It had been nearly a year since Dusty's little run-in with the talking mockingbird, and he was all too willing to put the incident behind him. Doing so meant moving to a different apartment and trying to stay off tequila for a while.
Dusty had arrived home from another grueling day of work, the papers were piling up to monolithic proportions, and he was definitely ready for some relief, a vacation of some sort.
Relief came in the form of a call from his younger brother Alex, who was having academic problems, making the chances of a visit to California slim. But, the call came with good news, Alex would be able to come after all, apparently the parents were eager to shed themselves of him.
Dusty, eager for the arrival of his brother, and a refreshing change of routine, decided to brighten up his apartment.
He found a delightful knickknack at a garage sale one day, just driving by, he saw a medium-sized wicker laundry basket shaped like a frog. The family had once owned one of these, and the resemblance was uncanny, aside from the fact that this frog had both of its green marble eyes.
He bought the frog, always looking to add a little whimsy to his living quarters, and maybe it would inspire a poem or two. He placed it beside the couch and gave it no further thought.
Four days later, Dusty was receiving e-mails from Alex, who was disturbed by the number 26. Apparently the number had presented itself one too many times to be considered coincidence, the day he was arriving was July 26th, he was staying 26 days, and a number of other instances were spoken of in these e-mails.
Dusty knew that part of Alexs paranoia was for their entertainment, but he couldn't help feeling the same as his brother did, the 26s were popping up very alarmingly.
He was finally able to brush the thoughts aside and get back to work, as he would have to lighten his load slightly at the arrival of his brother.
July 26th came, and Alex arrived safely in Sacramento, a relief to him, but still there was fear, as there was much left to the day. They arrived home, the heat already welling up in the apartment as they entered and stowed away Alex suitcases. Thats when Dusty remembered the wicker frog.
"Hey, Alex, remember that frog laundry hamper we used to have?" Dusty said, turning on a fan.
"Yeah...the wicker one?"
"Yep. I found one almost like it at a garage sale not too long ago." He pointed to the place beside the couch, but it wasn't there.
Alex turned to the place he was indicating. "Did you buy it?" He replied, a smirk curling the edge of his lips.
Dusty looked around in confusion, and found the frog poised in his armchair. "I didn't put it there..." He murmured, and carried it back to its original position.
"Ah," Alex said. "Looks a lot like the old one. How much did you pay for it?"
"26 cents." Dusty replied.
A silence from his brother made him think over what he just said, and he realized what the problem was. "26." He said, beginning to laugh at its ridiculousness.
Alex, however, wasn't laughing and was eyeing the frog with increasing suspicion. "It ain't funny any more, Dusty. This is getting all too weird."
The serious tone in Alexs usually sarcastic and uninterested voice was spooking Dusty, and he thought back to how the frog had been mispositioned in the chair. He walked over to it and picked it up, receiving a loud "ribbit."
Immediately, he dropped the basket, Alex stepping several feet backwards.
"Oh, Im terribly sorry," said the frog, "Its my peoples dialect. I just can't seem to shake it."
Dusty sighed, a reaction that drew a surprised look from Alex. His brother didn't know about the mockingbird incident, which this present predicament painfully reminded him of. "I understand..." Said Dusty.
The frog waddled away from the couch, swiveling its head from side to side. "Extremely dreary residence you have here, sir. Not at all as big as your last one."
Dusty glanced over at Alex to see if he knew what the frog was speaking of. "What last one?"
The frog turned and chuckled slightly. "Why the last time we were together...Joplin, I believe it was."
Dusty's jaw dropped. So it was that old frog!
"You mean you're our old frog?" Alex was already venturing.
"Yes. Yes, indeed I am, young man."
"How did you get here...and your eye...?" Dusty asked.
The frog hopped up on a coffee table. "Well, when you all sold me before you moved, I visited Oklahoma City for awhile, then Denver, and finally here. They repaired my eye in Denver, I believe."
Dusty realized this could not be a dream or a hallucination, from previous experience. Also, from the fact that his brother was here, mouth agape at the very same thing.
"What about 26? Are you responsible for that?" Alex asked.
"Quite responsible my boy! For this is the day that the world will change forever! And you two will help me." The frog reached into its mouth and pulled out a notebook. "I need you to get me a couple of really strong magnets and an electric generator..."
"What do you mean the world will change forever..." He trailed off as he saw the notebooks cover, green with large white printing "Plans for World Domination."
This incident had taken a more serious turn than his last outing with this sort of thing, and now Dusty needed to find a way out of this without alerting anyone else to these strange circumstances. Something told him he wouldn't be able to walk up and dump coffee on this one to make it stop talking.
Alex must have been on to the solution. "Well go right out and get them. Come on, Dusty." He opened the door and gestured out, the frog nodding and admiring his notebook.
Dusty stepped out and shut the door.
"We need some sort of claw." Alex whispered.
"Wha...a claw?"
"Yeah, a claw. Nothing else can explain why that thing is talking to us except one. The new eye. If we had some kind of claw, we could pull it out."
The answer seemed so simple...too simple for Dusty. It was the most likely solution, but this wicker frog had somehow managed to change Alexs flight plans just to scare him...which raised two questions: Why? And how?
If Alexs plan worked, he may never know the answers to those questions, but they needed to end the dreams of this tyranny-minded amphibian before it got too far.
They headed down the stairs, and a person emerged from their door as they passed. "Hey Gary!"
Dusty turned at the call of his real name, the one everyone but his family called him. It was Will, his downstairs neighbor. "Were kind of in a hurry, Will."
"You always say that. Is this Alex?"
"Yeah, he is, but really, Will, were in a hurry."
The man rolled his eyes. "All right. I just wanted to know if I could borrow that wicker frog for a while. My sisters coming in, and she just loves frogs."
Dusty almost smiled. "Sure. Sure, Ill get it for you right after I get back."
"Thanks! See ya around!" Will then went back into his apartment and shut the door.
They returned back at the building with a long grabbing device that would hopefully do the job. They climbed the stairs, opened the door to his apartment, and saw that the frog was nowhere in sight. He checked every room in the place, but to no avail. The aspiring dictator had flown the coop. "Never leave a wicker frog by itself." He mumbled as he made his way back to the front room. "Hes gone."
Alex made another, cursory glance of the room. "The notebook is still here. Surely he wouldn't have gone off without his notebook."
A thought dawned on Dusty. "Will." He said, "Will has the spare keys to my apartment. He must have thought I really wasn't gonna give the frog to him."
Dusty charged down the stairs, and knocked at Wills door. The lights were not on, and there was no answer. Luckily, the key swap was mutual, and Dusty unlocked the door and gained entrance to the abode. Without even looking, he found the frog trying to get out a window.
"Thank heavens you're here!" Said the frog, "What a dreadfully annoying man!"
Dusty didn't reply, but grabbed the frog and headed back upstairs.
"...Making me leave behind my notebook and all. Horrible!" The frog was continuing on with his blabbing, and Dusty would be extremely happy when he finally shut this thing up.
As he reached the door, he realized he could just pull this things eye out now, the grabber wasn't necessary. But which one? He may only have one shot at this, so he had to think back. After not being able to remember which eye had been missing, and the frogs chatting turning to impatient complaints, he reached in and pulled out the right eye, its yelp of pain cut off as the marble eye ripped from its gluey connection.
He pocketed the eye as he heard Wills car outside. Scrambling back down the stairs again, he quickly unlocked Wills door, tossed the frog inside, and locked it back up.
He ran up the stairs, for the last time tonight, he hoped, and in to his apartment.
Alex was sitting on the couch, looking at the frogs notebook. "Did you take care of it?"
Dusty heard Will climb the stairs, jingle his keys and open his door. "Yeah, I did."
He pulled the marble out of his pocket and stared at it. Finally, he tilted his head at the notebook. "Whats in it?"
Alex didn't respond for a moment, but soon turned the notebook to Dusty.
The page was covered with the number 26.
Dusty took the notebook and flipped through all of the pages. All filled with 26s. No plans for a takeover of the earth. Only that number.
"What do you think it means?" Alex inquired, rubbing his hands together.
Dusty shut the notebook and turned his attention back to the marble, different shades of color swirling together in a miasma of green.
"We may never know." Said Dusty, who was beginning to wonder if this sort of thing would be a yearly event. "26..." He said, and leaned back in the chair.
Alex stretched out on the couch, and they slept through the rest of the night, hoping that some how, some way, the remaining 25 days of Alexs visit wouldn't be so eventful.
But they didn't count on it.