Tragedy has struck our household, and I suspect foul play. My wife informed me that Max discovered Kermit�s broken body wedged between the lid and the base of the hose box. At the sight of this, Max with tears in eyes ran out into the yard screaming. When I returned home later, sobbing still filled the house. It was like entering a mortuary. At dinner, we spoke of Kermit being in that Giant Pond in the Sky, free from tiny prying fingers and children�s nets. No more endless days being captured and released. Forced to go limp, Kermit would never again dance on the twins� tiny stage. Kermit's "vacation place"--a few rocks carefully set in the middle of the boy's wadding pool--would remain vacant. My wife and I fought back the tears, trying to keep from bursting out laughing.
Max said that he felt sad about the frog and how it had been mistreated. Maybe one day God would allow him to have another pet frog. Prayers were offered at Kermit�s grave as I laid him to rest. Aaron and Luke, the two-year-old twins, were there to help with the burial. When I had filled in the earth over its broken body, Aaron tried to grab the tiny shovel to dig Kermit up again. Then he threw himself to the ground, beating the earth with his fists. Was this an outpouring of grief, or a routine tantrum? Luke seemed oblivious to it all, but I wondered in my heart whether he was only bottling things up. I discovered the truth later when I caught him locked in the bathroom repeatedly washing his hands and secretly eating grape-flavored toothpaste from the tube. Had I found the guilty party?
The next morning, Max confessed to the crime. But it proved to be the false confession of a 4-year-old wanting to bring order to tragedy. Even after preschool Max said, �I miss my frog.� The twins, my prime suspects, seem to have �moved on.� Their secret, known only to them, lies hidden behind �twins� talk.� Luke, the optimist says, �Me catch beby frug dead?� And Aaron, the realist, replies, �No. frug dead.�
Kermit�s epitaph reads:
R.I.P.: a frog loved to death. (??/??/03-9/18/03)
�� --Jonathon Brenner