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  Red

  Jessie K.

  Copyright 2013 Jessica Kennard

  Once upon a time… Wait, I can’t start like that. You see this is a true story, which happen to me, even though people don’t believe me. My name is Jacob Haganey. My story starts when I was ten years old. That’s when we moved into a new house, in a new neighborhood, and of course new people. Whom, I didn’t know. The house was almost as big as a castle, and also had a lot of land. In which you had to drive to the neighbor’s house to borrow a cup of sugar. That should let you in as to how alone I was. Now as I said before no one believes my story but they still ask me to tell it. Right now I’m an old man sitting in front of a crackling fire, getting comfortable in my favorite chair, to tell my story one last time. I know once you hear my story you probably wont believe me either but that wont matter as long as you get it. Get what you ask? Just listen and if you don’t get it by the end of my story then you’ll never get it. So, I was ten when this all started…

  Moving to a new place is hard all on it’s own, but as a ten year old boy it’s even harder. You leave your old friends back at home promising to stay in touch. Yeah, we all know that doesn’t happen. The house we moved into is huge. So I don’t think running into my parents will happen often. The closes house is in driving distances. I stay to myself most days. There’s a huge garden with a little pond in the back yard. That’s where I usually am. Sometimes I sit on the bench that’s out there, or a take a blanket and lay on the ground staring at the sky wondering what was next for me in life cause right now, it sucked. I was ready for the next step to take place. One-day mom calls me to the back doors and as I’m walking up the stairs I hear barking and the next thing I know I’m being run down by a chocolate lab puppy. I can’t help but to laugh as that silly puppy licks me to death. Well, not to death, but you know what I mean. The puppy takes off running into the garden and I’m right on his tail. By the way I named the puppy, puppy. I thought it was funny at the time. As we run towards the pond I see a little green frog sitting in the grass right where puppy is headed. I jump over puppy and save the frog before who knows happened to it. I told puppy right then and there not to harm other living things, like the frog. Puppy licked the frog as I set it on the bench. I sat in front of the bench. I wanted to really check out the frog, so I could remember it and not get it mixed up with the other frogs. They all looked the same though. I looked over at puppy and checked him out. He was all chocolate expect he had a line of white down his chest. I knew then what I had to do, but it would have to wait till tomorrow cause it was getting dark and I was hungry. I put the frog on a lily pad as puppy and I run up the stairs and into the house.

  The next day puppy and I headed to the pond. Funny thing, the frog stayed right there on the lily pad. I picked up a stick and use it to pull the frog closer to the side of the pond so I can pick it up. I sit back against the bench with the frog in my hand and puppy sitting next to me. I pull out a red marker and draw a line down the frogs back. There now I’ll know my frog from all the others. I decide to call the frog Red. Red if it’s a boy frog and Red scarlet if it’s a girl frog. Next time I go to the library I’ll have to get a book on frogs. I have no idea how to tell if it’s a boy or girl. I set the frog in the grass next to me and it hops right into my lap. I guess now I have two new friends, puppy and red. For the next five years every day I would come home and go right outside to the pond. Puppy and I would be out there till dinnertime. I would do my homework out there with my two friends. They were like my journals, I told them everything. I knew my words were safe with them and they wouldn’t go further than the pond, unless someone had the power to talk to animals.

  One night there was a bad storm with winds that could be used in a twister. I’m sitting at my desk, in my room, when lighting lights up the sky. The thunder that comes after it makes me jump and makes puppy run and hide under my bed. I walk to the window and the sky lights up again. I look out at the garden as it starts to pour. My first thought was how well the flowers were going to get to drink tonight. Then my second thought was about Red and how the pond might over flow. By this time I’ve dropped everything and am running to save Red from the storm. Soaking wet I finally make it to the pond but I can’t find Red anywhere. I’m praying I haven’t stepped on Red. I look over at the bench and there I see Red sitting under it. I pick my frog up and run inside. Of course mom wasn’t happy about the wet footprints through the house, but I was fifteen and didn’t really care. I make it back to my room and sit on the bed. Puppy jumps up and lies next to us. Everyone I care about is safe. I know it sounds funny that I’m talking about a frog and a puppy as being the ones I care about, but that’s how it was.

  When high school starts I still make it outside almost everyday. I have a connection with Red that I don’t want to break. Red is more then a frog, Red is a friend that has been there for me. As school goes on the less I find time to make it to the pond to see Red. I have made new friends. Human friends. My mother was worried something was wrong with me because I was only talking to puppy and Red. She almost got rid of Red. Now that I’m acting normal, as she says, Red got to stay out in the pond. Each grade of high school I went up the less I spent with my friends at home. I became a football player and we all know they are very popular. Well I was. I hung out with the other football players and of course the cheerleaders. I dated some girls, but I never felt connected to them. I never felt I could talk to them. During the summers there were BBQ’s and parties that I went to. Most nights I’d end up next to the pond in a tent. I liked camping and this was the time I got to talk freely with Puppy and Red. My two living journals. One day I brought a girl from school camping with me. She freaked when Red jumps on her. I laugh and the girl gets mad and storms out of the tent. That was the last time that girl ever came over. During the summer I spent most of my time with them. When I would go back to school is when I would spend less time with them. Homecoming night I had people over before the dance. Puppy had to stay outside because he kept jumping up on everyone. Before we left I went outside to say goodnight to my friends. Puppy and Red were both sitting on the bench. I take a picture of the two of them, and then one with all three of us. I look at Red and wish Red were a girl, a human girl. I would take her to the dance instead of the girl I was going with. All this girl wanted to do was make out. Is this weird? I’d rather hang out with a frog. I don’t find anything weird with it.

  Mom does and I’m in therapy twice a week now. I talk a lot about school and the friends I have there. The therapist wants to talk about Puppy and Red. Well, more about Red. He wants to know what my obsession is with the frog. I’m not obsessed with Red. I have a connection with Red that I couldn’t explain. It was like a fairy tale, but instead of the princess and the frog it is the prince and the frog. The therapist actually asked me if I kissed the frog. I laughed in his face. I never thought about kissing Red. I never thought as Red as anything but the frog Red is. I still don’t know if Red is a boy or girl frog. I never got to the library. This is stupid to me and a waste of time. So I tell the therapist what I should be saying. I felt a lone as a child and my dog and the frog became my friends. The ones who I could talk to and that’s all. I wasn’t obsessed with anything; I am a normal high school boy trying to live life. Blah, blah, blah, and three weeks later no more therapy. Mom talks about filling in the pond and getting rid of the bench. I had to talk her out of it and tell her how crazy she was acting. I told her maybe I got that gene from her. She didn’t laugh like I did at my comment.

  Now I’m about to finish high school and move on to college. Sorry if this a long story, but it gets better don’t worry. Well, at least to me it’s better. After graduation mom had a party and invited all the single girls she could find. I thanked her and made my way out back. I to
ok a blanket, laid it out on the ground, as I go to sit a girl named Becca comes out. She asks me if she can sit with me. I didn’t want to be rude, so I told her she could. She takes a seat next to me on the blanket. She’s pretty. She has long brown hair, brown eyes, and pink lips. I don’t know why I’m looking at her lips. She smiles and moves a little closer to me and that’s when Red jumps right in between us. Becca looks behind her then back at me. She asks me where the other girl was. I thought she was crazy. There was no one else out there with us. She says she heard a girls voice telling her to back off. I must of looked at her like she was crazy, because the next thing I know she’s on her feet saying she’s not crazy. Then she stomps off in to the house. I couldn’t help but laugh. Girls are funny. I lean back on my elbows and Red jumps on my chest. I run my finger over the red mark I made a long time ago. I’m leaving for college in a couple of months and I’m wondering if I could take Red with