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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ENVY (jealousy of another’s advantage) (02/12/15)
A luxuriant carpet of white lilies and lush pads stretched from the middle of the pond to the clusters of tall reeds that lined most of its shore.

At one break in the reeds, this carpet extended to the green tufts of grass beside a path that meandered out of the forest and paused, before continuing its haphazard course.

A popular spot for young lovers to dally and for young hopefuls to daydream.

Here at the water’s edge, stooping over her reflection, was young Hildegarde. Hopeful in the extreme. Lost in the solitude of her wistfulness; her longing to suffer no longer the teasing of all the other girls in the village because of her poverty.

“Ahem!” a loud, raucous rasp ruptured her reverie.

She spun around, but there was nobody there. Her gaze quickly returned to the water’s stillness.

“Ahem again!” Raucousness returned. Not from behind her, but from right in front of her.

Hildegarde gasped. For she suddenly saw a huge frog.

He smiled at finally being acknowledged.

“No-one else has helped me,” he said, “but if you kiss me I’ll turn into a handsome prince.”

Her brow furrowed. “How can I be sure you’ll be handsome?”

“How fussy can you be if you’d go around kissing frogs?” came the reply. “But what have you got to lose?” He sat up and poised his fingers as if counting. “Loneliness? Bad hair? Frumpy clothes?”

Pursing her lips in a less-than-passionate pucker, she leaned forward and screwed her eyes tightly shut as she felt her mouth brush against the top of his head…

A flash of light and a crash of thunder thrust her back onto the grass, as her mind threw out the welcome mat to a mass of confusion. What have I done? What’s happening? If anybody finds out, I’m sure to be Kermit-ted!

She opened her eyes. There was no frog.

Then she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.

She turned slowly, hoping against hope, and looked into the eyes of most handsome man she had ever seen. Tall, elegant, immaculately dressed and, with a gentle depth in his tone, obviously a prince.

He took her hand and kissed it. “Thank you for rescuing me,” he whispered, pulling her towards him in a tender embrace. “You must be my bride, for no-one else wanted to help me as a frog.”

He took her home to his palace, where he introduced her to his parents. They fell I love with her because of her kindness, and arranged a wedding that was the talk of the ages.

And back in Hildegarde’s little village, an epidemic of warts broke out among all the girls who been so cruel to her. For they were so filled with envy over her that they took to kissing every frog they could find.

Author’s note. This is not a true story, but to briefly put on my preacher’s hat… God calls us – and equips us– to touch people by his grace and release them into the royalty he has designed for them to be part of his royal forever family...
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This article has been read 1191 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
02/20/15
You had me smiling throughout. I loved your take on the classical fairy tale (puns and all) and your great message at the end.
Beth LaBuff 
02/20/15
What a great story! The fairy-tale (frog kiss) had a great outcome! And THEN came the WARTS--LOL! That was a super twist (and satisfied the vengeful vein in me). :) I'm so relieved that this was not a true story or I would need to confess what I put between the parenthesis in the previous sentence. :) Then you still had an inspirational ending. Great, fun, AND uplifting writing!
Danielle King 
02/20/15
Well thank goodness God didn't call us - and equip us - to kiss frogs, because after the side splitting hilarity of what preceded the preachers note, that's what my silly imagination anticipated. For a moment I thought maybe you was the one who should be kermitted, but then you swiftly turned it around into an inspirational message, and all in one paragraph. Now that is clever! You could say I liked it.
C D Swanson 
02/20/15
Hahahahahahaha!

Great story and completely entertaining! Creative, upbeat and flowing smoothly from first to last word.

Loved it.

God bless~
Verna Cole Mitchell 
02/21/15
Surely am glad you told us this was fiction. You have a powerfully creative mind... and I enjoyed the descriptions.
Diane M. Bowman
02/22/15
You are so funny! Who else would think of kermit-ted?

And the epidemic of warts is just too good.

Also, I've never thought of the 'Kiss a frog, turn it into a prince' having any correlation with the Spirit working through us to help transform another person into the image of Christ.

Good job!
Judith Gayle Smith-Owens Vitouswykegardinerclark
02/24/15
Having kissed many a wartsome frog . . .

sigh - another lifetime. Thank you for restoring hope in what is too often considered "fairy tale" logic - you are wondrous at feeding my illogic . . .
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
02/26/15
Congratulations! Happy Dance!!
C D Swanson 
02/26/15
Congrats Noel!

Hahahaha! Great Job.

God bless~
Danielle King 
02/26/15
Your magic has worked on the judges too. Congratulations on your win.
Ellen Carr 
02/26/15
Congratulations, Noel, for your EC for this re-take of the frog-prince tale. I was disappointed to find it to be untrue, though! Perhaps all those girls kissing frogs has contributed to the scarcity of frogs these days - the kisseesi virus.
David Butler
02/28/15
What a fantastic take on the fairy-story!
I must read it to my kids at bed-time (the adult ones, that is. They'll love it!)
I would have expanded on the Froggy puns a bit, but basically, you did-t....did-it....did-it! (Sorry!)

Congrats on a well-deserved EC.
Holly Westefeld
03/06/15
I really enjoyed this out of the box story, with important lessons, and the justice of the village girls reaping what they had sown. Congratulations!
Thank you for your kind comments on "Your Fountain."