, or he’s gone forever!”
Just as the human woman’s hands reached her face, Pin leaped into them, knocking Jimmy off with one big swat of his foreleg. Pin met her lips as Jimmy fell away and landed at my feet. She opened her eyes. “Oooooo!” she screamed, jumping backward.
I gasped.
There in front of the human woman was a tall, naked human man.
“Oooooo!” screamed the human woman.
The human man looked down at his nakedness. “Aaaaaa!” he screamed. He leaped behind the well.
“Who are you?” said the human woman.
“De Fawg Pin,” said the human man.
Well, I got mad at that. What nerve! He was nothing like my beautiful Pin. Oh, where was my beautiful Pin?
“What?” said the human woman.
The human man looked dazed. “I . . .” He looked around helplessly. Then he said slowly, “I’m a prince.”
“Oh.” The human woman’s voice got weak. “I don’t see how . . . oh . . . I mean . . .” She wrung her hands. “Oh.” Her face went pale. She looked back at the human man. “You’re a very handsome prince,” she whispered, “even if you are a dream. I’m a princess. But, then, you must know that, since you’re part of my dream.”
“Look, could you get me some clothes?” said the human man.
The human woman bit her bottom lip. “You sound real. I mean, wanting clothes, that’s real.”
“I’m every bit as real as you are,” said the human man.
“Oh dear,” said the human woman. “Really? I thought I was imagining you. Oh dear.” Her face turned red. “Oh dear.”
“Clothes,” said the human man.
“Yes, of course,” said the human woman. “Yes.” She turned around, then she spun back with both hands on her cheeks. “But where did you come from? Who are you? I mean, how . . . ?”
“I’m just as confused as you are,” said the human man.
The human woman dropped her hands. “You’re really real?”
“Really real.”
She smiled shyly. Then she ran off toward the palace, looking back over her shoulder every few seconds. “Don’t go away. I’ll be right back,” she called.
I couldn’t make sense of this human conversation, and I was frantic about Pin. “Pin,” I shouted, leaping about. “Pin, Pin, where are you?”
The human man looked in my direction, but I sat so still that I knew he couldn’t see me. “Jade, is that you? Is that my frog wife?”
I was shocked. This human man was obviously completely mad. Dangerous. Where had he heard my name? “Children,” I shouted. “All of you, come right now. We’re going back to the pond. Now.”
“But where’s Daddy?” screamed the froglets from inside the well. “We want Daddy. What’s happened to our daddy?”
“Come now!” I shouted in a tone so commanding that one by one the worried froglets leaped to the top of the well in uncustomary obedience and came to me in the grass.
The human man reached out his hands toward the froglets. I thought he was going to catch them. But he didn’t touch them. He merely reached out his hands and sighed. “Good-bye, my little froglets. Good-bye, my sweet children.” He looked toward the grass with searching eyes. “Good-bye, frog wife. Best possible wife. I love you. Try to remember me. Good-bye, good-bye.”
I looked at him, alone and naked, so sad, with such longing in his voice. He stared straight at me now. There was something vaguely familiar about his golden brown eyes.
I searched through the grasses one last time for Pin. “Pin,” I called as loud as I could. “Pin, where are you?”
“Where’s Daddy?” screamed the froglets, in bunches all around me. “Where’s Daddy? Where’s Daddy?”
“Pin, Pin,” I called. Where was my Pin? I thought of all the crazy days we had spent together. I thought of Pin learning to swim and learning to eat and learning to croak. I thought of Pin beating the snapping turtle and the water snake and the hag. I thought of Pin carrying tadpoles in his mouth and naming me Jade. He had brought so many wonderful changes to my life. I wanted Pin with me again. I wanted all those days that should have stretched out ahead of us. Days of Pin saying extraordinary things and doing extraordinary things. Days of happiness and adventure. Days of love.
“Mamma,” came the insistent chorus of froglets, “where’s Daddy?”
I shook my head in bewilderment.
“I know,” said Jimmy.
I looked at Jimmy.
Jimmy looked long at the human man. Then he turned to the rest of us. “He disappeared.”
I looked from Jimmy to the human man. He was watching us. He acted like he was listening. His face was grief-stricken.
Somehow in that very moment I knew that Pin was gone forever. Jimmy was right—Pin had disappeared. I felt the strangest sensation of my life: A tear rolled down my cheek.
“Croak,” said Jimmy in a tiny voice.
I looked at him. “Jimmy, you just croaked. For the very first time. Do it again.”
Jimmy croaked a little louder. His left vocal sac inflated and deflated.
“I can croak, too,” said another froglet. He croaked. His left vocal sac inflated and deflated.
“Me too,” shouted another.
And the air was filled with croaks, as left vocal sacs inflated and deflated all around me.
“We’ll be okay,” said Jimmy. “We can protect ourselves. We can work together. We can help each other.”
“Frogs don’t help each other,” I said automatically.
“But fawgs do,” said Jimmy.
I looked at the hopeful little faces of my froglets. “Yes,” I said. “Fawgs do.”
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Donna Jo Napoli, The Prince of the Pond
