Special.

 Prompt: A lily pad, a memory, a strange hat. 

Photo by Ian Prince.

Watching passersby through the grass is a favourite hobby for the green frog living in the city park pond. It vaguely remembers being picked up a long time ago by big hands—smaller than the other humans'— and being taken to a different home for a little while. While the frog has trouble thinking of the details, it does recall feeling cozy and special when the hands would pick it up every now and then. At some point, the warm hands took it back to a bigger pond and this is where it lives at present. And so, the green frog watches the humans walk by, finding their outfits quite amusing. It is particularly fond of the odd things they wear on their heads; feathers, sparkly rectangles, and even what looks like a horse’s tail! The frog imagines the humans love holding all manner of objects on their heads, and wonders if it, too, could be carried so. There is a type of hat that looks a lot like its lily pad and the green frog often thinks that it would look rather stylish sitting on its lily pad on top of a human head. It might even be as nice as being held by the human's hands so long ago… As it observes the shorter humans running around with their own silly head adornments, wishing it could also be part of the excitement, the frog does not notice when one of them approaches its sitting spot. Little hands gently scoop up the green frog and its green lily pad, and if the frog could smile back at the child, I believe it would. A frog and its lily pad would look quite stylish sitting on a beret, actually, and our friend's new companion would agree.