“What the hell is that racket?” Darian groused from his prone position on the couch.
“The phrogs,” Andrea replied, pronouncing it “puh-frogs.”
“What? You mean frogs?” Darian asked.
“No, I mean phrogs. The noisy ones around the pond right now,” Andrea said looking up from her crocheting with a small smile.
Darian just shook his head and went back to his book. Living out in the countryside, away from the noise of the city had a great number of advantages. He felt like he could hear himself think for the first time in his life. But one of the things he’d noticed over the last few months was that Andrea had started to get some strange ideas about what was living around their little country house. Like puh-frogs. Around their non-existent pond.
The next morning, he was up early and made his way into the kitchen to get the coffee started. Andrea would be up shortly – she rarely slept longer than him – and he wanted to make sure she had a hot cup of coffee. Even with the temperature climbing into three digits over the course of the day, a hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning was non-negotiable. He got the coffee maker going and stared out the window over the sink while he waited for it to beep. The tall cattails around the back of the pond waved gently in the slight morning breeze.
Wait a minute.
Cattails on the pond? They didn’t have a pond in the back. In fact they had miles of scrub out back. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and slowly opened his eyes.
The pond that shouldn’t be there was still there. Darian took a deep breath and slowly let it out. What the hell was going on? Soft footsteps sounded behind him.
“Oh, see. I knew the phrogs sounded noisy last night,” Andrea said, wrapping her arms around him. She followed his stare into the backyard. “I guess they created a pond for us.”
Darian turned his head to look at her, his arms automatically going around her in turn. “What do you mean, created a pond for us?” he asked quietly. Perhaps it wasn’t Andrea who was doing or seeing strange things. Perhaps it was this place.
Andrea squeezed his waist. “The phrogs brought us a pond.” She took a deep breath. “Remember I told you about the old woman I met in town? At the post office? Well, she told me that phrogs showed up if they liked the people living on the land and would bring a pond and other beneficial landscape things for them. The people just have to let the phrogs stay in the pond. I guess they like us and we get to take care of their pond.”
Darian stared at his wife, then back at the pond. “Well, they sound better than traffic and car horns.”
Andrea nodded her agreement.
The coffee maker beeped, signaling the presence of life-giving liquid. Darian unwrapped himself from Andrea and pulled two mugs out of the cabinet while she grabbed the cream from the fridge. After pouring them both a cup of coffee, Darian turned back to the window.
“Welcome home, phrogs,” he said, raising his mug in salute. Andrea did the same and they both took sips of the steaming liquid.
“Ah. That first sip is always so, so good,” Andrea murmured.
“Yep. Phrogs and coffee. Not a bad start to the day,” Darian agreed.
******
A very short snippet of something courtesy of ‘nother Mike and his prompt to me: The phrogs were noisy around the pond last night. If you make your way over to More Odds Than Ends you can see what everybody else did with their prompt challenges. If you want to join in the challenge, you can pick up a spare or send in an email to the address on the page. It’s free, it’s fun, and it gets you thinking!
