A little Frog, With a big dream

Two little frogs lived at the bottom of a deep well. Their names were Salt and Pepper. These two little frogs had spent their entire short lives in the well. Now Pepper was a practical sort of frog, content with the status quo of life in the well. The well kept them safe, they had plenty of water and there were always ample mosquitos to eat. What more could a frog wish for?

Salt was not so content with his life at the bottom of the well. Sure, the well met his basic needs, but he could not shake the feeling that there was more to life than meeting one’s basic needs. Every night he would look up at the stars passing over his well. Through the opening of his well, he could often see 5, 6, or sometimes on especially clear nights, 10 stars. The stars amazed him, he loved looking at them.

Salt had often talked with Pepper about the stars. “How many stars do you think might be up there?” he would ask. He knew he had seen 10 once or twice. Could there be 15? He let his mind run wild and thought what if there were 20 or even 25? Pepper gave little interest to Salt’s star obsession. He had more important business to concern himself with in the well. There was swimming around the edges of the well to be done and bubbles to be blown in the water. Just proper down to earth frog business, none of this star dreaming silly stuff.

Salt did try to shake off the idea of how many stars were above the well. He tried to busy himself with proper frog business. But he could not stop feeling that he was meant to see those stars.

One day after a terrible fight with his good friend, Salt realised that life in a well was just not for him. The fight had been about his incessant dreaming of seeing the stars and Pepper demanded that he forget about such ideas. Salt told his friend that tomorrow evening he would be climbing out of the well. His friend laughed loudly, called Salt a fool who would die doing a foolish thing. Salt knew he might die if he fell. This did scare him, but somehow he was more scared of dying at the bottom of the well and never having tried to reach his goal.

True to his word, as night fell and the cool air crept into the little frogs’ well, Salt gathered his courage and carefully started scaling the wall of the well. His small friend swam in the water below. Eventually, Pepper struggled to even see his life-long friend as he moved higher and higher up the wall. 

After what seemed hours, Salt started to tire. The wall seemed much higher than he had expected. He must have been past halfway but he dared not look down to see. His little frog arms started to tremble from the strain of holding on. He started to think he would not make it to the top and felt foolish for not listening to his friend. He even thought of turning back, but rather than turn back he found a small ledge of stone that he could rest on for a while. From his refuge, he could see just how far he had come. To his surprise, he was well past halfway, maybe three quarters of the way to the top. He was encouraged and started climbing up again with renewed enthusiasm. 

After a short while Salt realised he could smell the fresh air outside, he was close to his goal now. He was exhausted, he dared not lose concentration, a fall from here would certainly be the end of him. Eventually, he reached up and could feel the edge of the stone above him. He pulled himself up and over the edge. Rolled onto his back and breathed heavily to catch his breath. His little arms and legs were burning from the effort of the long climb. As he laid there catching his breath, he started to remember why he had climbed out of his deep well. As he opened his eyes and looked to the sky, tears started to roll down his little frog cheeks. 

He had dreamed of this moment so many times. He had dreamed of carefully counting just how many stars were above his well. He laughed to himself, as he realised just how small his dream had been when compared to what the world had to offer.