Grandfrogs

by John Brantingham

Travis is there for his grandfather, who can’t get around fast any more, there for him in the old man’s backyard when he notices that his grandfather is watching a frog waddling slowly across the backyard.

There’s a memory, something way back from that time when he might have been four years old or so and not in the surreal haze of early childhood when he knows that his grandfather caught a frog for him, gave it to him like a gift. He’s lost in that memory when he feels someone staring at him and turns to find his grandfather’s knowing face.

They’re not close enough to have a psychic connection, but his grandfather says, “I gave it to you because you were having a bad day.”

Travis can feel himself smile and blush. He’d never let the kids down at the high school see that, but it’s funny. People can just be themselves around their grandparents. “What was wrong with me?”

“Your father was deployed back to Korea, and you were scared.” His grandfather points at the frog. “The animal was there to protect you like a talisman.”

Travis gets up and takes this frog in his hands and offers it to his grandfather, who waves it off. He says, “I’ll tell you a secret. Even when I was grown up I’d go out and find frogs when I was nervous.”

“Yeah?”

“Sure. I wasn’t lying to you that day. Frogs are talismans. They keep away the fear. Stick it in your jacket pocket. Feel it wiggle around and try to be anxious.” Travis does and the frog moves around, settling in and it’s true. He can feel high school slipping away, all the tests both in the classroom and out. They’re gone, replaced by the frog. His grandpa says, “I don’t have a lot of money, Travis.”

“I know that.”

He points to Travis’s pocket. “That right there is my legacy.”

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John Brantingham is the recipient of a New York State Arts Council grant and was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate. His work has been in hundreds of magazines and The Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2022. He has twenty-two books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. Check out his work at johnbrantingham.com.