Mrs.B was late

Mrs B was late. This was not unusual. She was always late. In school she was known as Late Kate. Nonetheless she felt harried and guilty whenever she was late.Today was no exception. It was Tuesday. She got up at 10 am. She always got up late. Yet she was always agahst at how late she slept. She definitely should go to bed earlier.

Hurriedly she drank her Lipton spiced chai. It felt good. Desk top weather showed 11C. Cold was settling in. Maybe she needed a top jacket today? She showered, dressed quickly, blew Mr.R some kisses. Oh how she missed him today... On her way she realized that it was almost 11 AM! She will have to order lunch for today's meeting. Argg...

These meetings were inevitably boring and useless. She suspected everybody attended these lunches for free food! No one admitted though. Not even she. She decided on Chinese. Cheap and popular. She could even take out some on the way. Hopefully the restaurant was open for lunch. It may not be lunchtime yet.. Thank God she was at least going to the department before lunch! She relaxed.

She stopped at Hong Kong. It was a very popular cinese restaurant on campus. Ordered five lunch combos and a few sodas. Watched a very boring basket ball match as she waited for the food and was glad to leave the stinky restaurant lobby 15 minutes later with her order. She quickly crossed the road. She jay walked. Always. Without fail. And she always felt guilty.

As she entered the Yard she caught sight of the different colors the leaves had taken; Red, pink, orange, yellow, purple. Color was strewn on the green grass. The grass was almost gone. Soon the trees would look bare. For a minute she forgot that she was late and guilty. She caught sight of a few squirrels trying to crack ..nuts? She smiled at their efforts and started walking away...

Then she heard something. The sound made her curious. It was of water dripping. Was there a leak in one of the sprinklers? Oh! she did not fancy getting wet now!! But it was still there..a constantly dripping noise. She looked around. Nothing. She looked up. Nothing. Very curious...She looked down. And what she saw almost made her cry out in surprise. It was a green frog with yellow stripes. It was sitting under a mushroom which grew beneath a big mossy tree trunk. The leaves on that tree were yellow.
But she was so surprised that she couldn’t concentrate on anything but the frog. It looked irritated. Looked????? A frog l o o k e d???

She peered closely. Indeed it was looking very irritated. The frog suddenly said " I hate getting drenched. I was born in water. Argg..how could I be. This rain just gets my skin all wet".
She said, almost on autopilot," But there is no rain. It’s sunny and bright!" To which the frog replied," You seemed almost smart. But no! You had to ask the same silly question everybody asks". Mrs B was stumped. She was certainly dreaming. Maybe she had too much wine last night or maybe she was getting no sleep at all. She definitely needed to think. “Everybody noooottttiiiCes youuuu?". The Frog sulked. Said, “They do. Only later they believe that they had more wine or were getting less sleep and that they imagined me sitting here. Or why do you think Iam sitting here getting wet and no one bothers to move that sprinkler away so that it doesn’t drip on me?"

She walked away. Scared. And amused. Did she really never see the frog? It seemed impossible. She walked by that tree almost everyday. She knew how the colours of the leaves had changed over the last few weeks. No it couldn't be. And whoever heard of sulking frogs...She definitely had more wine yesterday. But it was a verrrryyy funny situation...She almost laughed thinking how her colleagues would laugh at the incident. But it was worth its time. She certainly felt relaxed. A frog looked sad??? Certainly it was worth getting late!!