The Lizard of Oz: Chapter Nine
Prince Frog
On they went, through the winding streets, until the road ended in the middle of a dark woods. It was night, and the woods were dense and wild and scary. They could hear crickets and locusts and frogs.
“I don’t understand,” Miss Osborne admitted. “I was sure I knew where we were. But here we’re lost again. We’ll have to turn around and try again, children. Your parents must be frantic by now. But we can’t be far from home.”
Suddenly, they heard a voice that seemed to come from a bush, “Hello, miss, can I help you?”
Miss Osborne scrunched down in her seat, as far as she could go. Miss Shelby screamed.
Mr. New Man, who was riding on the roof of the car, reassured them, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
Gaynell whispered from the bottom of the pile of kids, “What is it, Kathy? I can’t see a thing down here.”
Kathy answered, “It’s a tall handsome prince.”
“How can you tell?” asked Gaynell.
“He has a crown on, so I can tell he’s a prince. And even with nothing at all on, I can tell that he’s handsome.”
Kathy and Gaynell giggled.
Indeed, a tall, handsome, naked prince was standing near Miss Osborne’s window.
Miss Osborne stared at him without saying anything.
Then the prince said, “My name’s Prince Frog.”
Miss Osborne replied, “I’m Miss Osborne. Pleased to meet you.”
She got out of the car and shook his hand politely.
“Enchanted,” replied the prince.
Then Timmy asked, “Gee, Miss Osborne, aren’t you going to ask him how to get home from here?”
Miss Shelby whispered, “Let’s get out of here, Miss Osborne.” Then she said louder, “Miss Osborne.” Then she shouted, “Miss Osborne!” Then she called up to the roof. “Mr. New Man, what’s going on?”
Mr. New Man answered, “Maybe he’s a magician, and he’s put her under a spell.”
Miss Osborne and the prince were standing very close to one another, looking quietly into one another’s eyes.
Donny said, “Gosh,” and looked the other way.
Eugene laughed and said, “Go ahead and kiss him.”
They probably didn’t hear anyone, but in a minute, without either of them seeming to move, they were kissing.
Suddenly the prince turned into a frog.
Miss Osborne would have screamed, but she had a frog on her throat.
“You don’t love me,” said the frog. He was hopping mad; so he hopped down to the ground.
Donny said, “Gosh, that was neat. Can you do that again, mister?”
“Mr. Shermin! Mr. Shermin!” shouted Mrs. O’Rourke.
“Calm down now, Mrs. O’Rourke,” said Mr. Shermin. “Calm down.”
“But Mr. Shermin,” Mrs. O’Rourke persisted, “the prince just turned into a frog, and he’s the handsomest frog I’ve ever seen.”
Meanwhile the frog told Miss Osborne, “All these years I’ve been looking for somebody who’d love me, and I did everything I could to make myself so somebody would love me. I even changed myself into a prince, which not many frogs can do. And I thought that it had finally worked, and you had fallen in love with me, and I could relax and go back to being a frog and live happily ever after. But you didn’t really love me.” He sobbed big frog tears.
Miss Osborne felt sorry for the frog and felt bad about making him sad.
“Didn’t you like being a prince?” she asked, and smiled, hoping that he’d turn himself into a prince again.
“Well, I feel amphibian about it. I don’t know what I want to be. It’s so good to be loved, at least I’m sure it must be; but then it’s so comfortable being a frog. I think I’ll go down to the river and croak.”
“No, don’t do that.”
“Everybody croaks sooner or later. Frogs just do it more often.”
Miss Osborne pleaded, “Please don’t leave us. We’re trying to get home, and the road suddenly ended, and we’d very much appreciate it if you could show us a way out of here.”
“You passed a way a few miles back,” he said.
“We didn’t see it.”
“Well, you must have passed a way. Nobody gets to the Underworld without passing away.”
“The Underworld?” she asked. “Not Mack the Knife again …”
“Mack the who? Well, whoever you want, sooner or later you’ll find him in the Underworld. If he isn’t there now, just wait a while.”
“Is this the Underworld?”
“We’re very close,” he said. “We just have to go down to the river. Maybe you can give me a lift.”
“Well, I guess we have no choice but to go there. Which way is it?”
“Any way at all. All paths lead there sooner or later.”
So the frog hopped into the fishbowl, and Miss Osborne drove to the river because she didn’t know where else to go.
Mrs. O’Rourke said, “Didn’t I tell you, Mr. Shermin? Isn’t he the handsomest frog you’ve ever seen?”
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Links to other chapters and the story of how this story was written.
