A New Hood Ornament
Each Wednesday night, we get together with friends at a meeting house for dinner. This week, as we said our goodnights and walked to the car, the rain was falling in a light mist. We carried the sleepy kids to the car, and after strapping them into their child seats, we pulled of into the rain. About half the way home, I noticed a small bump in the line between the darkness of the hood of the car, and the spray of the headlight on the road. As I tried to look at it, without going of the road, it moved. Actually, it jumped. It had moved further down the hood, and broke into full silhouette, it was a small tree frog. Apparently, it was appreciating the lingering warmth of our car while we were enjoying dinner with friends, and ended up hitching a ride. As I pointed the frog out to my wife, it took another dangerous leap, while the car moved down the road at a family pace, and landed a little too close to where the hood ornament should be. I decided to pull off to the side of the road and check on our little stowaway. As I stepped out of the car and walked into the headlights to take a look, he sat motionless on the hood, as if that is exactly where he wanted to be at that moment. I thought better, and gave him a light nudge toward the side of the road. I waited a few moments to make sure he wasn’t planning to jump into the road, and then bid him goodnight.