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Evangeline Portincort awoke.
The room was lit by the intruding sun, which had just reached the window and now bathed the room with its brilliance. The room was white. Eva had a white sheet and a white blanket covering her. The bed she was on was more like a cot but it was built into the wall. The cot was also white, as were the walls. So bright was the sudden light that Eva struggled to see, struggled to shed the groggy leftovers of sleep.
All she had on was her black robe, and nothing else, save for the white blanket and sheet. Two baskets sat on opposite ends of a white table by the large wall length window that extended from the ceiling to the floor. Each basket held clothes. One of them held hers. Between the two baskets was an envelope with two names on it. She couldn’t make out what the names were from this distance.
She heard a deep moan.
Eva sat up with a start and gripped her black robe closed, and her white sheet and blanket to her chest. A man was in this strange white room with her, trapped and alone with her, she realized. Her eyes focused on the man lying upon the in-wall cot on the other side of the room. He was bigger than she was, overpowering almost. He was waking up, just like she had. She felt a panic rising within her. He was dressed only from the waist down in white pajamas that matched his white robe that lay at the end of his cot. The lone door to the room did not have a door knob. The window was made of thick glass, and there was nothing else in the room that she could use to defend herself with or to throw through the window to make her escape.
The man rubbed his eyes, just like she had done. Then he glanced up at her. He didn’t say anything. He just looked into her eyes with the same facial expression that she pictured herself conveying.
This strange man was uglier than an iguana stuck in a belt san-… She stopped thinking about that as she gazed into his eyes. Was this him? Was this …?
“Eva?” the man muttered, almost in a whisper. The same confusion that she was feeling was readily apparent in his eyes as he looked at her.
He knew her name.
“How do you know my name?” Eva asked him.
“That’s what you were calling yourself last night. That is your name, right?”
Last night.
Eva felt dizzy. She rubbed her eyes. This was him, the bullfrog, the other. Something in his eyes. Familiar.
He stood up and walked over to her cot. In a panic she shrank away. It was the same panic that she felt when she had realized that she had been transformed into a frog.
He stopped right in front of her cot and held his hand out for her.
“Will you dance with me, Eva?" he asked. His eyes were warm and inviting to her, full of empathy and understanding, and worry as well. He was worried of rejection, she realized.
"There is no music," Eva said.
"You don't need music for there to be a song to dance to."
It was a ridiculous thing to say, but it broke right through her fear. He’s more afraid than I am, she thought as she looked up at him.
She took his hand and stood in front of him, keeping the front of her robe closed with one hand. The front of her robe would open if she let go, and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
Then he kissed her and she felt like she was on that island again.
Her fear was gone.
"Nothing brightens your day more than a life changing kiss," he said as he parted from her to look into her eyes.
Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him, letting her robe fall open. She didn’t care what she looked like now, she just wanted him. And he was already ready for her. His strong hands gripped her hips and he drew her closer to him.
“I have never had sex…” she started to say.
“Yes, you have,” he told her. “We both have. Last night.” He then gave her that same goofy smile that he had had when he was a bullfrog. He kissed her again. “It was just … different.”
She remembered how it had been last night. It really had been him that she’d made love to last night. She had been something else completely – a tiny little dirty slimy frog, no less - but something about this felt the same. Something deep down inside her cried out in desire, “Yes,” she said as her tears welled up in her closed eyes, as she gave herself over to him again, this time in human form.
“I don’t even know your name,” she whispered as he loved her.
“Larry,” he said.
Ridiculous name, she thought, but no more ridiculous than everything else.
They made love in that white room.
And then they made love again, twice more, before curiosity started to take hold. The door did not have a doorknob, just a tiny censor on top. Were they locked in here?
They were completely naked now. Eva’s bashfulness had been completely annihilated. She walked over to the table by the window and looked at the envelope between the two baskets of clothing.
“EVANGELINE PORTINCORT AND LAURENCE SPINSTER,” was written in large, bold lettering on the front of the envelope.
Larry walked up behind Eva, put his arms around her and looked over her shoulder as she picked up the envelope.
Eva opened the envelope and started reading outloud:
Dearest Eva and Larry:
My dating agency is based on the idea that nearly anyone can fall in love with nearly anyone. The only barriers to this are the barriers that the mind creates. On matters of love and romance, perhaps, in the eyes of God, we are perhaps not unlike frogs in the mud, searching clumsily for a mate. My calling in life is to break down those barriers, all of them, just as I have done for you.
I am very happy that everything ended up well for the two of you. It always brings warm feelings to my heart whenever I bring two people together in love. May your new relationship flourish and last a lifetime.
Your belongings are in the baskets provided. The door to your room will open on its own when it is approached. However, you may stay as long as you wish.
All I ask for in return is a friendly donation in my mailbox at the front of my office. You know where.
Lots of love and happiness –
Karyan Bogdonia
“She knew, all along,” Eva said. Larry wrapped his arms tighter around her from behind. Her hands went to his larger hands and squeezed them, without a second thought. Warmth and heat, she thought. Welcoming. Laurence.
“I had my doubts,” Larry said.
Eva noted the similarities in his voice to the voice he had possessed as a bullfrog. She nodded. “Yeah,” Eva said. “I felt so angry, that she assumed so much. But now …”
“She’s a miracle,” Larry said. Eva could almost feel his heart beating as his chest as it pressed against the skin of her back. “I’m afraid that this’ll end soon.” His breathing was uneven and quivering a bit. “I love you, Eva. I-I don’t want this to end.”
She turned to face him, still in his embrace. Her hands went to the sides of his face. His eyes were full of worry. “It won’t end,” she told him. “I don’t care what waits for us beyond that door, in the real world. We’ll deal with it together.”
“Like a couple of iguanas stuck in a belt sander?” he asked, joking. He gave her that goofy smile again.
Had she mentioned that phrase to him at some point? She must have. Maybe she said it when they were in the mud puddle together. She could still feel the warm mud. She smiled back up at him. “It’s better to be stuck together than to be stuck alone,” She said. She kissed him again.
An hour later, Eva and Laurence gathered their things and got dressed. Eva grabbed the envelope from the table and said, “We’ll keep this note,” and smiled.
When they approached the door, it opened.
The next room was perfectly squared, with nineteen other doors that did not have door knobs, and a hallway that led to a larger door. Over the larger door was a lit exit sign.
“I wonder if the rest of the helpers …” Eva began to say.
Eva and Laurence stood and listened.
Several soft moans came from some of the closed doors.
“I wonder how Karyan bought us all here,” Laurence whispered.
Eva looked at Laurence and grimaced. She said, “She turned us all into frogs and you’re wondering that?”
“Good point.”
Eva Portincort and Laurence Spinster left the building. The building itself was in the middle of a field of grass, with a few large trees here and there. A long white sidewalk led from the building to a parking lot. There were exactly forty parking spots, each one with a different car.
It took some adjustment, but Eva and Laurence soon included each other in their daily lives. A couple months later, they were married.
Eva noted the date that she had carried the big bullfrog – her husband – onto the strange island, became a frog herself, and made tadpoles with him by the sea.
Every year on their anniversary date, Eva and Laurence stopped by that nondescript office and inserted an envelope with a small donation into the slot of the door.
THE END
Thank you for taking the time to read this short story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I do this to entertain, above all else.
If you enjoyed this tale, please leave a review where you found this copy. If you were given this copy in person, lucky you.
If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy other works by W.F.Gigliotti. These include:
THE QUIVERING ZOMBIE
THE HAMMERED ZOMBIE
KINETIC CUT AND RUN
HER AGITATED DEMONS
And the short story:
FROGS OF THE DARK RIVER
More information about the author of this work can be found at https://wfgigliotti.wordpress.com
Frogs of the Dark River Page 6