Hopalot and Hannah

Hannah was sitting on the living room floor talking to her doll, Samantha, when Henry walked in. 

Henry was her big brother and he seemed all excited about something he had in a box. 

“What do you got there, Henry”? Hannah said. 

Henry said, “Oh, it’s great! I can’t wait to show you”. 

“Well, what is it”? Hannah said. 

Henry kept walking toward the kitchen, saying “Mom! Dad!” 

Hannah ran after him shouting, “Henrryyy”.

When he got to the kitchen Henry said, “I got a frog”!  

Mom, Dad, and Hannah all at the same time said, “A frog”?!  

“Oh, it’s a wonderful frog, but I don’t know what to call him”, Henry said. Henry opened the box and there was a tiny green tree frog with big red eyes and long red toes. 

Hannah looked at the frog and her eyebrows crawled up her face, her nose pinched together, her tongue stuck out and she shook her head, and when she could talk again she said, “That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in the world”!

 Henry started talking so fast that Hannah could hardly understand what he was saying. “Mom, I bought him in the pet shop, he’s really wonderful, I love him, he’s really great, I don’t know what to call him but he’s really the best frog in the world. I just love him and I saved up all my money, and this is what I wanted to buy, and I had to buy him, and here he is, and he’s gotta be my pet now”. 

Mom and Dad looked at each other and Dad said, “Well, what would you feed him”?

Hannah shouted, “A pet! He can’t be a pet, he’s disgusting”! 

Hannah begged, “Mom, Mom, I can’t have a frog in the house, I can’t have a frog in our house”!  While Dad was saying to Henry, “Let’s go downstairs and see if we can find something to put him in”. 

Dad knew there was an old fish aquarium that was empty down in the cellar. He and Henry washed it out and then got an old window screen that slides back and forth to put over the top so that the frog couldn’t hop right out of the glass aquarium. Then they put the aquarium on top of the dresser in Henry’s bedroom.

For the next week Henry spent all his free time playing with the frog in his room. On Friday after school Henry came walking out of his room. 

Hannah looked up from the living room floor where she was sitting and playing and she saw that the frog was stuck on the side of Henry’s face. Hannah’s eyebrows jumped up like they were going to run away, her nose pinched together, her tongue stuck out and she shook her head and she could hardly even scream to say, “That’s so disgustiinnngggg”!

Hannah didn’t want to go in the kitchen where Henry was talking to Mom and Dad, because she didn’t want to be anywhere close to where a frog could touch her. 

But she could hear that they were talking about Henry’s plan to spend the night and the next day at his friend’s house. 

Hannah’s eyebrows jumped up once again when she heard Henry saying, “Yeah, but Hannah can take care of the frog when I’m gone”, as he was walking back toward his bedroom. 

Hannah marched straight in to the kitchen where Mom was sitting at the table writing checks or bills or something like that, and Dad was making oatmeal cookies. 

Mom listened while Hannah begged and pleaded with her to get rid of the frog, not to make her take care of it.  

Mom said, “It will be a good experience for you, Honey, and it’s only for one day, and we’ll help you”. 

Hannah started to feel like she was going to get sick. This was terrible. 

She cried out, “Daaad”, and she went running over to the counter where he was taking down a big bowl from the high shelf.  

“Dad”, she said, “taking care of that frog would be so disgusting. It would be like, like if you put worms in the cookie dough, Dad”, and again Hannah made that face.  

Dad said, “Well, let’s think about it, but right now, why don’t you help me make these cookies”. 

Dad put a cup of raisins in the measuring cup and then Hannah poured them into the big bowl.  And Hannah thought, “Maybe Mom and Dad never really took a look at the frog yet. How come they think this is ok”? 

Suddenly Hannah was so glad that she was kneeling on the stool at that moment because there was the frog hopping, hopping, and hopping all across the kitchen floor. Hannah walked around the counter to watch where the frog went.

Before you know it the frog hopped right over to where Mom was sitting and it popped right on to the side of her leg. 

Well, you know what happened to Hannah’s eyebrows then. 

Mom reached her hand down like a cup beneath the frog and he popped into her hand and she lifted it up right in front of her face. 

Hannah suddenly realized she was standing right next to Mom and leaning against her shoulder and looking right at the tiny frog. 

Mom said, “Hannah, do you know he’s warm. He feels warm when he sits in your hand”.  

Hannah just looked and looked and looked, and her fingers grabbed the sleeve of Mom’s shirt, while she stared at this tiny green frog. 

Hannah noticed that his little body would get bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller. 

And while she still stared at him, Hannah said, “Mom, is he breathing”?  

“Yes Honey”, Mom said, “Of course he’s breathing”. 

Hannah noticed that the frog’s eyes were moving, and that he was looking at her, and then he was looking at Mom, and then he was looking at her again. 

Now the little frog lifted his little feet with his long toes and started walking up Mom’s hand and onto her arm where her sleeve was rolled up. 

Hannah realized the frog was coming closer to get a better look at her. Hannah leaned her head against Mom’s shoulder and looked closely at the frog and the frog turned its head to the side and looked closely at Hannah. 

Mom said to Hannah, “He feels good. Do you want to hold him”? 

Hannah looked in Mom’s eyes and then said, “Okay”. 

Hannah put out her two hands together and Mom carefully placed the frog on Hannah’s hands. 

Hannah could tell that the frog was warm, and she could feel its little heart beating in the palm of her hand. 

All at once the frog made a little hop from her hands onto her forearm. 

But Hannah wasn’t scared, and she giggled. 

Smiling, Hannah looked at Mom, and she looked over at Dad, and then with the frog still on her arm she walked into the dining room. 

The frog hopped quickly from her arm on to the dining room curtain. 

Hannah stopped and looked and he popped back down on to her shoulder. Hannah lifted her two hands together in front of her and he hopped down onto her hands, and then popped off her hands down onto the floor, and hopped, hopped, hopped, hopped and popped from the dining room into the living room.

Well, all the next day Hannah played with the frog as it hopped and popped all around the house, and she laughed and giggled. 

When Henry came home that night Hannah was so proud to walk up to Henry holding the frog. 

She said, “He’s my friend. I took good care of him”.

The next day, after getting home from Mass, Hannah and the frog were playing in the living room and Mom and Dad and Henry were in the kitchen talking about what to name this frog. 

Each of them would suggest a name but the others didn’t seem to think it was just right. 

Suddenly, with the frog sitting on her head, Hannah came running into the kitchen shouting, “I know. Let’s call him Hopalot”!