The following story is an interpretation of the 1,000 Words image in the September, 2006 issue of Writing Magazine.

Sammy

- Story by Alex Lindstrom, Grade 7

"Ouch, my head hurts now," said Redeye, as the drop of water slammed into his tiny head. It was torture for Redeye and his brother and his sister (Hopper and Sticky), as they tried to make their way in the pouring rain to the massive leaf hanging from the tree. The slithering boa constrictor, Sammy, was close behind. His goal was to finish what he had started ...

Once, there were twenty-eight little tadpoles swimming happily in a crystal clear pond, fed by a bubbling waterfall in the middle of the Amazon Rain Forest. The pond was full of water, piranhas, and lots of redeye tadpoles. The parents of the redeye tadpoles lived in the beautiful pond too, making sure all the babies were well fed and out of danger. Every one of the tadpoles had a perfect, carefree life.

Every day the young tadpoles swam and played wonderful games of chase and hide-and-go-seek in the warm water. They were then fed by their mother, who caught buzzing insects with her long, sticky, pink tongue as they flew by. After they were fed and had swam and played, they would take a nap in a secluded area of the pond behind a giant rock under the lily pad. They loved every aspect of their simple life.

One day, while the babies were out chasing each other around, playing under the rushing waterfall, and hiding behind rocks, they heard a piercing cry from their mother, begging and pleading for them to swim under the rock as fast as they could. All of the babies, both startled and afraid, slowly went over to their mother by the rock ... all except three. Then they saw it, the image forever imprinted in their minds, a boa constrictor, with three of their siblings, Lucy, Leaf, and Mudpie in its coils. It opened up its massive mouth, and swallowed them whole.

A movement behind a rock caught the snake's attention, its slimy head turned; its beady eyes scanned the area. Then it struck. It was a time of confusion as the boa swallowed everything in its path. All of the young tadpoles tried to swim away, only to be gobbled down by the snake. The place behind the rock that had been teeming with life only moments before was bare. There was no one left, not even their parents. Only three swam away to safety that day, Hopper, Sticky, and Redeye.

"Where should we go?" Sticky, the smallest and weakest of the three cried to her two brothers. "What should we do? We can never survive without our Mother and Father taking care of us. How do we eat? We can't catch bugs until we're frogs. I don’t know how we'll ever survive!" She cried, swimming faster to try to keep up with her brothers.

"We need to find some sort of shelter in the middle of the lake where the snake can't go. As soon as we become frogs like our parents, we'll get out of this pond." Redeye, the oldest, said bravely to his siblings.

So the tadpoles swam and swam. Each would give the other encouragement and happy thoughts, silently keeping all of their negative thoughts and feelings to themselves. After a long day of swimming and no food, the three became tired. They stopped to rest for the night under a small rock. It was cozy and safe, but nothing like their once-happy home. The trio lay down behind the rock, wriggling and squirming to get comfortable. Redeye and Sticky went right to sleep.

Hopper couldn't sleep a wink that night, no matter how tired he was. He was so hungry that it hurt, and no matter what he tried to do, he couldn't erase the picture of the boa eating his family. He desperately needed food, so despite all that his parents had told him about swimming alone at night, he made his way deeper and deeper into the pond. He had swam deeper than he ever had before, down to the very bottom, when he ran into something slimy and green coating the bottom of the pond. He smelled it, touched it, felt it, but he could not figure out what it was. A thought struck him. Was it poisonous? He backed away from it slowly. No, it couldn't be, he decided, when he saw a little fish nibbling at it. He decided to give it a try. He tore a bit of the green slimy stuff off and chewed it. Munch. Munch. Munch.  He tried a bit more, and then soon was gobbling down the algae like it was a feast fit for a king. When he had had his fill, he gathered some of the algae to take back for the others. Slowly, he made his way back up to the rock, full and feeling much better. He slept soundly, his stomach full of good food, not waking once.

Weeks passed, and the tadpoles continued to live under the rock, eating their fill of algae every day, learning to survive on their own, when Redeye first noticed the change in the siblings. They had begun to grow legs! A few weeks later, they were full-grown frogs, and moved away from the rock in the lake to the shore. They learned slowly to catch bugs for food, just like their parents had. They had a home, right on the shore, wedged between two gargantuan boulders. Life was good once more.

On a hot scorching summer day, big drops of water fell from the sky hitting each of the frogs.  The weight of the drops against their tiny bodies almost made them collapse! The frogs decided that they needed shelter from the rain. Sticky saw a big tree that was green and leafy in the distance. "Oh, let’s go to that," she said, "maybe there is shelter there." So off the three frogs went, hopping along the rain forest floor, stopping occasionally to zap a bug or to take a much needed rest, when out of nowhere something lunged. It was Sammy. The frogs were terrified.  Sticky screamed. The snake was coming at them swiftly!

"Ouch, my head hurts now," said Redeye, as the drop of water slammed into his tiny head. It was torture for Redeye, his brother and his sister, Hopper and Sticky, as they tried to make their way in the pouring rain to the massive leaf hanging from the tree. The slithering boa constrictor, Sammy, was close behind. His goal was to finish what he had started.