Strain of Love

Chapter Two

The sounds of several children's gasps echoed through the air as I picked up the small frog in my hands and lifted it to show them. The wriggly creature tried its hardest to escape my gentle grasp, but I wasn't letting it go anywhere. Getting down on the floor, I encouraged the class to crowd around me, wanting them to get as close as possible to the live action.

"Who wants to feel the little guy?" I asked and several tiny feet stepped back.

Two boys shoved their hands up, while the girls squealed, which I expected. One troublemaker in class, Jack, stepped forward and sat next to me on the large mat we'd placed down on the floor.

"Frogs are cool," Jack whispered, bending down to get a better look.

My smile came easily, causing him to grin back at me. "Why don't you touch it?" I said.

He reached out with no cares in the world, stroking the frog with two fingers. He turned to his friend. "Timmy, it wriggled."

Timmy, who moved towards us, spoke up. "I want to hold him."

The worrier in me wanted to step in to be sure they wouldn't hurt the frog. "Be very gentle, okay? No squeezing too hard or you'll hurt him."

"Yeah." He held his hand out.

"Mabel," I called to see her huddled up with a few of her friends, looking disgusted. "Why don't you come and see? Naomi and Becky, too."

They did as I asked and made their way over, dragging their tiny feet along the wet grass. I reached into the bucket filled with cold and dirty water to pick out another frog. The boys were discussing among themselves about building a house for frogs in their gardens, so I left them to it with the teaching assistants keeping watch over them.

"They're not as scary as they seem." I ushered them closer and knelt in the middle of their circle. "Look and see."

"Ew," they said collectively on a giggle.

I laughed too. "The frog will be more scared of you than you are of it."

Mabel scrunched her button nose up so tight it wrinkled before her hand came up to cover it. "They smell, and their skin is slippery."

"Do you know why their skin is so slippery?" I replied, wanting them to be interested.

"No," Mabel answered, and the others shook their heads in agreement. She gave me a guess, anyway. "Because they have germs?"

I nodded my head so comically that it pulled smiles from them. "Similar, but it's an antibacterial to help keep the frog healthy."

"So, he won't get sick?" Becky said.

"Exactly, Becky. Living in the cold and dirty water makes him prone to illness. Can you imagine what creepy crawlers live with him in his habitat?"

"What does habitat mean?" Naomi asked.

Mabel's face lit up as she answered, "It's where living things live."

I smiled, feeling my chest hum with pride for her. "That's right, Mabel."

I reached into my back pocket to grab a gold star from the envelope to hand it over to her. "Keep this for your progress book."

The two girls hugged their friend, giggling together. Young friendship was so endearing to watch. I always found myself stopping what I was doing during the day to take in the way they acted with each other.

Not wanting to forget Becky, I gave her one too and gathered the other kids up to head back to the school. It was almost home time and the parents would already be waiting at the classroom door. I put the creatures we'd caught back into the lake water, handing a wet wipe to everyone to clean off their hands.