Once upon a time there were two young, fair maidens living in a far away land called Kearns. One beautiful summer morning, their older brother and his trusty companion set out on an amazing adventure. They journeyed far away to the canal behind the house across the street. They passed the day exploring the banks of the canal chasing frogs and catching tadpoles. As the day came to a close, they carried two unique treasures home to the fair maidens.
Upon their return, they presented their finds to the two delighted young girls. Each sister received her own tadpole to love, cherish and to raise to adulthood. The lady of the house, though not enamored with the idea of her two young daughters raising stinky frogs in their bedroom, relented and granted permission after much whining and gnashing of teeth.
The summer progressed as expected. The tadpoles grew quickly in the two yellow bowls on the dresser in the beautiful blue bedroom. The two girls busied themselves with typical summertime things in addition to caring for their tadpoles. They had daily chores and academic lessons to keep up their skills during their summer vacations. The maidens each joined a reading program and received a very large reading poster from their Grandmother to track their progress. The charts hung on the closet doors in their room, not far from the yellow bowls with the ever developing tadpoles. Every day they read, they would color a spot on the cobblestone walk, reminiscent of a Candyland game board, slowly inching them closer and closer to the end of the poster. Each morning, the maidens would read a bit then care for their beloved creatures, who had sprouted legs and were now crawling up and down the rocks the girls had so lovingly arranged in their bowls.
One morning, little Kristie awoke to find that her poor tadpole had died. Crestfallen, she wept. Was there no justice in the world? "How could this have happened?" she wondered. Angie cared for her budding frog and went off to play while Kristie remained to mourn her loss.
Around lunch time, Angie went in the little blue bedroom to check on her frog. She immediately knew that something was not quite right. The guts of her frog were no longer on the inside of the frog. They were all over outside the frog. Young Angie screamed out to her mother. Being a wise woman with many years of experience with the keen minds of her young daughters antics, she knew right away what must have happened to the poor frog.
Mother summoned her evil daughter Kristie to the dresser to see if she knew anything of what might have happened to sweet Angie's frog. Despite her claim of ignorance in the matter, it was quickly determined that Kristie had inflicted the fatal wounds. She explained, "If my frog is dead, then Angie shouldn't get one either!" The details of the crime were gruesome. Kristie had taken a reading achievement chart and squished and squeezed the frog until it died. Being a precocious girl, she had even had the smarts to use Angie's reading chart rather than her own to kill the frog and then carefully rehung the chart on the closet door as if nothing had happened. Upon inspection, the back of the chart was covered in frog guts.
Acknowledging the errors in her foolish child's way, mother scolded her and doled out the punishment. Kristie was in charge of hosting and making arrangements for a proper funeral. She had to locate a small box (match box), dig the tiny grave and conduct a service in raspberry patch of the garden.
Things like this can try a relationship to its very breaking point. The girls have never reconciled and the rift remains today. They have not spoken in over twenty five years.
Author's note: Names have not been changed so the reader may understand who is innocent. Parts of this story may have been embellished a bit. It is entirely possible that Angie wasn't the most kind and gentle in her understanding of Kristie's loss. Angie remembers being threatened that Kristie would just take her frog, put it in her bowl and pretend it was hers. Thinking no one would ever know.
When Kristie was offered the chance to guest post on this blog, she declined to comment. What conclusions can we draw from this? I rest my case.
Edited: Kristie's response is as follows.
Some corrections I would like to make:The charts had not yet been hung they were both just sitting there waiting to have a frog squished in. I did not say "if my frog is dead, then Angie shouldn't have one either" that must have just been something you thought because you always have to be fair. Now that we are on that subject of you having to always have something fair, I bet you told me to kill your frog because you wanted things to be fair.
