The Frog That Needed a Friend

In the little village of Sweetberry lives an even littler boy with the name of Tommy. Tommy’s size may be small but this boy has a heart as big as the Pacific. His hopes and dreams soar higher than Everest and his passion for fishing consumes him from the tips of his bleach blond hair to the tips of his tiny little toes. One morning, Tommy was walking down to Gooseberry Creek to spend the day fishing for supper. As he sat down, he opened the can of worms and began to bait his hook to cast out his reel. He left the can open just enough for a little worm to crawl out and into freedom. This worm’s name was Willy.
Willy, who was very scared to be the next meal to some hungry fish, happily crawled away and continued on to the water where he saw the largest bullfrog he’d ever seen. This frog had spots all over and eyes that looked as big as the sun! His tongue stretched out for what seemed like miles, and he had little hairs all over his face and pads. Willy quickly turned away and ran right into a snail.
“Ouch man, watch where you’re goin!” said the snail.
“I-I-I-I’m sorry mister, I was just trying to run away!” stammered Willy.
The snail quickly forgave Willy and introduced himself as Sam. He was then joined by all his friends who also introduced themselves. There was Chirpy the cricket, a spunky girl with lots of energy,
Tyler the turtle, the wild rebel, and Mary the mouse, the mom of the gang.
“So why were you running away?” Sam asked Willy.
“Well I saw this big, huge frog and I got scared,” Willy replied with tears in his eyes.
Mary took Willy in her arms and said, “Oh you poor thing, did Bob the bullfrog hurt you?”
“Tell me what he did, I’ll knock him out for you!” said Tyler.
“No, no he never hurt me!” cried Willy, “I was just scared of him because he was so big! Who IS he?
Chirpy then piped in and told the story of Bob….”Bob used to have a best friend named Melvin the mosquito. They grew up together and played every day in their backyards until they were old enough to go out on their own and when they did they built their own house and lived in it together. They were inseparable. Even though we were an oddly couple, everyone knew they would be best friends forever. That is until the last day they ever saw Melvin. Him and Bob went down to the lake to play and have a picnic and by some events that are not known for sure, Melvin never came back. Ever since that day, Bob hasn’t spoken a word and no one goes near him because they are scared.
“Everyone knows that Bob didn’t go down to the lake that day to have Melvin as the main course for the picnic, “ said Mary.
“Yeah, so it’s a good thing you ran into Sam and not Bob or else you might have been the next meal!” said Tyler.
As frightened as Willy was by that story, he couldn’t help by look back at the once mean, but now sad, looking bullfrog sitting on the lily pad.
That night, after the gang went to sleep, Willy snuck out and crawled to the lake. He peeked through the grass to see Bob laying on his lily pad looking up at the stars. Next thing you know, Bob noticed the grass moving and quickly sat up to see what caused it.
“Hey! Who’s there?!” he bellowed in his deep booming voice.
“E-E-E-Exuse, mister, I was just t-t-trying t-t-t-to get a drink.” Said Willy.
“No you weren’t, you were looking at me! What do you want?” said Bob.
“I just wanted to see if you were in a better mood,” said Willy. “You looked so sad when I saw you earlier. Please don’t hurt me.”
All the sudden the frog jumped off of his lily pad and hopped right up to Willy. Willy was quickly taken by his neck and thrust into the chest of the frog and while he thought he was drying, he soon realized the frog was hugging him. And he was crying!
“It has been so long since someone has said they wanted to talk to me,” said Bob.
Willy was still shocked that he wasn’t dead yet, but decided to take advantage of the situation by asking the frog why he was crying. Bob explained how no one ever wanted to talk to him because he was so big and scary looking, when really all he wanted was a friend.
“But you had a friend, and you killed him.” Said Willy.
That made Bob cry even harder and with the falling tears came a story filled with deep regret.
“The day that Melvin died was the saddest day of my life. I didn’t kill him, I would never have done such a thing, but it is my fault he died. We were playing in the water and I was jumping from one lily pad to the next and Melvin was flying above me. We were racing so I was very caught up in the excitement so I didn’t realize when he wasn’t racing anymore. As I crossed the finish line I started to brag but then I realized Melvin wasn’t there. That’s when I heard him cry for help. He said that his wing had a tear in it and he so he fell into the creek and couldn’t fly out. I tried swimming in the water to save him, but the current was so strong and he was floating away faster than I could swim to catch him. If I wouldn’t have been so worried about winning I would’ve seen Melvin fall and would have caught him before he was washed in the current.” Said Bob.
“Oh Mr. Bob that’s not your fault! You tried to save him, but you couldn’t! “ said Willy.
Bob has been living in grief ever since and tried to scare away anyone who came near him because he didn’t want his passion for winning to get in the way of someone else’s life like it did for his friend Melvin. Willy and Bob continued talking as the night went on and Willy helped Bob see that it really wasn’t his fault at all and fate was just taking it’s course. As the sun came up, Willy’s new friends came to the lake to a very peculiar scene.
“Oh no!” cried Mary. “Bob has taken Willy captive!”
“Quick, everyone attack Bob and save Willy!” said Sam.
“No worries, I’ll punch out his eyes!” hollered Tyler.
“Wait, guys! No, don’t hurt him!” Willy quickly yelled.
All his friends were confused and wondered why Willy was defending this murdering bullfrog they all knew. Willy then explained the story, the REAL story to the gang and introduced his new friend Bob the bullfrog. The frog who was once a large, spotty, long-tongued, scary beast, but was now a loving, hurting, and caring frog who missed his best friend.
“Wow, I’m sorry I never came up to you and figured out was the real story was ,” said Sam.
“Oh you poor baby, come here, let me give you a hug!” Mary said.
“I’m sorry too,” added Tyler and Chirpy.
Bob accepted all the apologies and smiled for the first time in awhile because he realized he had just made friends. Willy decided that they needed to play a game, and despite past events, Bob joined in and decided that he would play for fun, not for winning.
“Life is too short to live out of fear,” he said. “I’m going to stop living with guilt and live every day like it’s my last so I can make the most of every opportunity.”
These are wise words that hold much truth in the lives of turtles, frogs, crickets, snails, mice, and little boys with hearts as good as gold.