Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Of frogs and fairy tales

Once upon a time long long ago there a lived a young beautiful and inevitably naive princess. She was a huge fan of the folk tale "The Frog Prince" and always wondered when and where her prince in shining armor wud come to wed her. Countless suitors from far off lands asked for her hand but she didnt want to marry in an ordinary fashion. She wanted adventures, witches, furry talking animals preferably a donkey, a couple of dwarves, magic carpets and wise grandfather trees. Of course at the end of it all the ever elusive Prince with a capital P.

And so one day it came to be that while she walked by the royal lake daydreaming epic tales of love a frog hopped out of the water and in front of her. At first she was startled but then recollected her thoughts. A frog ! Jumped out of the lake ! In front of her ! Of course this had to be a cursed handsome prince awaiting her kiss of true love so he may return to his real form.

You as well as I know thats a load of crap. Frogs have a real creepy habit of hopping in front of people to scare them. However, this frog also had a heart. And that small heart nearly had a stroke as it gazed on the immaculate beauty the princess had. Yes, ladies and gentleman ... it was love at first sight. And so the frog waited daily for the princess and when she did come he would hop on to her hand and listen to her whispers and her songs and feel his small heart go at a 100 mph.

Now, why didnt the princess kiss the frog on sight. Well you see the kiss is supposed to be of true love ... and kissing someone on the first date isnt true love. No, she had to feel affectionate towards him, gaze into his frog eyes and see the light ... all that love crap.

A month passed by. The frog could not believe the whirlwind in his life. Yet there she was holding him in his hand and her beauty never failed to dazzle him. She on the other hand had decided this was the day, this was the day she would kiss him because she knew she felt true love for him. And so .... taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and brought him closer to her lips.

The frog realized what was about to happen. His heart wrenched. His first kiss from his first love. He closed his eyes too.



She opened her eyes. Still a frog.




Unwilling to believe that her prince was'nt coming ... she kept kissing ... as for the frog, well I dont think he could contain the elation inside him and so he shouted in joy:


That was when the magic broke. She saw him for what he was.

Screaming and crying she dropped him, disgusted. Turned and ran.

The frog may have been in love but he wasnt stupid. He could understand her mood as she dropped him. So he fell to the ground and sat there watching her run away. He would never know why she left him but he knew it was for good.

And so he sat there watching her run away, a huge tear running down his green cheek and his small heart twisted in pain.

Yet he smiled. A sad smile. And said to himself: "Serves me right to believe in this fairy tale ..."

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