The One

The One

I don't remember much from my life in the pond. It was crowded, I know, because it was always crowded, even after I left it. It was warm and the sounds from above seldom penetrated the green, sparkling water.

The first time I emerged from it, the cold air stopped me as if I had run into a solid wall. My never used lungs constricted and I jumped back into the pond. But the few sights and sounds that drifted down to me pulled at my legs and I had to emerge again and again. Finally, I did not have the desire to go back to the water, so I stayed on the shore.

The land was green and the soil was dark and warm. Everyone else dug holes, so I dug one too. Just like the soil, it was dark and warm and reminded me of the water. At night I heard the others croaking and popped my head out of my hole. 'Come out and join us,' the croaks seemed to say, so I did. It was usually going dark when we emerged from our holes. The whole world was shades of gray. But in the summer, there were precious few hours of darkness, and on Midsummer there was no real darkness at all. If I wanted to feed then, I came out during the daylight.

It was in daylight that I met the Old Toad. He was brown and splotchy, with a pale white belly and a great wart on his left back leg. 'Why,' he said when he saw me, 'you're not far from the pond, are you?'

'No,' I replied, for at that time I could still clearly remember my life in the water.

The Old Toad flicked his tongue out and caught a bug. 'You still have your whole life ahead of you,' he said, his croaks were splotchy, like his skin. 'A whole life to live.'

'Don't you have your life to live?' I asked. It seems now a silly question, but I had never met an old toad before.

He croaked a laugh. 'I've lived my life,' he said. 'My One left this life, and I am old and weary of the world.' He flicked his tongue out. 'I am here to rest.'

It had never occurred to me that I had a life to live. How did a toad live a life? Obviously living it made you old and weary, so you that you had to come back to the pond shore to rest. 'You left here?' I asked him as the realization crystallized in my mind.

'Of course,' he told me. 'You can't stay here when your wizard comes.'

'My wizard?' I asked. Perhaps the sun had fried this toad's brain.

'Those pink and brown two legged things.' He motioned with his goggly eyes toward The Place the two leggeds came. So that's what they were! 'One day,' continued the Old Toad, 'a wizard or witch will come and you will go live with them, and have a life full of love and adventure.'

'How do you know I will have a wizard or witch?' I asked. It all seemed very strange to me.

'Everyone has a wizard or witch,' he said. 'There is One for everyone. My One did not come for me until late in his life. But he came.'

'How will I know which One is mine?'

He laughed his croaky laugh again. 'Oh, you'll know.'

I decided to watch the pink and brown two leggeds as they came to the pond. They were all different sizes - some were very small and some were very large and some were in between. Sometimes they would come and leave with nothing. Other times they would look and a toad would emerge from his hole. He would hold his little forearms out toward the pink and brown two leggeds. The witch or wizard would gasp, or squeal, or point and pick up the toad and walk away. To have a life full of love and adventure, I thought.

The days began to get shorter and the nights longer. I wandered far from the pond, watching the wizards and witches pick their toads. I even hopped into The Place the two leggeds came from. The floor was like a smooth tree and other animals chattered and walked around. But none of the pink or brown wizards noticed me. It became colder and I stayed in my hole for days at a time. When the soil began to warm again, I came out and looked for the Old Toad. But he never came out of his hole again.

Many people began coming to the pond again and toads would be plucked up and taken away. Quite a few nights before Midsummer, when it is never really dark, it happened to me.

The One came.

I knew he was The One as soon as I saw him. He bent over the ground, searching among us. He was a pink wizard, with brown on top of his head. His face was round and he smelled like the grass that grew away from the pond. He filled my entire field of vision and my heart beat furiously. He was magnificent. I held out my tiny forearms to him and croaked.

He looked at me for a long time, and then pointed a finger at me. 'That one, please,' he said.

I was plucked up and placed in his hands. They were warm, like the soil, and they too smelled like grass. He carried me out of The Place where the two leggeds came from and into a place with no soil or grass and as many two leggeds as golliwogs in the pond.

'What are you going to name him?' said a voice that was not unlike the Old Toad's.

'Trevor,' said the One.

I had never desired a name before, but Trevor seemed prefect for me, a token of love from My One.

He placed me delicately in his pocket. It was dark and warm and smelled like the grass. A few moments later, I tumbled out of it.