Ted, the ugly little fish
Once upon a time there was a tiny little fish, called Ted. Ted lived in the pond of a garden, together with all the other goldfish, and he went to the fish nursery school, just like all the other teeny-tiny fish babies.
He really liked to go there, because he had lots of friends. They always played catch and they had a lot of fun together.
One day, however, something strange happened to Ted. In the morning, before going to the nursery, he discovered that a pair of little legs grew on the two sides of his tiny tail. Ted got a bit scared at first, but because the legs didn’t stop him from swimming, he didn’t pay much attention to it.
But when his class mates saw him, they all looked surprised.
- Ted, what happened to you? - they asked.
- I don’t know. I woke up this morning and realised that a pair of little legs grew on the two sides of my tiny tail. But they don’t bother me. Come on, let’s play - answered Ted.
- Teacher! Ted is so strange today. What happened to him? - asked one of the goldfish children, who wasn’t content with Ted’s answer.
- Oh, well, let’s see… I don’t know. But just to be sure that no one catches this strange illness, Ted cannot play with any of you - said the teacher.
So Ted curled up in a corner, sad and alone and from there he watched the others swim cheerfully.
From here on, every day became worse and worse. Ted’s legs grew longer and longer, and his friends turned away from him. He became the uglylittle fish in the nursery, and no one played with him. And when he thought, that there could be nothing worse, one morning he woke up to see he had another pair of little legs grown out, but this time they were near his head.
Ted didn’t even try to find an explanation to this, he just swam into his corner and cried.
A few days later, a horrible thing happened to Ted. His tiny tail, which he loved very much, suddenly disappeared. Now he didn’t look anything like the other goldfish. He felt terrible in the nursery school, so he decided that no matter what, he is going to run away from there. When the teacher wasn’t watching, Ted started to swim very fast, and he swam until his legs reached the ground. For the first time, he felt that his little legs were a big help, because he could run with them, and even jump very far with them. Ted finally reached land like this.
- Hello, what’s your name? - asked a lovely voice behind him.
- My name is Ted - he said, stunned.
- And why are you so stunned? - asked the green little - creature - with smiling eyes, who had legs similar to Ted’s.
- Because I am an ugly goldfish. Everybody hates me at the fish nursery school, since the pair of these weird things appeared on the two sides of my tiny tail, and today even my tiny tail had disappeared. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I don’t want to go back there - said Ted.
- Calm down, Ted. There is nothing wrong with you. But you are not a goldfish. - Said the creature.
- No? What am I then? - asked Ted, with tears in his eyes.
- You are a frog. And not just any frog, but a beautiful one. -
- Really? -
- Yes, really. And your legs can do fantastic things. Come on, I’ll show you. -
This is the story of how Ted met the little frog girl, named Jumpy. He could count on her from there on, no matter what. That morning they jumped to the leaves of the water lily, where all the frogs were peacefully bathing in the sun, and croaking happily.
So, after all, it turned out, that Ted wasn’t an ugly goldfish at all, but he was a handsome frog boy. From that day on, he enjoyed the wonderful frog-life, jumping and croaking freely.
Have you ever seen a frog? Do you remember what frogs say? Can you copy it? Were you any different when you were smaller?