Tadpole Tails

“Well” said grandpa frog. “Let me tell you about being a little tadpole. It was a bright sunny day. There were a few wisps of feathery, white clouds floating in a light, blue sky. The Sun was at high noon in the sky.” Grandpa frog stretched forth his right front leg to scratch the top of his dark green, wart covered head. He was reminiscing, mentally, and laughing to himself. We heard all of his stories before. However, we enjoyed hearing them again and again. He would always add a little bit more, to the story, than he did the last time he told it. 1

“Anyway, the pool of water I was swimming in was becoming warmer and warmer. That was because the pool was a shallow puddle.It rained the whole week, making puddles everywhere. My parents placed me and my siblings, as eggs, in one of these puddles. Then they hopped away and croaked.” Grandpa chuckled at his attempt at frog humor. We laughed too, just to please him. 2

“Where was I,” asked grandpa. “You were telling how your parents croaked,” was my reply. “Ah, yes thank you Freddie,” gramps said. “After they laid us in the puddle we began to move. We wiggled and jiggled until we separated from each other.” We always sang the tadpole song, at this place in the story.{We will wiggle and jiggle, and jiggle and wiggle until get out of the nest; we will wiggle and jiggle, and jiggle and wiggle until we’re free from the rest; because as little tadpoles we are the best.} All of us ended on a high note while giggling. Grandpa swelled like a toad and thumped his lily pad. It was such a hard thump that it sent ripples causing our lily pads to almost flip us off. It was a rather fun ride. We spread our toes and webbed a hold to our pads. A couple of smaller frogs fell into the pool of water and swam away.3

“Where was I this time,” said Grandpa frog. He hated disruptions when telling a story. “ I remember, we separated from each other,” when Grandpa hesitated, I knew what was coming next. “This is where Grandpa gives us a moral lesson,” Freddie said to Fran, his little sister. She just metamorphosed this morning and it was the first story she heard. You all remember my words, tough times can make you stronger  if you allow them to.” “Is that what you call a memorial lesson, Freddie,” asked Fran. Chuckling under my breath, I responded, “yes, Fran that was a memorial lesson.”4

“As we were separating a Robin redbreast stepped into the puddle5

to take a bath. He swished water all over his body, While he swished water, we as eggs would be flipped upon his body, lodging ourselves under his feathers.  Not knowing we were being transported, Mr. Robin, flew away with us. As he flew it got hotter and the air was drying us out. Some of us dried out too much and fell off Mr. Robin.” Grandpa was acting like a bird in flight. We thought he looked funny, but didn’t laugh aloud. “The Robin landed in a pond. He began swishing water all over him, again. It felt so cool and wet that we turned loose of his feathers. One by one we plopped into our new home, like droplets of rain falling.” Gramps smiled real big, and sighing he said, “what a great experience, frogs flying.” His fat, green, slimy, body totally relaxed that he looked like a big green happy face.  This lasted for a minute or two until Gramps sat up and told the rest of the story.6

“First thing you know we began growing tails. From our little round bodies.”Grandpa had the most distressed look on his face. “Then it happened, some tadpoles swam away from the bank and into deeper water. Every tadpole knows you stay in the shallows. A Bass opened his large mouth and swallowed the tadpoles along with the water. We were shocked and scared. Quickly, we swam into some cattail growth, so we could hide.” Gramps always acted out his stories. He placed some blades of grass, in front of his face. They were his pretend  cattails.  When he  peered out from behind them we snickered. 7

“After growing tails we began to develop four little nubs. In a few days they became legs.”  Now Gramps figured a way he could make his front leg withdraw into his body. Then he would slowly extend it out, like it was growing. This pleased him a lot. All of us little frogs would gasp which made him even more happy. As he told the story the Sun was   settling down closer to the west horizon.  This didn’t bother Grandpa, or cause him to speed up, “we then lost our tails. So we climbed out of the shallows and onto dry land. This was a completely different experience.  As we hopped along, the grass tickled our tummies. The soil felt warm on our feet. It was too hot in the Sun,  so we burrowed underground or squeezed under a rock. After all we were used to being in cool water.”8

Freddie yelled, “jump in the water and cool down.” Grandpa was the first one in. “Around the lily pads three times and get out,” we all shouted. 9

It was after the cool swim that Gramps ended his story. “After going underground or in some rocks we went to sleep. This is where I will  start my next story. I will tell why frogs catch bugs and how our10

tongues became so long.” As all the frogs nodded off to sleep, two nine year old boys walked by the frogs. “Do you ever wonder what frogs do 11

all day,” Joe said to Jim. “Yeah, I think about that but I wonder  whether frogs can understand each other. Do you think they can communicate,” Jim asked Joe. “No way, they are just dumb creatures,” replied Joe. Then they heard a frog rib-bit, which sounded a lot like Robin. Freddie was dreaming about the Robin bathing in Grandpa’s story, again was heard Robit. 12

Terry L.  Sledge13