Hi everyone! Um, I happened to stumble upon a notebook which incidentally held about 8 completed chapters, so I figured I'd try putting them up for y'all. -; Boy, was it a surprise finding them after all these years! I don't even remember writing most of the stuff! lol

Note to "The Little Frog" readers, um, sorry, but I've still got writer's block. I don't know where to go from this point and everything I think of is just so terribly clichéd. Heh.

Chapter III: Filling Them In

Fifty pairs of eyes bored into my skull. Early this morning, Mamma had come back to the rock, bruised and exhausted. All of us were awake by then and looked on with worry and fear, wanting to question, but apprehensive to do so. I also would not let them come near. Silently pleading with them, I told them I would explain everything, but they had to follow me so she could rest.

That's how I ended up in this predicament here, at the well, with froglets lining its walls and in its water.

Someone to my left, who I identified as Jackie, cried out, "Why is Mamma hurt?" and soon a chorus of 'Why's' filled the air.

"Stop! Be quiet a moment!" I yelled over the noise. "I'll tell you why, but there are many things I must explain first..."

A good part of the morning was spent telling them the things Daddy had taught Mamma and me. Heaven, God, souls and spirits, eternity and the like, but I emphasized heavily on marriage. They absorbed information, always eager to learn new things, but Mamma was never far from theirs thoughts. As I came to a close, Gracie, who sat at my right, touched me lightly on my forearm and asked, "Now? Will you tell us now?" and I could only nod in reply as I fought my tears and relayed the true events of the last several days.

Fifty pairs of eyes no long bore into my skull, but what I wouldn't have done to have them staring back at me rather than crying and trembling with anger. With each tear that fell, I felt my anger at my father intensify, ready to share in the rage me siblings felt, but I had to be the leader, the sensible one, and it was nearly noon.

"Mamma will be worried if she finds us gone. Now collect yourselves and do not bother her with questions. She needs us to be strong," she needs Pin, I think angrily, "Don't do anything either. There's nothing we can do. He's made his decision and now we need to take care of Mamma and each other."

Silently fuming, we all hopped back to the pond. The brief journey had given us time to cool off and when we returned, we were in for a surprise. Mamma wasn't on the rock as we had expected, but swam around lazily until catching sight of us.

"Children! Wherever have you been? I almost went frantic when I woke to find all of you gone!" She was happy and beaming brightly, but something was very different, "But then I realized you all must've gone off with Jimmy. Hey now, what's with all the startled faces?"

Could the others see through the façade, too?

"Come, it's such a bright and beautiful, sunny day and there are so many sow bugs! Have you all eaten?" Remembering that we in fact had not eaten, froglets began to leap, splashing and chasing one another for the most delectable morsel. I snapped up a straggler, but as I ate I noticed, Mamma didn't snap up a single one.

Days came and went. The bruises had healed, but Mamma's color stayed pale and waxy. Worry was etched on every froglets face, especially my own, yet we lived on. It had nearly been a week before the little things I had noticed before caught my attention now. She was much too thin for she seldom ate unless stared into doing so. She bounded around energetically and with excessive happiness, but her movements were becoming sluggish and at the day's end, exhaustion overcame her. Her skin stayed the same, perhaps even paler, and it was still a mystery what had occurred the night after our conversation.

Then, one day, during a rousing game of leap frog, something happened that terrified us all. It seemed that, in the middle of a leap, Mamma had fallen unconscious and tumbled into a heap of horrified froglets.

Carefully, I had a strong group carry her onto a nearby lily. Being too frightened to see if she was dead, I didn't come near. Gracie took the opportunity to shake Mamma's still body furiously until she fluttered her eyes open.

"Wha? Gracie? Stop shaking me! What happened?" she sputtered and I let out the breath I had been holding and drew near.

"Mamma, what's happening to you?" I croaked out, "You fainted in the middle of leap frog and fell midair. And that's not all that's wrong. You've been sick too long."

"Oh me, you've noticed?" she said and sighed a great sigh. "Well, Jimmy, dear, and all my fawggy children, it's very simple why I'm sick... I'm dying."

"You're too young to die!" a voice cried out.

"Too young!" "Too young!"

"Clam down, Michael, all of you. No one is too young to die. Some die earlier than others and it seems I'm to be one of them."

"Is it because of Daddy? Are you dying because of him?" Jackie this time, and I stared at her, furious for mentioning him.

Momentarily startled, Mamma merely smiled and said, "You all have so very much of him in you," I could almost hear them screaming in protest, "especially you, Jimmy." I shook my head; I don't want him to be a part of me!

"All of you will do just fine without me, just like the way it was meant to be. Regular tadpoles and froglets don't need to be cared after, so you all will be fine. Besides, you have each other. Each of you has fifty siblings to care for and when that's done you won't need a mother. I don't know how much longer I'll be staying, but I don't want you to fret. Remember Heaven, Jimmy? That's where I'll be going. Do tell them what Heaven is, okay? Hop along now, don't be sad. Frogs were never meant for sadness and neither are fawgs! Away with you now, I'm a little tired, and I can't rest with the lot of you hovering over me."

Fifty-one little froglets were reluctantly shooed away from their dying mother. Gathered, in a rather somber atmosphere, they each contemplated recent events. Then suddenly, an idea came to me and I leapt in my excitement with a great, "Eureka!" Perhaps there was a way to save Mamma...