Ela and Cinder

The Frog

When Ela was five she found a small frog out by the wash. The frog was staring directly at her.

"What you doing here frog, do you want to go for a swim? Well, you can't mom put the wash bucket away long ago and I ain't got any flies." Ela scooped up her arms full of laundry and she walked away but the frog just watched her. Ela dropped the laundry and came back to squat down to the frog level.

She wrinkled up her nose and said, "Well at least you don't stink. What do you want froggy?"

Ela and she held out her hand then the frog jumped in it.

"Your tiny little frog."

The frog moved to the center of Ela's hand and wiggled down in it. Ela's five-year-old hand was small but the frog seemed even tiny compared to it. The frog seemed to be comfortable so Ela talked to him.

"Where did you come from? Did you come by the creek or under our house?" Ela tilted her head and said, "I bet you couldn't have come far being so small.  A birdie would eat you up if you were out for too long."

Ela looked for some flies around the kitchen window but Gillian must have cleaned there.

"No flies, but I found a cool muddy spot under the kitchen window." Ela placed the frog there and said: "See you tomorrow froggie froggie."

Every day Ela and the frog would play, Ela would tell the frog made up stories about her mom and dad and sometimes the frog's croaks sounded like he was trying to tell stories of his own.

Two months later the Frog starting to tell Ela a story.  It shocked Ela at first but she thought the voice sound familiar somehow and never interrupted or questioned him talking.  Ela giggled at the frog's stories and found them much more interesting than anything else.

The Frog first story:

The Prince and the Pauper;

Once upon a time, the Prince found a Pauper boy in the marketplace that looked just like him. The Prince thought it would be funny to trick his parents into changing clothes with the Pauper. Unknown to the Prince the Popper made a wish to change his face enough to fool the Princes family to think he looked just like the Prince. Once the Popper was in the palace he let in all the townspeople to enjoy in all the riches of the palace and everyone lived happily ever after.

For a full year, the frog would play with Ela and once a week the frog told her a different story full of wishes and mayhem. Ela had no problem starting a little mayhem herself. One of the Frog's favorite games they played was tap and go. It would involve Ela tapping three times, curse and run as fast as she can without getting caught. The Frog would sit on her shoulder and tell her new curse words.

"What does ha' en ond' dag' mean?" Ela Said.

" ha' en ond' dag' means a pigs butt." the frog croaked and Ela giggled and giggled.

By Ela 7th birthday she was feeding the frog her blood. This was ok because at first he was small and didn't ask for much. But much to her surprise, the frog grew larger and larger over the months. Other creature came by to ask for her blood like birds, cats, mice and one bloodhound puppy. The more they came to Ela the more Ela got nervous that what she was doing was wrong. She talked her mother and father, but could never find a time where her animal friends were not watching her from the corners of the room.