The Toad.

1.

It was a toad.

It was late when I took Maxi outside last night to relieve himself before bedtime. I was sitting on the couch falling asleep to Storage wars and was finally able to catch my breath after a long day. Maxi, as is his habit, appeared out of nowhere on my right side by jumping up on the ottoman, dropping one of my slippers in my lap along with play barking at me, menacingly, and baring his teeth. I said to him, "OK, OK, I take you outside" and moved to get up quickly. He immediately stopped barking, jumped off the ottoman, and as I started to walk, ran around me in a quick circle. His doggy eyes were very excited as he continued circling me, panting while I lumbered toward the front door, the toes on my left foot half numb from neuropathy.

I barely finishing saying to him "Go get my other slipper and I'll take you outside" as he had already taken off to retrieve it. As this is our nightly routine, and with the other slipper shortly delivered to me, we stood behind the front door to put on my slippers, his leash, and head outside. Maxi has me trained and is predictable to start this routine around midnight every night.

It was not too dark in the front of the house because there is a tall lit lantern that stands next to my driveway that was planted there, I think, by the community HOA. The moonlight just adds a glow to the outer edges of darkness outside of the range of the lantern. I always feel OK about going outside with Maxi late at night because I think the light keeps away some of the bigger wildlife that could come out of the woods behind the house. Living in Georgia I have learned that you can never know what could be prowling about outside.

But with a big streetlamp on I feel it gives us an advantage over other darker lit homes in the area, at least that is what I think to myself every night as we head outside. I call out ahead in case there are bunnies or deer eating my flowers in my garden or if a lone coyote or bear is prowling, so that they have time to get away into the darkness before we get that far outdoors.

As far as the lantern is concerned (and as far as I know), I do not pay the electricity and do not recall if the bulb was ever replaced in the five years since I have been living in this cul-de-sac. It is usually always on and you can ask anyone who lives on the block. The lantern is always on at night doing lantern things. Illuminating things.

After being walked by the dog for a bit around the front of the house, and after Maxi finished his nightly patrol, we made our way back toward the front driveway. It was peaceful out. The temperature is starting to drop at night, so it was a cool quiet Georgia August night and the first one I have felt in a long time. I was feeling grateful that fall is almost here, so I walked Maxi slowly, taking it all in.

Maxi was sniffing around outside the perimeter of the grass when I noticed the Toad sitting on my perfectly manicured lawn.

The Toad stood out against the carpet-like grass that my neighbors always say is a beautiful lawn. I too also admit does look great. My next-door neighbor mows my grass every week, so it is crisp and neat all the time.

There is a strangeness though about this Toad as it is just sitting there on the lawn. It looks almost frozen, looking up at the night sky. I guess that is what caught my attention, its absolute stillness.

I stood there wondering what this Toad could be thinking. Was it going to move or hop away? Did it see the dog and I and is now sitting there frozen in fear? Is its little Toad heart racing as I am watching it, with one of its eyeballs fixed on us waiting to bolt should we move hastily toward it? Is it biding its time, hoping that we move away so it can get back to doing it nighttime Toad things?

I am not sure and maybe it does not see us at all yet.

I mean, what if it is transfixed by the moon and the night stars? What if it is perplexed at the night and day? I wonder if it wonders why sometimes it is dark and sometimes it is light or if it even understands night and day? I wonder if it even knows it is dark out. Do Toads see at night? I cannot remember and did not bring my phone outside to google it.

I wonder how old Toad is as he sits there on the grass. Does it appreciate the stars, or does it think they are lightning bugs, lingering immobile in the sky? Is it waiting for them to move so it can try to snatch one up? Is it afraid of the stars? Does it understand perspective? Does it even wonder, friend?

Is it sitting there thinking of its last meal or trying to catch the next meal? Or perhaps it is asleep in the grass, lulled to sleep by a barely cool breeze in a never-ending field of plentiful bugs and plants and the now ‘quiet for now’ night places? Is it meeting another Toad or waiting for its mate or children? Does it ever play in the grass? Is it ever happy or sad?

Does it wonder why sometimes it is very noisy or sometimes very busy? Does it know what noise is or do daytime noises frighten it into hiding until the night? Does it think, what are the big creatures that move in the sky or the world, and what are the big things moving around that do not fly but make tremendous noises? Does it wonder if we are food and if we are tasty? What does the Toad think of the world? Does it have any thoughts at all?

What if the only time the Toad is not afraid is at night when it is quiet? And what if it is now thinking that the creatures are now out at night too when they should not be and does not know what to do so it sits there frozen?

Does the Toad think I could be its mother and Maxi its brother and will grow up to be as big as us? Or does it accept us as fellow creatures of the night and is not afraid at all? Do we even get a passing thought, Toad?

Perhaps his mother Toad mentioned to him about us creatures? In their Toad world, do they ever venture out far enough to encounter us in their generation or is the rare sighting experienced by the wanderer Toad relayed back to the Toad community with great excitement? A myth about great lumbering creatures making a lot of noise.

Was I the myth last night in the Toads world? Will the Toad talk of seeing me to his Toad friends?

What am I to the Toad? What are we all?

I scoot Maxi over to sniff the Toad. He does not seem too interested. I point him back over to it and he moves toward it, his nose sniffs at it but moves along the grass and away. Maxi then grasps his leash in his mouth and pulls me with it toward the front door of the house.

He is cute like that when he wants to go inside.

Maybe Maxi did not understand what the Toad was and wants to get away from it or maybe he does not care? He usually does not seem interested in bothering things that scurry around if they are smaller than a bunny.

Sometimes in the house when I try to chase a fly down, he gets aggressive and barks a lot at me. He seems to not like it when I try to swat at them as if he protests to me hunting or if he just wants me to leave them alone. I wonder what he could be thinking about it sometimes. He used to bring me small things when he was a pup, a dead turtle, some bugs and sticks and one time a rock, which I keep as a precious memento, but nothing lately: although I suspect he may be trying for a bunny. I suppose I will never know for sure since he cannot say what he is thinking. I can only guess and well, he sure likes to chase the bunnies outside.

Sometime after that, we went back inside and I took off Maxi's leash, locked the front door, and closed the curtains with no more thoughts about the Toad until I went outside today to check the mail.

The Toad was not there on the lawn. The lawn was still crispy and neat but where the Toad was last night appeared untouched. It was almost like the Toad was never there at all. I wondered where the Toad was and where it went last night?

I heard a rumble of thunder and looked up at the sky. The rain was soon to follow, best to get back inside. I walked along the edge of the grass and noticed a brown leaf on the floor near the lawn. At first, I thought it was the Toad, but without my glasses on had to get closer to confirm it was just a brown leaf.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all as far as leaves go. It looks old though like it flew in on the wind or maybe it was a leaf I could have swept out of the garage yesterday before I worked out. You could say that it is also almost the same size as the Toad and maybe if you looked at it from another angle perhaps it could almost be the shape of the Toad.

But that would be silly thoughts, right? Because a Toad has nothing in common with a leaf. Where did that thought even come from? A leaf is not a Toad and does not look like a Toad at all in the light. It is just a leaf and it was not there last night where it is now that I can recall.

I am certain it was not on the lawn last night because it is barely fall and leaves are not really falling on the grass right now. I mean to say, last night what I saw on the grass and what was on the grass, it was a Toad, yes?

It was a Toad.

2.

I went out late again last night and over the course of the past few nights, I have noticed something odd.

I see Toads. Even multiple toads, everywhere outside of my house. Such a thing I would have never thought of and did not notice or perhaps never occurred until after I first saw the one Toad I had previously brought to your attention in the recent past.

At first, I could not be certain it was not a coincidence that I noticed another one at all. Perhaps it is like when you think of something or see something and then after that, you see ten more. I once noticed a sky blue Trans-Am driving on the streets of Brooklyn. (But was it a Trans-Am or a Camaro?) The next day I saw many more - it was as if (and I have heard this is true) your brain will alert you when your eyes pick up on something that was recently recollected. I was not sure why it commanded my attention at all, and it was a very long time ago. Things like this happen frequently. I hear that a lot.

But what if, friends? What if the Toad did go back to his Toad community and talk about the creatures it saw that other night? What if at Toad Town Hall erupted wonder and disbelief and we are seeing the bravest Toads venture out to catch a glimpse of their Yeti monsters to confirm the sightings. What if they are assessing me just in case I am a threat and planning their defense system or am I reaching fantastic thoughts in my mind?

As I walk Maxi outside the front door and as I try to lead him, I am moving him away from them, from Toad to Toad. There was one at the very front of my door - almost peering inside but it moved off to the side after I opened the door. We passed it without much excitement only to find another as we passed the garden area. I pulled Maxi again the other way but only came up against another Toad, this one larger, near the side of my car. The next night when we went out, we encountered closer to six total Toads. One Toad jumped inside a paper box that had fallen over next to the garbage pail as I walked very close to it. I spied another one watching me a few feet away as I reached down to move the box. I pulled my hand back and left it alone, not sure if I would scare it to death.

I thought of the pet mouse I had for a day a long time ago. I had rescued it from my sister's snake tank before it had a chance to gobble it up. Poor mouse! It would crawl over my hands and nibble at my skin, but it never bit me and seemed to enjoy while I would pet it.

Unfortunately, the doorbell rang later that morning and it appeared to have a heart attack and die right in my palm. The house had a very old loud doorbell that you only find in old homes and the house I lived in was originally built sometime in the 1800s. I am certain it was very frightening for the mouse because it startled me too! It was not often that someone rang the bell (or that it worked).

But I know that I have not seen Toad's like this before outside. I am almost certain I have not.

I wonder if, as I am walking Maxi quietly in the late night, and as it is very quiet outside, if the Toads are all communicating something quite different. What if there is pandemonium at Toad Town? What if they are silently communicating their disbelief at such large creatures and are trying to collectively figure out what we are and how they can get inside the mountain we emerged from - is there any resources in this mountain they can use that houses these great creatures? What will they find if they can figure out how to get inside? Am I encountering the scouts of the Toad tribe? Is this an epic Toad adventure I have been cast into without an audition? What is my role? How many more extras are on the way?

Why are there so many Toads outside? I am not sure I have an answer.

I have had bunnies and butterflies come in swarms at certain times of the year, and even spiders and snakes make their appearance at their usual times of the seasons, but I have not encountered Toads in the five years that I have been living in this house. At least, I am not finding any memory of them. What could it all mean?

What if I interrupted the Toad the other day and in observing it, Toad thought I was threatening it and now a Toad tribe has come to make a stand and voice their opposition to my initial attention, but I cannot hear them?

What if they are pleading with me and I am deaf to their frequency? What if I am the dragon in their quest? And take a walk with me for just a minute, what if the toad I first saw the other night was a watch Toad of sorts, sent to stand guard at the big mountain and report back any activity?

What are these Toads doing just sitting at my front door and driveway, near my garage, lawn, and garden at midnight? They seem to be multiplying.

I hope I do not accidentally step on one.

I can almost imagine they are trying to tell me something. Perhaps they want me to join them on a quest. Perhaps they have something to show me or teach me. I will have to watch and wait and see how things progress.

3.

One thought struck me today and led to this outpouring of possibility in my thoughts. Well tonight, that is, I took Maxi out yet again for a mid-evening stroll and there it was again. My Toad. And with Toad was a smaller version that hopped into the grass as we made our way down the stairs with the door closing nosily behind us.

It is sitting in the exact same spot as yesterday and facing the same direction. I also realized as I think more about it that it has become such a common occurrence to see Toad in that spot every night that I filed it away as if it were a bush or a statue, as something to walk around, on my trips back and forth from the edge of the driveway on my nightly dog stroll.

The thing is, the thing that has me wondering at, is the Toad itself. It is either a Toad night stalker of sorts or perhaps it is just a coincidence of time in our schedules. Perhaps this Toad has a schedule, and we cross paths there at night as part of a shared mid-evening routine. The more I think about a Toad having a routine the more my brain wanders at what else Toad does as a routine and how common it is, in fact, that this should not really be any surprise. But still...

What if it is true friends? What if I am not being silly or unreasonably obsessed with the Toad outside my house? What if the Toads are, in fact, watching me closely? Even peering in my door every night, watching me cook and eat and play with Maxi. You may recall I mentioned the first time I noticed a Toad some weeks back that the Toad was on my very doorstep. I thought it could have been there as a spy, peering into my home through the glass pane on the front door. Watching me while I was oblivious to their Toadish surveillance.

What if they are taking notes and wondering when or if I would invite them in and give them a place next to Max and serve them up a savory Toad banquet? What if this Toad is a wanderer, an outcast or an orphan, just looking for someone or something to give his life meaning? To find his place in the world or understand what is going on beyond the great bright opening that they think of as the doorway to the mountain from where creatures emerge.

Or what if I am observing the Toad and thinking all these thoughts about Toad but Toad is giving me only a passing thought. That Toad regards me as maybe just a nuisance interrupting it as it enjoys the night. Maybe I am obsessed with Toad but perhaps it is this exact Toad that is nibbling my flowers every night and leaving its scent which Max pulls at his leash to try to capture and peering in my windows. It is Toad that is invading my space, looking at me with his beady night stalker eyes.

But what if the Toad forgets me moments after I am out of its sight and only thinks of me as a fly or a worm - something living like itself without a care in the world. What if Toad lives and understand the true meaning of freedom and takes glee in his routines. What can I learn from the Toad?

Maybe I should be watching for Toad and following it back to see where it goes at night. Maybe Toad is teaching its young one how to hunt, or sip water from the wet grass after the rain or perhaps this is the dad Toad, taking its baby Toad out at night to play or chase flies. I am painting a picture in my mind of a Toad family. Toad Mama is at home doing Toad Mama things - where do these Toad's sleep? Together I imagine. Do they understand the concept of good night? Is there a lot we can learn from Toad or is Toad learning from us?

Maybe Toad sings with all the other Toads while we are all asleep and they dance with joy, just hopping around hoping to catch the morning breeze.

I think they have a lot of sing about - no timecard to punch, no boss, or clients. No worry over bills or doctor's appointment, just living without a care for tomorrow. This is what it is all about friends.

Maybe I will follow and join Toad soon at daybreak because it is always a good time to feel as free as Toad.

4.

It is cold outside. Very icy cold.

It has been some time since I had a chance to bring you up to date on Toad. I was taken by surprise one day returning home from walking Maxi up and down the hill. Sometimes we sprint up the hill and gasp on our way down; I love to watch his puppy ears flap in the wind and his expression of pure joy as it lights up his canine face.

Well, to be honest, I am usually the only one gasping.

As I approached the front door, and pass the lawn, I peeked down at the shrubs. A little garden statue caught my eye and I let out a cry of surprise.

It brought me back to thinking of Toad. It was quite some time since I had seen him outside. I believe it has been a few months and I wonder where my Toad friend has gone and if I will see him again come spring. But this discovery made my thoughts curious.

It is a garden statue of a Toad, and a smaller Toad behind it, somewhat over it. I had completely forgotten that I had put it there one day in the late spring. It was originally behind another shrub that grew to cover it, so I moved it to the front of the garden. This was about the time that I started to notice Toad in the first place. I never connected the two until that moment.

My mind started to race about Toad and why Toad was always very close to where this Toad statue sits in the garden of shrubs and flowers and I find myself astonished at my conclusion.

Toad has been visiting and sitting facing the front of the Toad statue in the garden all this time.

Toad could have come across the Toad statue and thought it needed help. Or perhaps it thought I did something horrific to the Toads and Toad was desperately trying to help free the Toads or wake them up, night after night. Or maybe it did not connect me to the situation, but I was the nuisance that would interrupt its work.

All the while keeping his Toad eyes on me as I appeared out of the front door which I am sure the Toad thinks of as a great mountain. Perhaps I am really the Ogre in the Toad's world.

Poor Toad!

No wonder the Toad did not move when I was walking around outside! He hoped I would not notice him. Not like the other Toads, like the panicked fleeing of one by the garbage pail that one night last August. That was the night I knocked over a box near the trash. That was the night he brought a bunch of his Toad friends. They were located all over the driveway, hopping away if I walked near them.

I think now that the Toad thought to freeze as I approached him to deliberately fool me. To let me think he was already frozen so I would pay him no attention. I bet he felt smug as I passed by, as though he had gained some advantage over me. Do you think I have him figured out? Could it be the Toad tried to trick me? What does this Toad know of trickery?

But what if it is something more tragic? Now I can only think about the horror and anguish of the Toad's thoughts!

Is Toad thinking how he can help or free his brother Toads from their frozen position? They do not rot and are not dead, yet they are not alive. What is the story of the frozen giant Toads that do not rot and are not dead, yet they are not alive?

Toads must have come from all over to see the statue. Perhaps there is talk in Toad town of the incorruptible Toads. Toads now making a pilgrimage to my front garden to see them.

What have I done?

I again feel so sorry for Toad. And he is gone, and I have no way to tell him or show him that this Toad statue is not a real Toad couple but, how could I explain this to a Toad, friend? How could I communicate with Toad to show him the truth of the Toads?

That as humans we feel the need to fabricate the natural just to appease our sense of decoration? That we are shallow humans, spinning on a ball of mud in the middle of nothingness, trying to distract ourselves from our eventual doom by a resin statue of two Toads smiling happily at nothing.

If only I could find him!

I would bring him a worm and show him how I mean him no harm. I should never have placed that statue in the garden but now how can I remove it? What if I remove it and Toad comes back and sees it missing and thinks I ate the Toads? Or something worse? What if Toad uses that as a marker to know when he is home? I do not want to take a chance and move it. Toad would never know their fate.

Or what if, (and this is another thought I have had), what if Toad thinks this is a King or his maker?

What is he visits it every night to watch this Toad King and wait on His Majesties pleasure?

What if with the rustling leaves of the wind one late autumn day, Toad thought he heard a command and took off on a journey. What if he is out there, following after the ball of gold in the sky, lonely and afraid?

If this is true will he ever come back?

I miss my friend.

5.

I have been giving it a lot of thought lately.

The sun is out, and the weather app is reporting a high temperature of 64 degrees today and around 52 tonight. I think the weather today is around the same temperature the last time I saw Toad. I am going to be on the lookout for Toad tonight as I am thinking about making friends with him.

I want to tell Toad how much I have thought of him all this time and how worried I have been. I want to perhaps scold Toad and tell him how dangerous it was for him to just disappear without any warning. How it is not right to just leave people without any warning or reason. How it has not been the same since he has been gone.

Where did you go Toad?

So, I think I am going to smash it.

But I will leave the pieces where they fall so that Toad can see the plaster remains and understand that the giant statue was never two Toads. They never lived or breathed or ate flies or hopped around the grass together. They never stared up into the night sky and wondered when the lightening bugs would come closer.

They never saw the sun rise or set. Never had any thoughts at all.

I hope to relieve his Toad mind but also leave the marker there so that he knows when he has made it home.

Safely, I hope.

I am restless now for the night.

I have decided to smash it now and then make an early dinner so that I can prop myself behind the door with a chair and a good book and wait for the Toad to arrive.

I open the door and head toward the garden. I pick up the Toad statue and inspect it.

The statue is very realistic and heavy. I forgot how heavy it was when I bought it from the antique store down in Roswell. I have not been shopping there again in a long time.

I used to love to go to the Antique store with my Dad when he was alive. We would spend the day browsing, going from booth to booth looking at all the antiques. You would never know what you could find! The thrill of the hunt was exciting. I found a lot of things at that Antique store that I used to furnish my home. Dad and I used to love to watch antique shows on TV also, especially if there were bidding wars. And now it seems that is all I do is watch the shows on TV.

Holding it in two hands I give it a little shake.

It is hollow and there is a rattle, more like a ruffle of noise. I do not remember the statue making any noise when I purchased it. There is something inside of it now.

You know, now that I recall, my Dad was the one that prompted me to buy this statue in the first place. He really got a kick out of it! We kept it in his room on his dresser near his TV. He used to tell me how much he loved to sit in his chair and read and occasionally, he would talk to it about something he read in the book.

Nothing crazy, mind you, just little comments here and there.

He also was into golf and would comment to the Toads about the game. I was usually cooking or off on my own hobbies as I was never into those type of sports. The only sport my dad and I would watch together was weightlifting, strongmen or CrossFit. Dad came to my gym once to watch me lift weights. He would say "Holy cow look how strong my daughter is. Wow. You are my beautiful daughter." He would smile at me as only a Dad can smile at a daughter.

After my Dad passed away, I put the statue in the front garden along with a rose bush that Dad had given me. I realize that was a few years ago and remember the day I brought Dad to the hospital for his surgery we joked in the car that if he died, I could not give the statue away. He said he could not bear the thought of the Toads being given to live with anyone else. He made me promise to destroy it and bury the pieces in the garden.

To put the statue outside near the rose bush made sense to me at the time since it is a garden statue anyway and I was planting the rose bush there too. It made me happy to remember my Dad this way.

But that rattle, I wonder what it is? I must find out.

I turn it in my hands and look at the bottom. I see a black round rubber stopper and wonder if this is not merely a statue but maybe it is a plaster Toad bank? I have a colorful pig bank on top of my refrigerator, and it has the same black round stopper that keeps the change in. I remember from a long time ago my grandmother had a huge plaster bank in the living room and it too had the same black round rubber stopper.

I turn the statue around again, but I do not see a coin slot.

Now or never, I raise the Toad statue over my head begin to smash it into the ground but stop myself.

How can I smash it, friends? It made my Dad happy.

I put the statue down on the grass and wrestle out the stopper. I can see it has been removed and replaced a lot. There is wear around the rubber stopper edges. I try rolling the statue around to try to see what is inside.

I must pick it up to see. There is something black inside. It looks like a small book. I try to shake it out, but the statue is too heavy.

I go back inside to the kitchen and get a butter knife.

Outside again, I try to scrape away at the hole in the bottom of the statue so I can grab what appears to be a small book. It is one of those Moleskine books you see for sale at Barnes and Noble.

I have a few of those around the house. My Dad did too. I could spend hours at Barnes and Noble just looking at the books. Sometimes I smell them. I thought it was weird until my Uncle Tommy told me he does the same thing. He and I have never been to a bookstore together, so I find it curious how I do something that my Uncle does, but I have never seen my Uncle do. My grandfather was also very bookish and used to write poems. I wonder if it is in our blood.

Dad and I used to paint together. He kept a newspaper article of a Father-Daughter business team and would show me and say, "Hey Rocky, we need to do something together like this Father and Daughter. Aren’t they something?" It was a wish that we made a reality before he passed away.

He was 80 years old when he died but his mind was as sharp as a teenager. He would host the art sales and sell the paintings down in Decatur. We had a lot of fun together painting but they could not save him that day at the hospital. I can still remember that morning, he took extra time at home. He even tidied up his room while I kept calling for him that we would be late. It was very early in the morning when we left that day.

Dad always wished that we had more time together. Tragic circumstances had separated us for 40 years and it was only several years before he died that I was able to find him and bring him home to live with me. We were inseparable after I picked him up from Penn Station one February afternoon. We soon realized that I was the female version of Dick Maroney. He said it terrified him and we laughed and laughed.

I picked away at the hole and with my fingertips manage to finally grab hold of the book. I pull it out and sit on the grass next to the statue.

I open the small book up and flip through the pages. The book is loaded with painted pictures and sketches. I stop at one of the pages and read my dad's handwriting.

"To my beautiful daughter.

I did not want to leave without letting you know how very much it meant to me that we were able to find each other and get to know one another as well as we did. I know it meant the world to you and to your sisters too, and I am so grateful that we grew so close. It was everything to me.

I left you a little something that you can use from time to time to buy more art supplies or have dinner on dad. Take your sisters out to the movies and do some shopping together. Buy a bottle of the best burgundy and have a glass with dinner to remember your old man. Take time to sit outside and watch the world slow down. You never know what you will see. You do not know where the night comes from or where it goes but everything in the night will sit under the same moon as you do.

I hope you do, and I hope I will see you again out there, somewhere, again someday.

Take care my dear, for now.

Love you,

Dad."

I do not realize I had been holding my breath. I take a large gulp of air. I pick up the statue again and give it a shake. There is something else inside. Another small book. This time it is a bank passbook. I have not seen one of these in a long time.

I open it to the first page and find my information is listed as the owner of the account. I flip through years of pages listing deposits adding to a balance which is currently at $20,000. The last deposit dated only a month before dad left.

I look up at the sky and realize it is now dark outside. I hear a rustling nearby and see Maxi at the front window watching me.

I wipe the tears that have fallen from my face, stand up and put the statue back in the garden. I should head back inside to make some dinner and think about things. I put the books in my pocket.

I walk up the stairs, open the door and go inside. I turn to close the door and feel Maxi brush past my legs.

As I close the curtain, I notice movement through the glass and see Toad.

He is sitting on the pavement staring at me, I think. I did not see him while I was outside. I wonder if he was watching me this whole time and now understands the mystery of the giant statue. Or perhaps he was watching to see what I would do to the Toads.

I am not sure, but the longer I look at Toad the more I believe he is smiling at me. I feel a sudden peace fall over my heart.

I whisper behind the door, "Welcome back home, Toad."