The Dance

The love potion went down the throat of its intended victim, but it didn’t work quite the way Margery intended. 

The little frog had been sitting on his lily pad for most of the afternoon. The sunshine hit his back warming him. He had just eaten a fly, so his belly was full.  The unexpected find of pink lemonade in a nearby lotus flower had promised to be a more than satisfactory drink. It had a surprising punch to it. Henry the third went from one stunted toad to one tall handsome prince in two point five seconds.

Margery’s potion had gotten results, but there was a mixed bag of results. The once lonely, but happy frog on his lily pad was now soaking wet and a little more than frustrated.

“What is this?” Henry the frog proclaimed. “I’ve got human hands, human legs, a nose, a mouth, and a small behind. Can I walk? Oh, what am I going to tell my family? There is no way, I can show up to dinner looking like this. I guess it’s time I go on a vacation, but where to?” Henry continued to ramble to himself in a voice that was so low that not even Margery could hear him.

Margery’s pink coat and matching purse looked rather grand. Her brown hair and brown eyes sparkled and looked soft and lovely, but rather overdressed and odd as she sat on the log looking over the pond. As she stared down on Henry’s world and his transformation, it was in that very moment, that the old frog, but now human looked up at her. He had this bewildered look, as he realized she was looking at him. Her look matched his as she realized he knew she was staring at him,

Henry the third cleared his throat and tried to speak to her in what he presumed was English…The first attempt, made a “Croak.” Embarrassed, Henry tried again. “Excuse me miss, but I uh need to find my way to London. Do you perhaps know how to get there?”

Margery’s eyebrows arched; a small smile formed on her face. The frog was dressed thanks to a special ingredient in her love potion, that dressed him in a very smart business suit and black shoes. She had not anticipated him being wet though. She would need to get him to a men’s clothing store, to replace what he was wearing before he could possibly take her to the dance. Margery needed to trick him into being her date, but she had not intended on making a vacation of it. The potion would last for five hours, eight hours max. Margery needed to hurry.

“Well, you can’t go to London all wet like that Sir. Uh, I suppose you can, but would you not prefer a dry set of clothes. Say something more comfortable which you can move around in?” Margery blushed.

Henry the third, former frog, thought to himself that he rather liked being wet, but smiled, and said back to his new friend, “Yes, I suppose so. What do you suggest? Is there perhaps a shop in London?” He had heard all about London from the couples that walked hand in hand in the park and made goofy looks at each other, perhaps they had just swallowed flies and their tummies were full and happy as well?

Margery smiled politely back, “I know just the place.” She held out a hand.

Henry to this as a clue, that he should grab her hand and she could help him stand up and walk out of what previously felt like home, but now felt like his new legs were stuck in something, that people called mud.

Margery grabbed his hand and on first attempt did not pull him out of the pond, but rather instead pulled her in. Now wet, and soaking and her hair draping her face, she laughed, “ We make quite a pair.” I say, that is not what I at all hoped to achieve. I am sorry... err... Mr. What should I call you?”

Henry laughed, “Please call me Henry the third. I come from a long line of royalty. My mother and father were expecting me for dinner, but as you can see… well I can’t quite go like this. They will be shocked, and not in a good way.”

Margery sighed, “Ah, so is this why you want to go to London?” she giggled in laugh away her nervousness.

“Yes, “Henry said relieved, plus, I have heard so much about it from people who have wandered upon my pond as they walk in the park. “I always dreamt that I might see it.”

“Margery said, “Well it is high time you see it! That is once we get out of this hole.”

Back of her feet, Margery pulled Henry out of the pond. They walked together to a place that was labeled, “bus stop” and got on what presumably was a bus. Henry tried to hop up the steps, but Margery showed him to lift his left leg up and then the right one and then a place to where they both sat down together.

Both a little shy, they did not talk for a bit. Both a bit dazed on how well the potion had worked, but of course the frog did not know that, but rather thought the pink lemonade had a strange effect on him.  He even concluded that perhaps he was really dreaming and after a while he would wake up as a frog on his lily pad and think that whatever occurred was really a figment of his imagination.

In Henry’s “dream,” he looked out the window. He saw a big bridge and thought, “Is that London Bridge? Is it supposed to be “falling down?”  I’ve heard stories about it.” After a while, he saw a giant clock and he wondered, “Is that Big Ben? Was it once a frog too and got turned into a clock?” After a while, he saw a billboard, that showed the red bus he was on. It showed happy people pointing out their windows and how they were going places. He read underneath the bus, “Tour our beautiful London City. You are going places now.” Henry thought, “Yes, I am.”

Meanwhile, Margery sat next to the old frog and thought, we are in London, should I tell him? How can I get him to take me to the dance? I want a date to go. I have been waiting for someone to take me to the Ball Royal all year. No one asked me. A rather sour turn of events. Was it mean of me to make up a potion and turn this frog into someone handsome and so my type to take me there? What if I messed up his life somehow? Maybe he has a girl frog at home waiting for him… Then of course, Margery brushed the thoughts away... He is just a frog.  He said he wanted to go to London. I should tell him, we are there. As she looked out the window, she could tell that he already knew. She saw the smile on his lips. The spark in his eye. He seemed in love with the city.

Henry looked over at his female companion and smiled and thought to himself, “If I were really a human, I would rather fancy her. She is sort of pretty for a older lady. I wonder how old she is. Oh, I better not ask. I hear it is rather bad form to ask, at least that is what my mother told me. Henry was an old bachelor frog, but not too old. He was actually in early twenties, but in human years he would be fifty-four.

Margery laughed to herself; I am kidding myself. I am fifty years old and who wants to date someone with lines under her eyes. I am not as young as I use to be.

The bus stopped and Margery looked at Henry and said, “We are here. “

He smiled and said, “Lead me on this adventure. I am ready.”

The old couple, Margery and Henry the third, got off the bus. They walked down a very busy street on what humans call a sidewalk. Henry noticed a shop with fine clothing in a window display. He rather liked the look of the dress but did not think it would look good on him. He thought perhaps it would look good on his new companion. Margery looked at Henry and then at what he was looking at in the window. She thought, that’s a rather nice dress. I like it. Next to it, was a fine new suit. Her frog, human date, would look simply smashing in it.

“I have an idea, “ said Margery. She opened the door to the shop. Henry looked puzzled. “What are we doing?” he said shyly to her. “We are getting new clothes,” said Margery, and then I have somewhere I want to take you in the city. “Oh, okay…” Henry smiled.

In the shop, Henry saw dozens of displays. Clothes for the male human on one side of the store. Clothes for the female human on the other side of the store. Different colors of nature: green, brown, orange, yellows and reds for fall time. Light blue, pale pink, light yellows and a light green for spring. Colors for all the seasons.

Margery explained how putting on pants was like lifting your legs like you got on the bus, one leg into one side, and then lift the other leg into the other hole for the other leg. Then you simply put the round thing, called a button, into the hole on the opposite side, and it would magically stick together. The shirt, as she called it, you just put your head through the top hole, and then your left arm through the hold below it.. and then other arm through the other hole to the right of it. She gently pushed him into a fitting room and said go for it.

Henry was a natural at dressing himself. If he didn’t know better, he would have presumed he had been human in a previous life. He could not remember such an experience though. He gave himself a mental pat on the back, as Margery proclaimed as he walked out, “You did it!”

She said, “Wait here”, which he did without complaint, “My turn.”

Margery hurried and dressed in a lovely white gown, that had a touch of pink in it. It made her look radiant and set of a pretty glow in her brown hair, that had hints of white hair just on the edges of her hairline near her ears.

As she walked out of the fitting room, Henry gasp. Margery cried, “Is it that bad?”

“I am sorry.,” Henry said, “You look so beautiful. I was overcome.”

Margery smiled. Oh, he’s a keeper. She thought, but then recalled the potion only lasted five to eight hours and two of them were gone now. She looked at her new friend. “I want to show you that place now.”

“Okay,” said Henry. They walked out of the store, after Margery paid the nice sales lady for the clothes and walked down the street. They turned the corner, and walked across a cross walk onto another street, and up to a very tall building.

“This is it!” Margery, proclaimed.

Henry didn’t see anything special about it. He smiled and said, “What should I be looking at?”

“How rude of me?” Margery said, “I want to dance Henry. I am sorry. I tricked you, but no one wanted to dance with me. I am lonely. I needed a potion to turn you human, so that you might take me here, so I could feel young again, and I never thought about how it would affect you, until I stopped to think it may have interrupted your life. You might have a frog wife at home and kids. I was so selfish.” Margery started to frown, sighed, and look at the ground.

Henry laugh, “Such nonsense… Not to be rude, but you haven’t done any harm. You made me human for however long it last. I have always wanted to see London. You gave me a day of joy. I have no wife or kids at home. I am an old bachelor frog.”

Margery looked up at him, “Then you forgive me?”

“Oh yes,” he smiled, “and I will dance with you. Well, I will attempt it, as I never have danced as a human before, so forgive me if I don’t get it right.”

“Oh, thank you. Thank you, “Margery cried, and they walked into a room in the tall building and danced the night away. When the night was over, they got back on the bus. They went back to the park, and Henry asked, Margery if she would visit him again some time soon. She told him, that she would not only visit him, but turn herself to a frog, so that she might experience what it was like to live in his world.

A few years later, Margery was no longer a human in physical form. She was a frog living in a pond and married to Henry and part of his royal family. They had kids. They lived happily ever after “Croak.”