Chapter 11: Paradise

This evening, I read Paradise Lost to my Frog friends.  During the animated discussion of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Mustardseed asked why the Lord created the two humans.

Baffled, I stumbled for an answer.  Fortunately, Mustardseed continued.

The Frog said that the whole situation reminded him, in fact, of he and Mote in their dwelling, a green garden with plenty of delights, yet contained in an strange and curious way.  He pointed out that the similarities ran deep, with a creator and two spawns, except for the point that the Frogs were on equal footing to me (their "creator") in regard to knowledge and perception of the Lily Pad.

I applauded him on his literary acuity.

Mustardseed turned away from me, toward the inside of the Dwelling, and asked, furtively, why I decided to take he and Mote home with me.

Mustardseed asked why I decided to take he and Mote home with me.

I looked, mind searching for an answer, at Mustardseed, and in this interval learned Something New about the Frog.

Thinking and stumbling for a few moments, and then finally achieving clarity, I said that I was perhaps not a complete Frog, one that loves the words in books but cannot draw quite enough warmth from their papery pages.  I also stated that I felt that the papery pages that I create were an extension of myself, but were, alas, just papery pages and that I needed a sentient and animate friend to continue the extension of myself that the pages started, an avatar or two that continued myself through their being and not just their saying.  That, perhaps, I wanted them to be me, but without myself directing their actions, so that they might suggest things to me, about myself, that I had not considered.

Mote gawked at me, Frog-brows raised.

Mustardseed said that he did not know of this limit on writing and the papery pages, and that, being a journeyman writer, he was glad to know that he was provided for, as far as being company goes.

The three of us remained silent for a moment, each enveloped in our own thoughts.

Mote added, finally, that perhaps my reason for wanting Frogs was also the Lord's reason, in Paradise Lost.

I was about to elaborate on this interesting and rare point from Mote, when I was interrupted.

Blurting, eager, Mustardseed said that the Lord would have had less trouble corralling the Frogs from certain Trees and Fruits.