Stand Up, Frog
Flash Fiction | 2 minute read
This is a story I wrote during Tammy Breitweiser’s Fabulous Flash Fiction course. This week I have been thinking a lot about the various people I have had in my life at different times and how each of them has helped me grow into who I am today. This is a story that mirrors that thematically.
This story is about a two minute read.
The frog’s limbs collapsed together like a weird green fuzzy stapler. It wasn’t always that flimsy or flexible, but these days all it seemed to want to do was fold.
Yasmin tried one more time to prop him up on the shelf and then she whispered, “I get it, old friend, I feel the same way.”
“What?” Julissa asked from the doorway.
Yasmin had known Julissa for all of two hours and she already wanted to put in a dorm room change request. “I wasn’t talking to you,” Yasmin muttered.
“Except there’s no one else here, Yaz. So what’s that mean?”Julissa flipped her long wavy — now purple — hair over her shoulder and winked. “I’m just joshin’ ya. I need you to loosen up. The Alpha Beta Chi Welcome Wagon should be by soon. You want me to do your color next?” She already had her hands in Yasmin’s hair, lifting it up as if she was imagining a spectrum of possibilities as she let it fall. “You want purple or blue? I thought if you did blue we could really stand out.”
Yasmin pulled away, letting her frog go and stepping out of Julissa’s reach. “Julissa, I am not interested in standing out at all.” She grabbed her hair and twisted the long locks in her hands as if they were one big towel to be wrung out. Then she laid the hair on her shoulder letting her hands to continue to dance around it.
Julissa stepped up to the shelf and grabbed Yasmin’s frog. “Kermit the frog is a deep cut, Yaz. I don’t know how many people will know who you’ve got here, but you’ve got zero chance if he’s not standing up.”
Yeah, well, he’s old and been through a lot, so I don’t know if he’s up for all that…” Yasmin was feeling more defeated by the minute.
“It’s not that he’s old, or what’s he’s been through, that’s the problem.” Julissa was now shuffling through a second box of Funko Pops collectibles that she had yet to unpack. “It’s that you’ve got him all alone up here. That’s never going to work.”
Yasmin looked across the shelf at the lines and lines of figurines Julissa had placed on her side. At least she practices what she preaches, Yasmin thought.
“Thing is,” Julissa continued, “Kermit never performs alone. Hardly anyone does, really. A-ha!” She stood up quickly, something clutched in her hand. She put the frog back up on the shelf, sat him up, held him there, and then placed a Funko Pop figurine in front of him. It was Hamm from Toy Story. Then Julissa turned to Yasmin and said, “Probably not the pig he was hoping for, but I think that’s exactly the pig he needs. What do you think, Yaz?”
Yasmin looked over to the Kermit frog stuffed animal that she first met nearly two decades ago in her crib. He was sitting in her college dorm room, no longer looking like a flopped over green stapler, but, instead, a slightly drunk frog hanging over the shoulders of a sturdy and confident new pig friend. She turned to Julissa and said, “I say — and I honestly can’t believe I am about to say this, but here it goes — let’s color my hair blue!”
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First, thank you for reading my story. What a wonderful feeling knowing you’ve seen this little bit of me! Second, it’s important that you know comments and story conversation are always welcome. Whether you want to discuss how this story made you feel, what thought(s) it inspired, or if you have constructive criticism, I am here for it all. Let’s talk story!
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I want to remind fellow creatives that a huge portion of my story hoard comes from my activities for and within my online writing community, Stop Writing Alone. This year I have recommitted to the 52 stories in 52 weeks challenge to further increase my story hoard and, because I don’t believe in writing alone, I am inviting you. Head over to the NV Rivera YouTube channel for the prompts I have revealed so far and details on how to join the community.