Page 39 - The Woven Tale Press Vol. III #10

“...even as I wished, I knew that dreams didn’t come true, and that frog princes were made up, and that I was a liar breaking my best friend’s heart.”
Mom did forget Chase and me the next day at school, and we had to wait with the principal until she could get to us. Embarrassed and annoyed, she apologized to Mrs. Barnes over our heads and herded us into the car with questions about our night at Dad’s and our day in school.
That night, as we lay in our beds, we heard the usual noises. The refrigerator turned on and off, the TV carried on its own conversation in an empty room, and Mom talked on the phone about how our Dad gave us pizza for dinner again but nothing called out over her voice. No rhythmic croaking let us know our prince had come. Chase sat up and looked at me.
“Where is he?”
I shook my head and before I could stop him Chase stood and opened the door to our bedroom. I followed him, hoping to pull him back before he got to Mom but was too late. She apologized to Karen on the phone and told her to hold on while she asked Chase to repeat what he’d said.
“The bullfrog is gone!” He moved away from her toward the living room heading straight for the front door when she stopped him with her words. “Oh that thing.”
Chase turned and I prayed to the god of frog princ- es and made-up stories.
“He wouldn’t shut up last night and Jeremy went out and got rid of him.”
When Chase said nothing, I looked at Mom whose forehead wrinkled and gave her face, freshly clean of makeup, the appearance of an old lady.
“We couldn’t sleep,” she said, and I closed my eyes.
“Where is he?” I could hear Chase’s voice tremble, a sure sign of tears to come.
“Hold on, Karen,” Mom said into the phone. “I think Jeremy threw him in the creek after he killed him.” She began talking to Karen again, then pointed her finger for us to get to bed.
“Oh,” Mom called out to our backs in a voice brimming with all the excitement of Christmas morning. “You’ll meet Jeremy tomorrow, he’s coming over for dinner.”
I waited for Chase to go first, careful not to touch his shoulders for fear that he would shatter as he walked in front of me down the hall.
“You can sleep in your bed,” Chase said, when he’d laid down and pulled the covers to his chin. I told him alright and closed my eyes, but I couldn’t sleep at all.
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