Albert the Frog

            by Megan Gaebler

 

Albert the frog lived in a pond just outside a magnificent kingdom. He was a very handsome (for a frog), with slime all over him and spots on his back. Albert spent his days lazily swimming through the water, catching flies, and playing with his frog friend Nina. Despite all this, Albert was not happy being a frog. But he could not think of what else he wanted to be. He thought he might go find his friend Nina. She mostly always had a solution to his problems. If she didn’t have the answer, she would at least make him feel better.

 

 

Albert went hopping through the pond to find Nina. It wasn’t long before he found her building a mud castle on the edge of the water.

“Hi Nina,” Albert croaked, hopping over to her.

“Hey Albert,” Nina said, putting down the mud ball she’d just picked up. “What’s up? You look sad,” she added, because Albert did have a big frown on his face. Albert sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess I just don’t want to be a frog anymore.”

“Well, okay. What do you want us to be? Pirates?” Nina asked.

“No. Not pirates. We’re always pirates.”

“What about cowboys?”

“No. We don’t have any cows,” Albert replied.

“Want to help me with my mud castle?” Albert loved making mud castles. But today he just shook his green head.

Nina thought hard. She wanted to make Albert feel better but she didn’t know what he wanted to do. It seemed that he was determined to be sad. Then an idea came to her.

“Want to go talk to my grandpa?” Nina asked Albert. “Whenever I have a problem, I ask him.” This sounded like a good idea to Albert, so he and Nina went to the other side of the pond to find her grandpa.

 

A few hops and a leap later, Albert and Nina arrived at her grandpa’s house. Nina’s grandpa greeted them at the door.

“Well hello there, little pollywogs,” he croaked. “Come on in. Grandma’s just made a fresh batch of chocolate fly cookies.”

“Not now, not now,” said Nina, impatiently hopping through the door. Albert followed close behind. “We need your help,” Nina whispered once she and Albert had settled comfortably on the couch.

“What seems to be the problem?” Grandpa asked.

“Well,” Albert sighed, “I don’t want to be a frog anymore.”

“Hm, this is serious,” said Grandpa. “Do you know what I think?”

“What?” asked Nina and Albert together.

“I think that Albert, you should learn to be happy with what you are.”

“But it doesn’t feel right!” cried Albert.

“Well then I might have a story for you about things not feeling right,” Grandpa said. “It’s called The Frog Prince. It’s about a little princess who won’t accept a frog, even though he helped her find something very important to her. However, when she does finally accept him with a kiss, he turns into a prince! Do you see what I’m trying to say?”

 

 

“Do I need to go find a princess who will kiss me?” Albert asked.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” croaked Grandpa. “Now you two better start looking.”

Because Albert and Nina were very hungry, they each took two of Grandma’s chocolate fly cookies. Since they were also polite, they thanked her for the cookies and they thanked Grandpa for his advice. Then, with a final wave and some good-bye croaks, Albert and Nina hopped away to find a princess that would kiss Albert.

“Where are we going to find a princess?” Albert asked despairingly once they were outside.

“We haven’t even started looking yet; don’t give up now,” answered Nina, hopping in front of him. “Follow me. I know a good place to find a princess.”

She hopped to the nearby castle, Albert following. Nina led Albert underneath a bush to where they could see a princess playing with a doll in the yard. The princess was fairly pretty, with long brown hair and green eyes.

 

 

“Go on,” Nina said to Albert. “Go out and get her to kiss you.”

Albert gulped nervously. “What if I don’t turn into a prince?” he asked.

“Then you know you’re meant to be a frog. Now go.”

Albert slowly ventured into the yard. He took small hops so that he didn’t get to her too fast. Once, he looked back to see Nina urging him on. It didn’t give him much courage. He didn’t really want to turn into a prince. Deep down in his froggy heart he knew that he had a good life as a frog. Still, he had to try to be a prince.

“Hello, Ms. Princess,” he greeted once he got near enough for her to hear him. The princess stopped playing with her doll and looked around.

“Hello, Mr. Frog,” she responded once she spotted Albert. “Please stay away from me. I don’t want to get warts.”

“That’s only toads!” Albert protested. “And you wouldn’t have to be around me for long. I just need you to kiss me so I can turn into a prince.”

“Ew, gross!” exclaimed the princess. “I don’t want to kiss you. And why would you want to be a prince anyway? It’s nothing but work, work, work. You’d have to go to balls and dance with people your parents want you to marry and everyone fusses over you. You can’t do anything on your own; there’s always someone watching over you.”

“Please?” asked Albert. “I just want to try it. Being a frog isn’t that great either. All you do is sit around and eat flies. Sometimes you have to watch out for animals trying to eat you. Besides, I think I’d be able to turn back into a frog if I didn’t like it.” He wasn’t sure that the last part was entirely true, but he said it anyway with the hope that it would make the princess kiss him.

The princess looked at him. She didn’t want to kiss Albert, but she was also slightly curious as to what would happen if she did. She’d never had a boy over before. And the frog looked so sad that she thought she might as well kiss him. She didn’t think he was actually going to turn into a prince.

“If you turn into a prince, will you do whatever I say?” she asked.

“Um… I guess,” Albert said.

“Well, okay.” The princess put down her doll. “Come here,” she demanded, stretching out her hand. Albert hopped into it.

“Close your eyes,” the princess commanded. Albert squeezed his bulbous eyes shut. The princess raised her hand up to her puckered lips and kissed Albert on the nose.

 

 

Albert’s nose tingled where the princess had kissed him. He thought he could feel himself growing bigger and bigger and BIGGER! Albert opened his eyes. He was eye-level with the princess. He smiled.

Then the princess set Albert down on the ground. The blades of grass were an inch away from his chin. He gave a tentative step and noticed that his hand was still green and slimy.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be a prince,” said the princess haughtily. “I think you’re supposed to be a frog.”

Albert thought he was going to cry. 

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you,” the princess apologized unconvincingly. “I hope you didn’t give me warts.” She set him down on the ground. “Maybe you should just go back to your pond or whatever.”

“Okay,” Albert mumbled, though he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be a prince if all the princesses were as mean as this one. He hopped over to the bush he’d come from.

As he got closer, he realized that Nina wasn’t there anymore. In her place was a beautiful frog princess. When he reached her, he didn’t know what to do and just stared at the new princess. She hopped up to Albert and kissed him on the cheek.

 

 

Albert was suddenly filled with tremendous joy. He looked down at his hands again. They were still slimy and green. When he looked back at the frog princess, he recognized her as Nina. She was beaming.

“But… I’m still a frog,” was all Albert could manage. Strangely, however, he was not sad about this. In fact, he was overjoyed.

“That’s okay,” said Nina, “that’s how I like you. As a frog.”

Albert grinned. “I thought being a prince would make me happy… but I’m not so sure I want to be one if all the princesses are as mean as she was. You’re a way better princess than her.”

            “Thank you,” Nina blushed.

            “So… do you want to go play pirates?” Albert asked.

            “Okay!” Nina responded enthusiastically.

They hopped back to the pond and played pirates for the rest of the afternoon. And for the rest of his life, Albert was completely happy being just who he was.