Exploring According to Og the Frog

by Betty G. Birney

  The family disappears into their den for a few minutes, but then Mrs. Morales gets a phone call.

  A few minutes later, Mr. Morales gets another call from the superintendent.

  Brenda and Willy wander back into the living room, plop on the couch and stare at me for a while.

  “I know what we need.” Brenda smiles. “A princess for the frog to kiss . . . after he has his castle.”

  A real live princess to kiss me? I’m not so sure about that.

  * * *

  The lights are out, but I’m not sleeping. My mind is too full of princesses and castles . . . and the constant bickering between Brenda and Willy.

  All evening, she sounds like the chorus of bullying bullfrogs. “RUM-RUM-RUM! I’m older and smarter than you are!”

  He sounds like the complaining chorus of green frogs—and that includes me! For some reason, when the bullfrogs taunt us, we feel we must answer back. “BOING-BOING! We’re smart, too. We can leap as high as you can!”

  It goes on and on, and nothing ever changes.

  I don’t miss those battles of the frog families, not one bit. But I do want Brenda and Willy to stop arguing and build me a nice castle!

  For now, it’s time to Float. Doze. Be.

  And in the morning, it’ll be time to act!

  * * *

  I’m up early for a splashy swim and some jumping jacks to get my blood pumping.

  Brenda greets me with a sweet smile. “Good morning, Prince Boing-Boing,” she says.

  “It sure is!” I reply.

  When Willy joins her, she announces, “I’m going to start on my green castle.”

  Willy folds his arms. “And I’m going to make a mud castle. So there’ll be two castles.”

  “Og will have to choose,” Brenda says. “Of course, he’ll choose mine.”

  She reminds me of someone back in the swamp—but who? Not Granny Greenleaf or Cousin Lucy Lou.

  Then I start to think about Tammy Tad, one of my many, many big sisters. (I told you, frog families are large!) She thought that because she was older than I was, she was also smarter. That’s the way Brenda feels about Willy.

  Tammy always thought of me as a tadpole, even after I was a fully grown frog. And she liked to tell me how to do things.

  “Wrap your tongue around that fly, or he’ll get away,” she’d remind me, even after I’d already caught the thing.

  Or sometimes she’d say, “Grow up, Bongo!” And I was already grown-up.

  When I was a little tad, her advice was helpful and welcome. When I was older, her advice was annoying.

  All of that ended, however, on a nice breezy spring day when Tammy was floating on a lily pad, enjoying the warm sunshine.

  I was splashing nearby when I noticed Chopper floating toward her lily pad. He looked a lot like a big rock, and I guess Tammy didn’t notice his beady little eyes staring at her.

  “Leap!” I shouted. “Tammy—leap! It’s Chopper!”

  Tammy was so shocked, she froze on that lily pad, and the snapping turtle floated closer.

  “Leap! Swim! Do something!” I warned her, but she didn’t budge.

  I dived into the water and got directly beneath the lily pad. With my head on the bottom of the plant, I pushed it away from the snapping turtle as fast as I could.

  Once we were close to shore, Tammy unfroze and hopped to dry ground. I swam out from under the lily pad and hightailed it up to the grass right behind her. We caught our breath inside a hollow log.

  I was hoping Tammy would thank me, and she did. But what she said next was even more amazing. “Bongo, you saved my life. I guess you’re not a little tad anymore. You’re a brave grown-up frog.”

  She didn’t boss me around after that, and we became good friends.

  I wouldn’t want Brenda to come face-to-face with a mean snapping turtle, but I sure would like her to see that Willy’s not a baby anymore. They both have some good ideas—how can I get them to listen to each other?

  That’s a tall order for a medium-sized frog.

  Granny Greenleaf would say, “When the time is right, don’t be asleep. Grab the moment and take the leap!”

  And I’ll do it! But I need to figure out when the time is right.

  A Frog’s Home Is His Castle

  Sir Hiram Hopwell avoided humans as much as possible. But once, he was sunning himself near a lovely stream when a man surprised him. The man seemed harmless, until he scooped up Sir Hiram and took him to a castle . . . because he was a king! The king put Hiram in a lovely bowl of water and fed him his favorite bugs. But this was no life for an explorer. So Sir Hiram escaped the bowl, hopped past the guards, down the castle stairs and out the door, and swam across the moat. He was free to roam again!

  * * *

  Brenda and Willy get started on their castles right after breakfast. From my spot on the coffee table, I have a good view.

  Willy makes many trips in and out the back door. He has a pail that he seems to be filling with mud and then lugging to the bathroom. By his fourth trip, I wonder if there’s any dirt left in the yard.

  Brenda, on the other hand, works in her room. But after a while, she lugs a big box to the table where I am.

  “Look, Og! I have everything that I need to build your castle.” She puts the box on the table and pulls out small blocks of wood in different sizes and shapes.

  “Okay, I’m starting with these.” She stands up rectangular blocks side by side on the floor so they look like four walls with an opening in the front. There she places a square block with an opening and an arch on top.

  “There’s the door. But this is just the beginning,” Brenda tells me. She starts stacking square blocks on the corners of the four walls. “See? These are the towers.”

  I don’t quite see . . . yet.

  On top of the rest of the wall, she places blocks that are notched across the top.

  “And here are some windows for the towers.” She adds some blocks with square openings in the middle to each corner.

  Next, she makes the towers a little taller and puts smaller notched squares on top.

  Brenda sits back to view her creation. “See? Now it’s starting to look like a castle.”

  “I see,” I boing. It does look a bit like a castle, if you use your imagination.

  “Of course, it has to be green.” She takes something out of the box. “Isn’t this scarf pretty?”

  It’s light, and you can see through it, but it certainly is green.

  “And you’ll have a banner on top.” She shows me a paper flag with PRINCE BOING-BOING’S CASTLE printed on it.

  Next, Brenda pulls a jar of glittery things out of the box. “Plenty of bling! You are a prince, after all!”

  Bling? Whatever that is, we don’t have it in the swamp!

  “It will be the perfect castle for a prince . . . and his princess,” she adds.

  About that princess . . . I wish I knew more about her.

  I hear the back door slam again and then Willy’s heavy footsteps on his way to the bathroom.

  “You’re making a mess!” Brenda calls to him.

  Willy doesn’t answer.

  “This scarf will make the castle so comfy,” she tells me. She places it over the castle and starts tucking it around the walls. “There. Now the outside will be all green . . . like you.”

  As she tucks the scarf around the last tower, it collapses into a heap.

  “Ohhhh!” she moans.

  “What’s wrong?” Willy calls from the hallway.

  Brenda says, “Nothing.”

  Willy appears in the doorway. I hardly recognize him because he looks like a toad that just hopped out of a mud puddle. He has dabs of mud on his face and hands and shoes.

  He is also making a muddy mess on the floor. Don’t get me wrong, I like
muddy messes, but I don’t think his parents will!

  “Is that part of your castle?” he asks, pointing to the green heap.

  “It will be,” Brenda says. “I’m not finished.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Willy mutters as he heads down the hall. “Because it looks like a big mess.”

  Brenda leaves the room and comes back with a roll of tape.

  She rebuilds the walls and carefully begins to tape the scarf over them. She doesn’t seem to notice that the windows and doors are hard to see. Instead, she hums happily as she sprinkles the bling, which turns out to be silver glitter, all over the castle.

  Finally, she tapes her flag on the tallest tower.

  She grins and claps her hands. “I did it!”

  It doesn’t look like a castle. It just looks like a sparkly green scarf.

  “Don’t get nervous,” she tells me. “I’m going to pick you up so you can check out your castle. Please don’t pee on me!”

  “I’ll do my best,” I say.

  I steel myself as she reaches into my tank, but she is gentle.

  “Here you go, Prince Boing-Boing,” she says as she places me on the top of one of the towers.

  Right away, there’s a problem. This scarf is sticking to my feet and won’t let go, and the sparkles are scratchy. I want to tell her I’m uncomfortable, but all she’ll hear is “BOING.”

  “Check it out, Og,” Brenda says, prodding me with her finger. “Go on.”

  I try to move, but my toes stick to the scarf, and it starts clinging to the rest of my body, too. Including my mouth.

  The scarf is drying out my skin. I need water—fast!

  “Water!” I croak. I wiggle my toes free, take a giant leap off the tower onto the carpet and hop away as fast as I can toward the bathroom. I definitely heard the sound of running water in there. And maybe I can find out what Willy is doing with all that mud.

  “Come back, Og!” Brenda shouts.

  I’m sorry to upset her, but there’s no time to waste!

  In the bathroom, Willy is bent over the bathtub, focused on his work.

  “BOING-BOING!” I say, hopping through the door. “I need water now!”

  “Og!” Willy says. “Hey, you have to see your castle. You’re going to love it!”

  He bends down to pick me up. “Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.”

  “And I’ll try not to pee on you,” I promise.

  I am good at keeping promises. Willy lifts me up to the edge of the tub.

  I am expecting to see a castle. What I see is a total mess. There is mud everywhere, with a huge mound of dirt in the middle.

  “Here’s your castle, Prince Boing-Boing,” Willy tells me. “See? Those are the towers.”

  I guess I can see two blobs of mud on either side of the big one.

  “And the windows.” He points to a line of square dents in the mud near the top of the blobs. “I tried to make them look fancy,” he says, and I see that each “window” has a leaf in the center. I’m still not sure how you can see out of them, but they look nice.

  “This is called the moat,” he tells me, pointing to the muddy water encircling the castle. “You could use it as a swimming pool.”

  Now this castle is getting interesting!

  “And here on the side, I made a giant water slide,” Willy says. “See how I smoothed out the mud so you could go fast?”

  I see what looks like a twisty road going down the side of the tallest tower.

  “Want to try it?” he asks.

  Do I want to try it? Do I want to slide in nice, damp mud and end up swimming in a pool? BING-BANG-BOING!

  He gently sets me at the top of the slide, and—WHOOSH!—I am zipping down at a high speed as Willy cheers me on.

  Suddenly, Brenda pokes her head in the doorway.

  “Hey,” she says, “Og’s supposed to be trying out the castle I built for him.”

  “Watch this,” Willy tells her. “Og loves his castle.”

  Brenda slowly approaches the tub. “Castle! It looks like a disgusting mess to me.”

  Willy sets me on top of the slide again. “Look at him go.”

  Wheee! I glide down the slide at top speed and—SPLASH! When I land in the water, I paddle like mad.

  “Wow! Look at that!” she says. “That is cool!” Brenda sounds like she means it.

  “Told you,” Willy says.

  He puts me back on top, and I take another wild ride.

  The water in the moat feels amazing, especially after being so dry.

  I swim around and around the castle, admiring it from every direction. Now I know how those great sea explorers like Magellan and Balboa must have felt when they sailed to faraway lands.

  At last, I’ve gone where no frog has ever gone before!

  Brenda picks me up and puts me on the slide. This time, I skip the ride down and dive directly into the water.

  One giant leap for a frog!

  Oops! When I land, I splash muddy water all over Brenda and Willy. Wet mud drips down their faces and onto their clothes, but they don’t get mad. Instead, they howl with laughter.

  I float around the moat. I haven’t been so hoppy since the day I caught a fly and a cricket with one great swoop of my tongue.

  I’m so hoppy, I sing.

  How I love my floaty moat,

  Floaty moat,

  Floaty moat.

  How I love my floaty moat,

  One with a castle view.

  I love to swim and make deep dives,

  Make deep dives,

  Make deep dives.

  I love to swim and make deep dives.

  I love my castle, too.

  “Listen to that!” Brenda says. “It almost sounds like he’s singing.”

  “Yeah. Og likes the castle, but I kind of wish it looked better,” Willy admits.

  Brenda nods. “I have some ideas. We could smooth out these towers.”

  She runs her hands over the muddy towers, and Willy helps. Then they mold notches on top with their fingers.

  “And these windows? You need to make them alike.” Brenda pokes deeper dents and centers the leaves in each one, and suddenly there are windows! Then she uses a twig to carve a wavy design around each one.

  “That looks better,” Willy says.

  “I’m not finished,” she says. “It needs a few more things.”

  She disappears, and I hope she’s not bringing in the scarf and the glitter.

  “Some bling,” she says. I am hoppy to see that instead of glitter, she has brought small plastic flowers in all colors. She plants them in the mud outside the castle, and they look nice.

  “How does it look?” Brenda asks. “Do you like it?”

  Willy nods. “It looks a lot better.”

  “One more thing,” Brenda says, and she plants the pink and green flag on top.

  It’s still a mucky mess . . . but it looks a whole lot more like a castle.

  By now, I don’t care what it looks like. I’m so happy for the mud and the water.

  Willy and Brenda both smile as they admire their creation.

  “WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?” a voice yells.

  They freeze.

  “Dad!” Brenda whispers.

  “Uh-oh,” Willy says.

  “I asked you to play nicely today. I did not ask you to make a mess!” he says as he enters the bathroom.

  “Sorry, Dad. But look at how much Og likes his castle!” Willy says.

  “It’s the perfect castle for a frog prince,” Brenda says.

  Mr. Morales doesn’t look at the castle. “Look at all this mud! The footprints on the floor—and the towels!”

  “Sorry. But he loves it!” Brenda explains.

  At last,
her father looks down and sees me in my floaty moat. “And this is not healthy for Og. You aren’t supposed to handle him and put him in mud! Mrs. Brisbane is going to be upset. And your mom is going to be muy upset.”

  I am muy upset that he can’t see how hoppy I am.

  To convince him, I start doing a backstroke around the moat, splashing happily. When I look up, Mr. Morales is still shaking his head, but he’s also watching me.

  “Watch this,” Willy says. “I won’t hurt him.”

  He picks me up gently and sets me down at the top of the slide.

  The mud is nice and smooth from my previous trips. I shoot down the slide at record speed and land in the water with a gigantic splash.

  “He looks pretty healthy to me,” Brenda says.

  Her dad looks surprised but then he starts laughing so hard, he can barely answer. “I have to admit, he does.”

  Soon, they’re all laughing.

  “You built this castle, Willy?” he asks.

  “We both did,” Willy says. “I started it, and then Brenda made it a lot better.”

  “It was Willy’s idea,” Brenda explains.

  Mr. Morales is still smiling. “But now we must rinse Prince Boing-Boing off and put him back in his tank. And then clean up this mess.”

  “I’ll do it, Dad,” Willy promises.

  “We’ll do it,” Brenda says.

  She gently holds me under the faucet. The water feels so good, I relax, and—oops! Maybe a little pee escapes, but the water washes it away.

  I am feeling content and hoppy until Brenda says, “Og, you are the prince of my dreams.”

  And then, without warning, she kisses the top of my head!

  Her lips feel . . . strange. Dry and wet and . . . a little bit too human for me!

  “BOING-BOING!” I am so shocked, I fly out of her hand and dive into the water again.

  I don’t want to kiss a princess! I don’t want to kiss anyone. Blah! Eww! Yuck!

  “Ick,” Brenda says as she wipes her lips. “His skin is so . . . froggy.”

  “Brenda, go wash your face!” Mr. Morales says. “Willy, put Og back in his tank now! And get rid of all this mud!”