For a moment I stood staring at this frog when I began to feel like someone was staring at me. So, I looked up and there stood a guy, next to me, watching me watch the frog.
He then asked, in a very English accent, “Is it that you almost stepped on him?”
I replied, “No, it’s just that for a while now I’ve been thinking that I’ve never seen a frog in England… And now I’ve seen one, so I was looking at it. You’re English aren’t you?”
He: “Yes, I’m English.”
Me:“Yep, you sound English. Are there frogs here?”
He:“There are frogs here…but I rarely see them. Maybe they just hide better…”
Me:“Yup, maybe”
“Where are you from….are there lots of frogs there?”, asked he.
“Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean. Well, there aren’t lots…but I think that had I been at home for the length of time that I’ve been in England, I’d already have seen a frog.”
We stood there for a while together watching the frog.
“He seems really content where he’s at”, he remarked.
“Yup, I was wondering if he was dead, but his eyes are open.”
The English guy then bent down and looked at the frog’s eyes.
“Yes. There’s a twig on him”, he said. Slowly, he moved his thumb and index finger and removed the twig from the frog with a quick, gentle pull. The frog remained motionless.
“Maybe he really is dead”, he said.
“Yeah”, I replied, “that’s not normal for it to remain so calm.”
We continued talking about the frog and what might have happened to it, as well as about English versus Trini frogs and toads for what felt like an unnaturally long time. It was the most peculiar instance of my day today—talking to a stranger from my college about frogs. It was refreshing though. I was a bit frustrated and down, but having had that short, absolutely random conversation about frogs, and subsequently Harry Potter, our respective courses and college stuff has given me the little jolt of joy that I need to push through the rest of my day. 🙂 And now, my work begins…