263/365 – FRIENDS

Word Count: 716

Toby’s best friend was a frog named Jimmy though he didn’t tell the kids at school that Jimmy was a frog. He told them that Jimmy was two years older and lived next door and went to the Catholic school and that was all good because though they’d never seen him, Jimmy was older and wasn’t black or Puerto Rican or a Jew. They still picked on Toby but not as much as they would have.

Toby’s mother found the frog one day in the bottom of his closet in a shoebox. She hated things that jumped like certain spiders, grasshoppers and mice and frogs. She took the box outside and dumped Jimmy out on the edge of the back yard. When he headed for the house she smashed him with a shovel.

Toby thought that Jimmy had escaped. He looked around the bottom of his closet, moved his shoes and toys he no longer played with but couldn’t yet let go. He crawled around the corners of his room, moving chairs and lifting curtains and he looked beneath his bed. His heart sank at the fact of Jimmy missing. For many days he searched. He couldn’t ask his parents and his mother hadn’t mentioned the frog to his father. She didn’t mention it to Toby either since she hoped he’d just think it hopped away.

At school Toby pretended that Jimmy was still around. He felt the pang of lying though he never felt bad about the stories he’d made up before. He guessed it was the guilt of his not taking good enough care of his little friend that made him sad.

Toby found Jimmy the last day of summer vacation. He thought he looked a little small and thin and felt bad about that so he caught some bugs and crickets for the frog to eat. He put some leaves into the shoebox, a cup of water for a pond and a rock to sit on. He painted the inside of the box lid blue as if it were the sky.

By autumn’s end Jimmy had grown fat and full and though he never had before he started croaking low and rumbly late at night. Toby told his mother it was him and learned to mimic Jimmy’s mating calls to prove it.

A new boy came to the third grade and Toby and he became good friends. Kyle lived only two blocks away and so they sat together on the schoolbus. They both liked the same video games and hated girls. They had a lot in common. They even played together at each other’s house.

“Where’s your friend Jimmy live?” Kyle asked one day.

Toby didn’t know what to say. “He’s gone,” he said, but he wouldn’t look Kyle straight in the eye. “His dad got transferred and they moved away.”

That next Saturday, early, before Kyle came over on his bike, Toby took the shoebox out to the backyard. He lifted the lid, a little worried because lately he’d just been throwing in some dead bugs without even looking inside. Jimmy didn’t move. His eyes were closed. There were several dead flies and a legless cricket.

“Well, buddy, you’ll feel better now. You can go wherever you want and you don’t have to stay in that dark old box anymore.” Toby nudged the frog out on the edge of the grass. Jimmy didn’t move. Toby scrunched down and waited. He’d feel just awful if Jimmy was dead or so sick from neglect he couldn’t move. He watched until he was sure that Jimmy was breathing. Then Jimmy’s eyes opened and he resettled his long legs.

“Whew,” said Toby. “glad you’re okay. Take care of yourself.” He stood up and turned to go back inside and wait for Kyle. He’d walked just a few steps when Jimmy caught up with him and leaped ahead, waiting for Toby to catch up.

“No!” Toby cried. “You stay out here! Go!” He tried to outrace the frog to the back door but the frog was taking long leaps ahead of him. It sat just below the back step waiting for Toby to catch up.

Toby tried to chase Jimmy away but the frog  kept circling back until Toby picked up a rock and smashed it flat.