I’ve taken a lot of trips with my sister. Some of those trips were fabulous and some were an adventure I’m hoping never to repeat.
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On one trip we were driving across country in a Westphalia VW camper van with her now ex-husband Charles. He’d never been to Mexico, so we nipped down to San Diego and took a day trip across the border.
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Charles bought a ceramic Mickey Mouse that was about 2 feet high and I, not to be outdone in tastelessness, bought a stuffed frog singing into a microphone. (Don’t blast me for buying this frog. I bought it. It was wrong. I know that stuffed frogs aren’t okay. I apologize. But I own one. The story hinges on Froggie. Do you want to read it or not?)
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Since the 3 of us were traveling and camping, these extra things were a pain in the butt. Mickey was too large for anywhere and Froggie looked fragile. Charles wanted to drive and have someone hold Mickey but both Mary and I said no. He was going to drive AND hold Mickey, but we convinced him that shifting and driving and holding a foot high plaster statue across 2,000 miles was unwise aka crazy.
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Charles, or Mr. Grumpy as we started calling him behind his back, set Mickey on the floor and tucked Froggie in an area in the pop-up part of the roof. After dinner at the campground, we crashed out from our Mexican adventures. Early next morning as we cleaned up and prepared to leave, Mickey was lovingly wrapped in a towel and stowed in the sink. Without thinking, Charles closed the pop-top of the van with a dull thud.
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Mary and I looked at each other in horror. “Froggie!” we cried together. Charles, unhappy with Mickey in the sink, was unsympathetic. “She’ll either be ok or she won’t,” he said. “We’ll check her out tonight when we stop.”
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I was resigned to a squashed, beheaded Froggie singer awaiting me at day’s end. That evening, Charles popped up the top, and I felt around for Froggie. She was okay! And in fine singing form looking just a green as before. I stashed her in my pack for the rest of the trip, just to make sure she’d be safe.
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I went looking for Froggie the other day. I hadn’t seen her in years. I would never buy something like this poor frog now. In fact, I’d love to let her go. But I keep her as a reminder that sometimes we make mistakes that can’t be corrected. All we can do is move forward and do better in the future.
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