Linda Mosley wanted a pet. The world had refused to give her a baby brother (even though she asked nicely!) It had denied her a pony every year for her birthday. A pet, Linda Mosley thought, was a very reasonable thing for her to want.
Every single other child in Ms. Lindstrom’s grade two class had a pet. Fred Lenner brought his bunny, Om-Nom, as his show-and-tell, and Jacob Radley walked his puppy, Scooter, to school every day.
Linda asked her mother, very nicely, for a pet. She didn’t even mind what kind it was. But her mother said, no, the apartment is too small. Linda asked her father, extra-special nicely, for a pet, a teeny tiny little one that wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. But her father said, no, it was too big a responsibility right now.
Linda was put out. She wanted a pet! She deserved a pet! She had kept her Webkinz, Spots, alive for six whole days, and didn’t that count for anything at all?
Today was a very special day for Linda, because Ms. Lindstrom was taking the class on an adventure. They were going to a wilderness reserve where animals went to live, and Linda made a decision. A very-bad, not-nice-at-all decision. Linda was going to steal a pet. She would find the perfect, wonderful, friendly animal, and she would take it home. Linda was very excited about her very-bad, not-nice-at-all decision.
The nature reserve was big, and Linda saw lots of animals. She saw a squirrel (but it ran away) and a blue bird (but it flew away). She saw a deer (but only for a second) and a fish (but how would she bring that home?). Linda was feeling very sad about not finding a pet, and she sat down on a rock beside a stream to take a break, away from her classmates.
And then, Linda saw it. The frog. It was a very funny sort of frog. It was green and brown like a mouldy leaf, and it had the brightest yellow eyes Linda had ever seen, like the buttons on her rain-coat. It had four legs with four fingers, and one long tail like a fish. It had ears like a little mouse, and a mouth that always seemed to be smiling. It was definitely a frog, though. Linda could tell, because it was sitting on a rock just like frogs do.
So Linda picked up the frog and hid it in her backpack, and she took the frog home. She named him Lucian and he told her that he was on an adventure from his own home, and that he liked hotdogs. So she made him hotdogs and smuggled them in from the kitchen, and she built him a nest out of one of her old shoes.
Lucian told Linda that he was a prince, and that all she had to go was kiss him, and he would turn back into a person! So Linda squeezed her eyes closed and puckered her lips and gave Lucian one big kiss, right on the mouth. And Lucian opened his mouth big, and wide, and bigger, and bigger, and in one big gulp he swallowed Linda whole!
And then he grew, and he grew, and his skin turned pink and hair grew out of his head, and soon Linda was standing in the room, the last of his tail disappearing into his legs. And Linda smiled, and her eyes, in the light, had just a hint of yellow.