Four days have gone by and Anne, Charlie and the Plantars were set to continue their journey. Some frogs from Ribbitvale repaired the reins to Bessie with a new set of reins since the reins from before were a bit old and dull and needed to be replaced. They replaced them with a new set of reins.
Charlie and Anne felt like they were on top of the world when they helped Wally confess to his father that he likes living the way he chooses in Wartwood and convinced Wigbert to accept him for who he is. Charlie even convinced many parents in Ribbitvale to let their children choose what they want to do with their lives, have some fun from time to time and be allowed to be themselves around them and others and their parents accepted it and allowed it.
Anyone that were parents and had children in Ribbitvale reconciled and accepted their children for who they are thanks for Anne, Charlie and the Plantars.
As they continued on with their journey, it looked like they were reaching another location. Anne and Charlie were in the caravan while Sprig and Polly were inside with them.
"Your doing what?" asked Sprig looking surprised.
"I figured it would be a good idea to take some golden miracle all healing apples and anywhere we go that is a town, city or any populated areas." explained Charlie.
They were not only shocked but also astonished at what Charlie was telling them from what he was doing as he explained to them about what he was doing with the golden, miracle all healing apples and what the good purpose he was using them for.
"How many places have to you given them out for the people to plant and grow them?" asked Polly curiously.
Charlie paused for a moment as he knew that he had a little explaining to do but it wasn't going to be a long story from what he understood on his part.
"Wartwood, Bittyburg, that pit stop at the truck stop, each town and city that we've visited when the traveling theater troupe took us to them before they got arrested and Ribbitvale is the recent one. I gave a small bag of them to the elder frog lady back there that I helped get across the street to the snail carriage and advised her to use one for herself and to get the city leaders there to plant and grow more of them in Ribbitvale." Charlie continued. "When I first started to use them to heal others in Wartwood of any illnesses, injuries or permanent afflictions or permanent physical damages. I figured that while we're on this trip, any town or city could use the same miracle to heal themselves and others of the same thing. I knew that others could use that sort of miracle."
Hearing what Charlie told them meant that he has given some golden, miracle all healing apples to the people of nine living areas that were ether towns or cities and he advised the people in them nine places to not only use them to heal themselves and others of any afflictions, permanent injuries, wounds or physical damages but also to use the remaining they had been given to use the seeds of those healing apples to plant and grow them like a farmer who plants and grows food.
Anne flashed a white toothy grin of excitement and let out a happy squeal as she pulled Charlie in her arms to hug him and used one of her hands to rub the top of Charlie's head while her other hand was wrapped around him as she kissed him on his cheeks, forehead and even his lips. Charlie blushed deeply and closed his eyes from the kiss as he felt his heart and mind race faster than a race car could drive at full speed limit. She eventually pulled her lips off his and both of them opened their eyes.
"I knew that you had good intentions when ever we saw you giving a bag to the people of those towns and cities and had a private chat with them." said Anne in a cute tone.
"Sourushisutāarāto!." said Charlie chuckling.
"And I'm one funkadelic soul sister." chuckled Anne.
None of them had time to react or say anything once the caravan came to a slow stop, they all froze and their facial expression changed from giggling grins to noticeable alert.
"I think we've arrived at a new location. We've stopped." said Sprig.
"Let's just hope another woman doesn't try to flirt or hit on Charlie. We nearly had to beat Renee Frodgers with a stick to keep her off Charlie." said Polly.
They remembered when they encountered Renee Frodgers, the theater director and her theater troupe. They remembered that Charlie got onto François, also known as Francis, when he and other child method actors among the theater troupe were being too strict or mean to Sprig as they remembered that François and the other child method actors shown submission when Charlie got onto them for how poorly they treated Sprig, they remembered that Charlie got them to listen and obey him when they got out of line. Charlie admitted he didn't like having to get onto those kids but he had to find some way to keep them in line when ever they got out of line with their behavior.
He didn't get too strict with François and the other child method actors when they got out of line but he was strict enough to get through to them and to make them be nice, treat each other with respect and behave. But one of the things during that event they remembered was how Renee Frodgers was love struck by Charlie's appearance, she would flirt with him, she was hitting on him frequently and at one or two attempts, she tried to convince Charlie to let her kiss him which Anne, Sprig, Polly and even Hop Pop had to remind her to leave Charlie alone which Charlie once told her that he's already in a relationship.
Even Renee Frodgers would show utter shock that Charlie wasn't into her, she even offered him an acting position in her plays but he kindly declined on the offer as he stated that he "wasn't into theater acting" Charlie wasn't comfortable about Renee Frodgers steamy advances on him. When Renee Frodgers and her theater troupe got arrested. She even tried to get Charlie to kiss her once more but he declined.
"How could you not want all of this? I'm a steamy, hot, older frog woman. I've been told I'm hotter than Marilyn Frogroe. How could you not want this hot, older woman?" said Renee in disbelief.
"Because I'm not into that sort of woman. I prefer a soul sista and that's who I'm dating." said Charlie proudly.
"We wanna see you out that door. Baby, bye, bye, bye." said Anne and Charlie in a sing song voice.
And with that, both Anne and Charlie smiled as Anne pulled Charlie in for a smooch and he kissed her back to show defiance against Renee Frodgers. As they remembered that event, they shuddered in disgust at Renee's aggressive advances on Charlie but felt relieved that Charlie only wanted Anne.
"I actually still can't believe how Charlie managed to clear things up with the police officers about how we tried to stop them and their attempts of robbery and told them everything Renee and her theater troupe have done that they were guilty of and got us all off the hook." said Polly.
"It's just like what Imani, Sonya and Mabel told me. When police officers question you for any reason. Always tell the truth and if you're proven innocent, they'll let you go." said Charlie.
They were interrupted by a knock at one of the doors to the caravan. It came from the topside exit as it opened and Hop Pop poked his head through the opening.
"Hey kids, looks like we may actually get to explore a new town and have some fun." Hop Pop announced.
"Oh yea-ah!" said the kids thrilled.
Everyone exited the caravan with Anne putting on an olivine colored hooded cloak with the hood over her head while Charlie worn a silver camo hoodie jacket with the hood over his head. The five of them saw a big stone shouldered flat arch with a sign that above the arch was the name of the town. The sign read "Stony Gulch" with a red banner below it reading "Travelers Welcome!" in gold lettering. They walked passed the arch and it's sign as they chanted "New Town" a few times in excitement.
"Food." said Polly in excitement.
"Shops." said Anne with a gasp of excitement.
"This place is so cool." said Sprig with a grin.
"Doesn't this place look familiar to you guys?" asked Charlie curiously.
"Doesn't ring a bell." they answered.
They saw a lot of other frog people there who were ether residence of the town or traveling tourists. Charlie on the other hand felt as though there was something about the town that reminded him of something or someone but he couldn't remember who, where or what.
"What should we do first?" said Sprig.
"Let's see." said Hop Pop.
Hop Pop reached in his pockets and pulled his wallet out. He opened it and other than his ID, a few I.O.U. cards and a library card. He saw that he had no money or he was very low on money at the moment. He placed his wallet back in his pocket with a sigh.
"Nothing. All we can afford is window-shopping, kids." said Hop Pop sadly.
They all sighed in disappointment. Both Anne and Charlie were feeling a little hot from the heat outside and Anne pulled her hood back and Charlie took off his jacket completely, using the sleeves to tied it around his waist like a belt.
"I should've left my jacket in the fwagon." said Charlie briefly flipping his long hair back and forth.
"Same here with this cloak." said Anne.
They stopped when they heard other frog people gasp at the sight of Anne and Charlie. Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly and Anne just realized this town has never seen a human before but Charlie on the other hand didn't witness Anne's experience when she first adjusted to Wartwood and this world since Charlie was in a coma for three in a half months. He only knew her experience in how things were for her at first from what he was told. They looked at the locals and realized they were staring.
"Great. Sometimes I forget about the whole "I'm a freak in this world" thing." said Anne.
"Your no freak." Charlie chimed in.
A thin female frog adult with dark curly hair was holding a female baby that was Polly's age and the baby cried out of fear at the sight of Anne and Charlie. Anne attempted to console the crying baby.
"Whoa, whoa. Don't cry. We're not monsters. We're just weird yet my boyfriend is...well...just big for his age. See?" said Anne kindly.
The baby had stopped crying immediately when she saw Anne wiggle her nose and ears which made the baby smile and chuckle a bit. Anne struck a pose which got everyone to smile afterwards. When Anne stopped. That's when Charlie saw some of them gazed at his samurai sword that was tied to his side. The baby saw the sword as well and looked as though she was interested in seeing him do something with it. Many of them uttered an amused "Ooh"
"He's got a sword, mommy." the baby pointed out.
"Is that sword real?" asked the baby's mother.
Suddenly, an idea came to Charlie and he knew something cool he could do to perform or a trick he could show them.
"Yes it is, ma'am." said Charlie.
Charlie looked towards a middle aged female frog and popped his neck twice. Anne and the Plantars stepped back a bit as they suspected Charlie was going to do a trick with his sword.
"Hey little lady? Toss a couple of apples my way. I got something to show you guys." Charlie instructed.
The middle aged female frog had short and wavy brown hair and pulled out two apples from a bag she carried with her.
"Throw it high?" she suggested.
"No, you toss it right straight at me." instructed Charlie. "I hear you got a good throwing arm. I bet you get a lot of attention from the guys."
The lady chuckled with a blushing smile, raised her hand up high and tossed the two apples that sped straight towards Charlie and what they saw left everyone wide eyed with a sparkling expressing in their amused eyes.
"Samurai chop!" cried Charlie loudly.
He took hold of his sword by the handle and quickly made four swings of the blade at the apples so fast that they barely saw him draw his sword out. They saw Charlie quickly place his sword back in it's scabbard and caught the apples before they hit the ground.
"Open the bag!" Charlie commanded.
The middle aged frog woman obeyed as Charlie made four tosses instead of two. They saw that he sliced each apple into two pieces which he tossed the now four pieces of apples into the lady's bag, she caught each one in it like Charlie was doing target practice. The lady shown them that he indeed sliced the apples into two pieces and they looked towards Anne and Charlie.
"He's really fast for someone of his size." said a young male frog who wore a green fedora.
"Mommy, Mommy. Give them weird people money." said the baby clapping along with others.
"It was a lovely performance. Here." said the frog lady with the dark curly hair.
She handed Anne some copper coins as payment while Charlie suddenly gotten another idea forming in his head.
"Before anything else. I got something to say to the residence of this town." Charlie announced. "I'm Charlie Matsuda and this here is Anne Boonchuy, she's my girl friend."
The locals let out an adored "Awww" with grins.
"We are humans, not monsters, me and Anne and these people with us are not a foe. We are travelers like any other. The good lord says we're all equal in his eyes, even if one person looks different than others. Sometimes we hope to see a miracle but don't always see one, even though they say miracles happen everyday. But there is a miracle among you." Charlie spoke to them.
The locals were a bit confused at first but sensed he meant good news.
"Is there anyone here struggling with any sort of an affliction?" Charlie asked.
One of the frogs in the front of the crowd had raised a hand and Charlie looked towards him, giving him his attention. The frog was a young male in his twenties with a full head of thick and flowing blonde hair and a slender body. He had shown that he was currently in a wheelchair with both his legs in bandages.
"I have at least one affliction. Two weeks ago I broke my legs while doing some field work in another town. The doctor managed to save my legs and patch me up. He said I will be able to keep my legs as long as they don't get infected but than he found out that the damages may have severed something and I was told I'll never be able to walk again and I'll be in this wheelchair for the remainder of my life." said the young male frog sadly.
They all shown sympathetic expressions towards the wheelchair bound frog and Charlie knew what he was going to do.
"What if I said the good lord will let you be able to walk again?" Charlie asked.
"I'd say that would be the biggest miracle I've witnessed but I doubt that'll happen." the male frog doubted.
Charlie reached for a small bag he had on him and pulled out a golden apple. The locals all gasped.
"The golden miracle all healing apple." the locals said in unison.
Charlie walked over to the wheelchair bound frog who looked up at him. Charlie knelt down on one knee and handed him the apple. The frog took the golden apple and devoured it as he took a lot of bites out of it till it was nothing but the apple core.
The frog than felt an odd tingling sensation in his body. All the pain in his body instantly disappeared and he felt like he was weightless. He felt like his entire body was being pleasantly massaged and he felt the feeling in his legs coming back as if he was able to move them. He slowly moved his legs, wiggled his toes and he reached out to remove the bandages from his legs and feet and once his legs and feet were completely exposed. They all saw what looked like old scars rapidly disappearing and he felt he could move the entire part of his body from the waist down. He moved his legs to get up from his wheelchair and everyone was shocked to see such a miraculous sight.
"Manny, you can walk!" said a few of the locals in surprise.
The young male frog named Manny suddenly pushed off the ground with his feet to hop and he jumped into high into the air and did three flips, landing on his feet with no pain. He looked up at the standing human male with a smile as he jumped up high enough to reach Charlie and hugged him while giving a joyful laugh.
"Oh my frog! I can walk again! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" said Manny joyously.
Charlie hugged Manny back as he knew that they also could use more of this miracle for them. He knew these peaceful frog people deserve this sort of healing when they need it. Manny hopped off Charlie's shoulder and landed safely on the ground. Anne and the Plantars came to Charlie's side and Anne kissed him on his cheek, causing him to smile.
"To those who are suffering any afflictions. I got more of these golden apples. I'd suggest that you slice the apples up and give one to anyone in this town whose suffering any afflictions but be sure to one of the apples or two to plant the seeds and grow them." Charlie advised. "Are there any people here that have experience in planting and growing plants, trees, fruits and vegetables?"
"Over here!" called a few male frogs.
They turned to see at least a dozen frogs that shown up. Six were male and the other six were female, all of them young in between the age range of twenty-one to thirty-five. The youngest one out of the group was a twenty-one year old male frog with long, curly red hair but he kept his hair in a ponytail. Charlie walked over to them and gave them the bag with the golden apples in them. He whispered to them what they should do with them as if he was instructing them on everything he knew should be done with them. They nodded with a grin and made a raised two fingers, moved them up, moved them down and moved the left and right. The twelve frogs walked off to go put the golden, miracle all healing apples to good use and begin to find a good place or more to plant the seeds to grow a few trees to plant, grow and harvest them. Charlie walked back to Anne and the baby that the curly haired frog lady was carrying looking eager.
"How many of them golden apples were in that bag?" asked Anne curiously.
"Enough to heal this whole town and enough to plant and grow some of the seeds in the right places." answered Charlie.
"Could you do another trick? Anything?" asked the baby eagerly.
"Kore o yarou!" said Charlie.
"Translation?" asked the curly haired frog lady.
"He's all for it." Anne translated.
Polly bounced out of her bucket and placed a sign on it, than placed it right in front of them with the sign that hung on the bucket read "Tips" while Polly bounced towards Hop Pop and that's when Hop Pop was carrying Polly.
"Milk it." cheered Polly.
Anne and Charlie began to perform a trick or more which entertained the crowd nearby. Charlie was mimicking the sounds of animals which he was really good at mimicking the animal sounds. It was as if he could mimic the animal sounds so good that it was just as good as his ability to mimic other people's voices. He mimicked the sounds of birds as if he was able to whistle like a bird, made a few bird chirps, he hissed like a snake, but what was most impressive of all was how he mimicked the sound of a lion's roar with such a powerful lion like roar.
Anne on the other hand was showing off her dance moves which were phenomenal as she used dance pop music on her phone. The two danced to both funk, disco and r&b music while the crowd watched in entertained amusement. Both Anne and Charlie were dancing like they were the king and queen of pop from how they danced a perfectly choreographed, synchronized dance routine. The first to sing was Charlie.
"Toni-i-i-i-igt! I just want to take you hi-i-i-i-i-igher"
Both Anne and Charlie put on their sunglasses as the both of them started to sing and dance together like they were in a music video.
"Put yo' pinky rings up to the moon! Girls, what y'all trying to do? 24 karat magic in the aa-i-i-i-i-ir. Head to toe so player. Uh, look out!"
Even Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly were impressed by the humans ability to sing and dance as the crowd would toss money into the bucket or at least near the bucket.
"Rock on, you love struck teenagers." said Hop Pop with a grin.
"Pop pop, it's show time, show time, show time, show time. Guess who's back again? Oh they don't know? Go on tell 'em. Oh they don't know? Go on tell 'em. I bet they know soon as we walk in. Showin' up, wearing Cuban links, ya. Designer minks, ya. Inglewood's finest shoes. Whoop, whoop. Don't look too hard, might hurt ya'self. Known to give the color red the blues"
Charlie sang a vocalized note which got the female frogs to feel as though they were falling in love with a famous pop singer.
"Girls, what y'all trying to do? Tell me what y'all trying to do? 24 karat magic in the aa-i-i-i-i-ir. Head to toe so player. Put your pinky rings up to the moon! Girls, what y'all trying to do? 24 karat magic in the aa-i-i-i-i-ir. Head to toe so player"
The music eventually stopped and both Anne and Charlie stopped singing and dancing.
"I'mma remain a soldier till the war is won! What!" said Anne and Charlie in a hip hop dialect.
"This is so much better than that creepy oddities museum." said a heavyset male frog.
"What oddity museum?" asked Charlie and Anne.
The heavyset male frog pointed at a nearby building that had a wooden sign above it that read "Curiosity Hut" now Charlie seemed to be wondering if he remembered seeing a building like that as the building was triangular shaped. But he brushed off the feeling as if it was something they shouldn't worry about.
They all brushed off the attention from the building and both Anne and Charlie put on an entertaining yet family-friendly performance to the crowd for a while till it was sunset. They waved good bye to the locals as they left and they waved back before they left. Anne, Charlie, Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop were there alone for the time being. The bucket was full of copper coins.
"Wow, guys. You made a bucket of money. Literally." said Sprig with a grin.
"Whoo-hoo! Now, how are we gonna spend all of this cay-esh?" said Anne feeling like they did something cool.
"Let's not go too crazy. Or let's not do something crazy since we're not familiar with this area." warned Charlie.
"No worries, Char Char." said Anne.
They all looked around and saw most of the buildings were closing up but than Anne looked at the building that the locals mentioned and pointed out. The oddity museum appeared to be still opened at this time of day.
"Ooh. That oddity place is still open. How about it?" asked Anne.
"Well, you made the money. But only if you two keep your hoods up. I don't like you two drawing so much attention to yourselves. Remember, I want the two of you to be safe and unharmed." Hop Pop advised.
"Deal. Let's do it." said Anne excited.
She took Charlie's hand and led the way. As they walked over towards the triangular building, Charlie was looking Anne as he couldn't take his off her. He placed his blue bucket hat on and Anne placed her hood over her head.
"I love it when she leads me." Charlie thought to himself with a grin.
They made it to the building and saw what looked like huge golden wax figures of bugs, reptiles and other creatures near the walls, there were numerous trinkets on the walls and a red carpet with a gold triangle on it while it had a white eye in the center of it. The Plantars looked as though they were sensing something wasn't right about the place while Anne looked excited to see more. Charlie was now feeling like something was wrong but he placed a hand on his sword in case something or someone was to give them a surprise attack.
"Uh, I think this place is closed. So let's leave and never come back." said Polly looking creeped out.
"Are you kidding? Come on." said Anne walking forwards.
"Don't worry guys, if we encounter anything dangerous, I'll go all samurai warrior on their ass." Charlie reassured.
"Well, alright. Also, no swearing while we're in here." Hop Pop advised.
"I can't make any promises." warned Charlie.
Hop Pop sighed as he knew that couldn't sound good. They all walked inside and went down the hallway that had the creepy looking wax figures which from the looks of them, they could appear to be real but it was hard to tell if they were fake. They stopped and Anne looked back to see that Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly were shaking with terror from the sight of the place.
"Guys, it's all fake. They're trying to scare you." chuckled Anne.
Anne walked closer to one of the wax figures and she turned to look wide eyed in surprise at another figure that wasn't wax. The figure she stared at looked like a short male frog with light orange skin and appeared to be an aged frog with large, yellow eyes and bushy-grey eyebrows. He worn a black suit over a white shirt with a red bow tie similar in color to his maroon fez with an amphibian symbol. He carried an eight ball cane with him and wore an unnecessary black eye-patch over one of his eyes. Charlie looked at it and he was starting to feel a tinge of fear but he didn't show it.
"Whoa. Look at this hot mess." said Anne surprised. "It's actually pretty lifelike."
"Soreni wa furenaide kudasai." said Charlie with a sense of alarm.
"Relax, it's as fake as press on nails. Statues don't hurt people. Unless one is so creepy it could give someone a heart attack." reassured Anne.
Anne even carried Polly over to the statue to let her get a closer look. The little polliwog gave it a disgusted look while Charlie was feeling his alarm growing. It was as if he saw someone that looked just like that frog statue. His hand on his sword's handle was shaking.
"Can we please step away from it?" said Charlie shakily.
"Yeah, it even smells real." said Polly in disgust.
She was about to reach out to touch it but the left hand rose up and slapped Polly's hand away.
"Hands off the merchandise." the statue spoke in a loud yet gruff male voice.
"FUCK! IT'S ALIVE!" screamed Charlie.
Everyone but Charlie stepped back and screamed in horror while the statue screamed as well. It wasn't a statue. It was a living person. It started to laugh and walked a few steps forwards.
"The ol' "mistaken for a grotesque lifeless being." Works every time. Welcome to my Museum of Oddities. I go by many names, but you can call me "The Curator." he spoke while spinning his cane and stamping it to the floor.
"Little on the nose, but okay." said Polly not looking amused.
"And if you chuck some of that cash into this here sack, I'll give you a tour of the greatest museum these parts have to offer." the Curator spoke.
He held out a small brown bag with a red question mark sewn in on it. Anne placed some copper coins in the bag while the Curator looked at her with curiosity.
"Hmm. What's the matter, honey? Face too ugly for public? Ha!" the Curator joked.
"Wouldn't you like to know." said Anne pulling her hood down a bit further. "And you might want to watch how you talk towards people."
The Curator smiled and looked towards Charlie while Anne and the Plantars looked to see Charlie shaking all over in fear. His hat was still on and covering his face.
"What's with big and taller over there? It's like he's never been to an oddities museum before. What's got you shaking, stretch?" joked the Curator.
Charlie looked at the Curator as if fear stricken by him as he looked at the aged male frog's appearance. The wrinkles, the cane, the deep and gruff male voice. It all brought back a horrible memory in his mind. The memory that came to his mind was the old man that he got assaulted by when he was eight. The old man that assaulted him had a similar appearance to the Curator. The only difference was the old man back home was human and the Curator was a male frog. They all saw he was fear stricken.
"Charlie, you alright, big guy?" asked Anne looking concerned.
"What's the matter, stretch?" asked the Curator.
"Kare o watashi kara tōzakete kudasai." said Charlie panicking.
"Does he speak English? I don't know what he said." asked the Curator.
The Curator was about to walk towards Charlie but the male human fell back onto the floor and fainted out of fear.
"Whose his emergency contact?" asked the Curator.
Anne and the Plantars rushed over to Charlie's side and picked him up to try and wake him. He was unconscious.