Week 1. Frog. THE EMAIL. Angela Sunde. contemporary fiction. 358 wds. What did he mean, choose which one I want? Meg clicked on the image and waited for it to download. A close-up of a bookshelf filled with frogs appeared on the screen - plastic, brass and ceramic frogs, lying, hopping and doing handstands. Shaken, Meg bit her lip and breathed in deeply through her nose. She could pick out the place and time she had bought each one: a flirtatious weekend in Adelaide, a trash and treasure day at school, the Potter’s Barn at her local markets. Each one a reminder, each one lovingly chosen and wrapped in bubble wrap before the short walk to the post office. She had even had trouble convincing her mother-in-law she didnt actually collect frogs. But you have a whole selection of them. ‘Yes, but… its a joke, a private thing, between Lisa and me. The puzzled look. Okay, thank you. The frog tea towel is perfect! Itll go with the calendar you gave us for Christmas so well.’ Then Meg noticed it. Tucked in behind a skiing frog in a santa hat, a faded greeting card, its surface speckled by yellow mould spots, leant against the back of the shelf. She had kept it all these years? The card with a frog in a beret and a cravat. The card she had sent Lisa from Paris in the days when they were both still young and single and living a world away from each other on either side of the world. The card that had started it all. Meg shut her eyes as familiar tears welled. The words inside she knew by heart. Theyd laughed about them often. It was their little in joke, the whole reason the frog gifts had been exchanged in the first place, the whole reason Lisa had nicknamed Meg’s husband Kermit. A silly frog card - ‘You have to kiss a lot of toads before you meet the handsome prince’. Kev was a prince for sure, but Lisas had turned out to be a toad. And now she’s gone and he wants me to choose just one. Meg clicked, then paused as her finger hovered over the block sender button. © Angela Sunde
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 06:16:31 +0000
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