Gyrus

Belief in a frog? Well, why not?

“Oh come come Johnathan surely even you must realise that all one really needs is a little common sense and a good grip on reality.”

Barely had he finished this utterance than he found himself sitting in front of what appeared to be an enormous spinning frog in the middle of...well....nowhere.

“As far as I see it there is not now, or ever has been, and I seriously doubt there ever will be proof of the existence of a divine being.” He finished out of sheer bewilderment, pointing at the curiously spinning frog.

“Is... that ..soo?” Boomed the frog after what seemed like an eternity, or at least that's the only logical solution he could come up with. He certainly hadn't said it and besides he was pretty sure that he couldn't fill up the entire void with his voice like that.

Silence emanated from the void for some awkward moments that were quite difficult to keep track of mainly because it's hard to count how many revolutions a second an enormous frog makes.

“For someone so opinionated you seem strangely quiet on the matter now, is there something wrong?”

The frog seemed to have turned down his volume a few thousand notches to the level of Nine foghorns in a room the size of the Albert Hall.

Howard, realizing that he was sitting lotus fashion on nothingness stood up as nonchalantly as he could under the circumstances and looked around. Seeing, as he'd half expected, more nothingness.

Still, unperturbed by this he addressed the frog “Where are we and to whom am I speaking?”

“Where we are is not important for the moment and you may call me Gyrus if it pleases you.”

Momentarily shuffling his feet a little to confirm that there was indeed something solid beneath him and to give himself time to think.

“I must be halluci.......”

“No, I most certainly am not a figment of your rather lacking imagination” interjected the frog.

He was about to ask what had happened to Jonathan and then remembered the fall. While walking into the study, he'd tripped on the carpet where the old desk used to be. Making a mental note to get a new one once things were back to normal he opened his mouth to speak once more.

“You fell, I caught you.” The frog responded before Howard could speak.

It dawned on him that he must have banged his head in the fall and was unconscious.

But the frog had said that he wasn't hallucinating.

“I'll prove it to you, shall I?”

“OK, go on.” he responded scoffingly. This should prove interesting.

“I want you to count to five and then everything will return to normal but you have to count one..Gyrus two..Gyrus etc, OK?”

“Yes, OK. Do I need to spin round like you or anything?” He tried not to sound too mocking as he spoke but wasn't sure he'd pulled it off.

“Not really, but if you want to it won't hurt.”

Howard started to count. One Gyrus, Two Gyrus.....he felt a horrible pain in the side of his head.....Three Gyrus.....Four Gyrus. “Bye, see you soon” chuckled the frog, suddenly sounding very loud but distant. Five Gyrus.

Opening his eyes he became acutely aware of the throbbing in his head and his friend frantically repeating his name over and over again. He brought his hands up to his head and groaned knocking a glass paperweight from under his head, which bounced off the floor causing more pain.

“Thank frog you're alright!”

“What?”

I said “thank God you're alright that was some fall you had, the ambulance is on its way so you shouldn't try to get up.”

The ambulance came and they soon had him on a stretcher and in the back of the ambulance.

Jonathan approached before the doors were closed.

“Shall I come with you?”

“No thanks that won't be necessary but phone Georgy for me, won't you?”

“Yes of course. Oh here you'd better take this with you.” handing him the paperweight.

“Whatever for?” staring in utter disbelief and dismay at the hexagonal glass object which contained a little gold and green tree frog.

Jonathan explained to the paramedic that this had made the contusion on Howard's head.

Clearly Howard was not feeling himself again.

To be continued.......