The Great Frog God

Metaphysical Flash Fiction by Dennis Bruce Shipman (372 words)
SongSecure.com Copyright Registration - April 28, 2024

Weather warning: the scorching Arizona summer heat can be murder, not only on humans, but on frogs, too.

A golf course borders our community swimming pool. Sandwiched between these two prime real estate locations lives a small pond. I say “lives” because a million frogs live there. I swear! I’ve named it affectionately “frog” pond.

Once I walked the grassy banks of frog pond and discovered, not only a few golf balls laying peacefully motionless underwater on the bottom of the pond, but several big frogs resting under the pond’s shady pine trees. I wondered why they weren’t in the water cooling off.

I discovered that baby frogs live in the cool grass under the shady pine trees at our community swimming pool, not at frog pond. These were astonishing discoveries for a transplanted Caucasian kamaaina (a long-time resident of 13 years of the Hawaiian Islands). Frogs exists in Hawaii, long-time local residents tell me, however I didn’t see any when I lived there.

And, I wondered, could all those millions of other frogs live underwater in frog pond? I found it hard to believe, but my knowledge of frog lifestyle was severely limited. Yet, although I saw a lot of bubbles floating up in the water and popping on the surface of frog pond, the answer still eluded me.

One very humid evening, my wife and I visited the swimming pool, and found a baby frog had fallen into the water. It wasn’t any bigger than an American ten cent coin, and its tiny, cute arms and legs passionately struggled to get out of the water, but the slippery ceramic tiles lining the pool prevented its salvation. So, I reached down with my hand and plucked the youngster out. All four of its claw-like webbed feet instantly gripped my finger and held on tight for dear life.

Can you imagine the story he told his mother?

“Yah’ gotta believe me, Ma! It’s the truth. There I was, desperately trying to free my life from drowning in this big smelly ocean, when the most awesome experience happened. Out of nowhere, the hand of the great frog god reached down and saved me.”

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