Leapfrog

Sometimes a frog leaps from lily pads covered in slime. Often, though, it stays still and talks. Not out of laziness or exhaustion, no. Hasn’t the need to leap, just the need to croak.

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I see in a pond a frog jump from one lily to another to another. A frog talks in ribbits, but not to me. Covered in slime, it need not croak while it jumps. No other frogs around.

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My friend says he ran over a frog with the lawnmower, says it jumped beneath while he wasn’t looking. No need to have leaped or croaked. Should have stayed still, I said. Its ribbits covered the lawn.

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At night I dream of living from pad to pad. Unaware, until another frog sits on the next pad. So I croak and it goes away. I wake up and mow the front lawn, hearing a ribbit with each step I take.

*

But when toad croaks, the frogs know it is in disguise. His voice is deep like a pond. Toad is defensive and says he was born with it. The frogs believe him until his disguise covered in slime surfaces after the accident with a blade.