The other morning, upon running late, shooing children out the door, and wearing a pencil skirt with leopard-print pumps of all things, my son makes a discovery. A tiny little frog had hopped into the garage – fresh from the rain puddles I suppose, and had found himself juxtaposed between a corner and a large 4-year-old boy with beautiful eyes and a fascination for reptiles. He didn’t have a chance, really.
“Can we take him to school?” my son asked. He was jumping and his eyes were smiling. But we didn’t have time. I was in heels. There has been zero consumption of caffeine. We have exactly eighteen seconds to get in the car and peel out of the driveway or both kids would be late. “Please, mom? Can we can we can we?” I looked in his little eyes, those eyelashes batting up and down.
Damnit with the eyelashes.
So back in the house we go, the superman Tupperware shaped for sandwiches being brutally sacrificed for the love of frogs, so I stab air holes in the lid and hobble back out in my heels and ridiculously thin skirt and try to catch the slippery thing. Finally with the help of a piece of paper and my transferring-frogs-into-tupperware-skillz that I learned in parenting school, I captured him, to the delight of my screeching son, who was happier than I saw him last Christmas morning. Which means this Christmas I’m just going to fill the house with frogs. Thanks a lot, gears-gears-gears. You were a waste of $60.
Off to school we go, after rounds of Taylor Swift for my daughter and having to endure the interior light so she can read her book on dogs who talk and save the earth, and I somehow get the children dropped off at their respective places with statements of love and happiness, through the Starbucks line, and I’m happily in rush-hour traffic toward my office. Fast forward eight lovely hours, whereby I skipped lunch to review contracts and I’m back in my car, which is hot enough to roast marshmallows because it’s Texas and it never freaking gets cold despite it being October. And then I see it. Right there next to his seat.
Death. It permeates the Lexus.
The poor thing suffocated. It had no hope. We even put a leaf in the little container for it to eat, although let’s be honest small baby-like frogs don’t munch on leaves like potato chips, but to my son every living thing eats leaves so let’s not ruin the whole story over semantics. I am forced to make a pit stop in suburbia one block away from my son’s preschool and pull over, opening the lid to throw the dead body out on the pavement below. I can’t exactly explain to him that we simply “forgot the frog” or “it suffocated in the heat, dying a slow miserable death whilst plastered to a converse blue image of a superhero he will never become,” now can I.
I had to bang the Tupperware against my car for him to fall out because his little water-starved body was stuck to the side. I know, I know. It’s horrific. I crossed myself although I’m not Catholic and said a little prayer as it lay there lifeless on the pavement below, soon to be run over by the wheels of my own car most likely, but what exactly do you do in this situation? Stupid Texas heat. If we lived in Chicago the sweet little frog might be fat and happy munching on that leaf all afternoon.
I hid the Tupperware in the front seat so my kid wouldn’t ask questions. I said we could have mac-and-cheese for dinner. I tried all my tactics to keep him upbeat and not be suspicious. Until he saw it. The Tupperware lid peering from underneath my blazer. Oh, friends. Let the tears roll.
I told him I let it out by his school, so he could frolic and play with his friends since we forgot to take him in, which at first blush may seem a wee bit untruthful but his froggy friends could so totally be frog zombies. He was mostly angry I didn’t let him out at home, so he could find him (until I offered oreos and then would forget), his long-lost friend (that he forgot) and wanted so badly to save (that he just met this morning it’s not like you guys are BFFs, geez. Plus he’s a frog).
Needless to say it was a big ordeal, only to be healed by a television show and love from his dear mother (who committed frogslaughter and dumped the body). The most important thing about all this is that I managed to kneel down in a pencil skirt. If you see any frog remains in front of a brick house I don’t know what you are talking about.
You guys can judge all day, but just wait until this happens to you. Let’s hope it’s just a beetle, who “overdid it on the leaf eating.” They are less frightening when dead. Not that I know anything about that.
Let’s all have oreos. K?
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