We Discover the Natural World
670 wds
For two weeks our daughter patiently waited for her pets to be delivered. She was well prepared when they arrived, carefully placing them in their terrarium. Her first pets, 'surf frogs,' a species i never herd of, they looked like tadpoles. One of them died a few hours later, and we buried it in the back yard. The other was 'mopey' for many days. The amphibian's condition improved and it rapidly reached maturity, to live alone on multicolored gravel flooded and swampy among plastic trees, a plastic caslte and a shallow bowl of water. Our daughter's preparations were exceptionally complete.
Mom, my ex-wife, ordered and paid for the frogs. I didn't ask which region of the globe they came from or if they came from a 'natural environment.' For some questions, like anything to do with our daughter's care, Mom's fuse is short and you don't know how short until you light it. As for being a 'surf frog,' what kind of frog lives in surf?' It looked to me like a regular old creek or pond frog.
“It’s so unnatural in there, Dad,” said my daughter, “and so lonely.”
“I don’t know about that,“ i said. “She’s safe, you feed it every day and there's enough insect life around here i'm sure she snatches a treat out of the air with so many flies buzzing around."
'It's not good enough," she said. She soundeed like her mother.
I’m still bitter when i visit because i have not, i’m told, "achieved closure" following the divorce. Being bitter about the divorce is not my problem. My ex-wife's house is a mess. She’s a hoarder and the place smells bad. There are plenty of flies, roaches, and certainly mice. why didn't she get our daughrter a cat? I have nothing against a woman striving in her career,fulfilling her destiny, but it seems she throws nothing away (except a husband) and has no time to push around a vacuum cleaner. And, in my opinion, out of fear of losing our daughter's love she never requires our daughter to do anything like housework. Is this laziness or maybe she doesn;t want to program out girl to be a housewife. I don’t know. Either way it's a mess. Our marriage was a mess.
“A terrarium is not good enough, Dad, “ she sid. “Lipless (her name for the frog and i don't know where she got it) must live free.”
That is why, one sunny, warm day we released Lipless into the natural world. We went to Monona Bay near Bernie’s Beach, named after a store owner who was active in the community and fond of the neighborhood kids. He’s no longer with us, by all accountsa real nice guy.
My daughter waded into the reeds and freed Lipless, placing her (or him, we never knew since Lipless lived alone) on a large, floating leaf. We sat on a bench nearby and enjoyed the sun, watching Lipless, waiting for her/him to leap into this new environment.
No more than a few minutes later and very quickly a sea-gull swooped down, snagging the frog in its beak. Flying up, skillfully tipping Lipless up and swallowing as it rose the pet of our princess.
“No, no, stay away, stop! “ She leapt up and shouted. Before she could take one step toward the water, waving her arms, Lipless and the bird gone. It was over in seconds. Another gull swooped in to see what the one who dined of Lipless had swallowed, found nothing and flew away.
On the park bench my girl slumped and cried. I held her and siad nothing. I also felt weak and helpless.
On the way home she looked grim whimpering so i offered to buy her a can of soda from the machine outside the liquor store. She looked at me like i was trying to bribe her. I was trying to distract her, is that a bribe? I felt like taking a drink or two myself, but i couldn't go into the liquor store and get a pint and fuel my ex-wife's baseless opinion that i'm an alcoholic.
That night in a dream i walked long corridors walled by twisted limbs encrusted with needles and giant syringes descending, jabbing my flesh. My body grew thin and light. Our daughter was sick, i was frantic. After a long search though a house full of tree limbs and trash i found her in her room on a bed of multi-colored gravel and her body was like jelly. I tried to lift her and she melted, draining away out of her bedclothes which lay damp, flat and empty.
end of “We Discover the Natural World”
Love does not teach,