“No one expects the Spanish… er… live frogs in the frog’s leg soup!” I muttered, staring into my soup bowl.
“What’s going on?” Luka asked, tucking into his own soup – cream of mushroom, not frog’s leg.
“Um, in the vein of ‘waiter, what’s a fly doing in my soup?’ I seem to have an actual frog in my soup, and not just his appendages.” I tilted the bowl slightly in his direction and pointed to the eyes and small mouth poking just above the liquid.
“What the hell? How did that get in there?! Waiter!” Luka managed to keep his voice to a sort of mild yell, but he still caused a number of heads in the restaurant to turn our way.
Our waiter, a twenty-something young man, bustled over clearly ready to soothe the ruffled feathers of his unnecessarily annoyed guests.
“Yes, sir? What can I do for you?”
Luka pointed to my bowl. “You can tell us what the hell a live frog is doing in my brother’s soup!”
The waiter leaned over and stared into my soup bowl.
“Oh, dear. Fredéric! You get out of this gentleman’s soup immediately! I’m so terribly sorry sir, but he does like to swim. I will fetch you another bowl immediately.”
“Er… no thank you. I’ve lost my appetite for the soup. I’ll just have a salad, thanks.” I was not going to attempt the soup again.
The waiter gave a short nod. “Of course, sir. Again, I’m terribly sorry. I will return immediately with your salad.” He hustled off across the dining room to the kitchen doors.
I stared at Luka. “What the hell just happened? And why would a frog, who, by the way, was addressed by name by the waiter, be swimming in a bowl of frog’s leg soup?”
Luka grimaced. “I don’t know where to begin with any of that. It’s been a weird week all the way around.”
“No shit! Last week it lit-er-ally rained cats and dogs. Then, a couple of days later I saw someone water skiing on the lake and they lit-er-ally jumped a shark! And I’m betting there was a lot more weirdness that people either didn’t see or just didn’t want to talk about because they figured everybody would think they’d gone crazy!” I stared at Luka, daring him to contradict me.
“I know, I know.” He waved his soup spoon around. Just then the waiter bustled up to the table with my salad.
“Once again, sir, thank you so very much for your patience. Fredéric has been punished and your meal will be comped by the manager.” He put the salad down in front of me, and a small tray with several different dressings to the side.
“Well, thank you. May I ask a question?” I stopped eyeing the salad and glanced up at him.
“Of course, sir. Anything.”
“Um, Fredéric. Why is there a frog living in the kitchen, apparently, who likes to swim in soup made with, um, frog’s legs?” I really wanted the answer, but I was, simultaneously, afraid to ask.
“Ah. My apologies, sir. You will have to ask Chef that. Fredéric is his responsibility. I believe Fredéric used to be one of Chef’s family members.” He gave a small bow and trotted off to another table.
Luka and I stared at each other.
“We’ve fallen into some sort of twisted aphorism-filled fairy tale, haven’t we?” I said quietly.
“Yep. Well, it’s not the first time. We’re gonna need our energy, so eat up and then we’ll go exploring and see where Mom sent us this time.”
“I really don’t appreciate her doing this to us all the damn time. She needs to figure out her own issues.” I stabbed my fork into a cherry tomato and shoved it into my mouth.
“I can’t say as I disagree with you, but until we figure out how and where she’s getting this power, I don’t see us successfully telling her to sod off. Do you?” Luka went back to his soup.
I sighed. “No, I don’t. You’re right, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Luka grinned. “Well, it does keep life interesting!”
I returned the grin. “And, there’s a point in favor of this gallivanting around weird alternate universes… if Mom knew we were having fun, she’d stop doing it. Win!”
******
This week’s challenge was delivered by nother Mike: No one expected the frog’s leg soup to have a live frog swimming in the bowl… For more fun and prompting shenanigans, check out this week’s challenges and responses over at More Odds Than Ends.