Chapter Text
It was Friday evening and Anne had arrived home from work a few minutes ago. Currently, she was sitting at a desk in her room. She was reviewing a notebook with plans written in it for what she would discuss with tour groups at the Amphibia exhibit next week. A thought interrupted her planning when she had gotten to the frog exhibit. A sad sigh left Anne’s mouth. She hung her head in despair. Memories of her time in Amphibia popped into her mind. Most of the memories were of fun times. However, there were bad memories too. Horrific, PTSD-inducing memories. Fortunately, a few years of therapy had taught her how to recover from these memories. She pushed away the bad memories and went back to the fun memories. So many of her and Sprig’s adventures. “I can’t believe it has been ten years since we said bye to each other. Gosh, I still miss them so much. Why couldn’t Terri’s new portal work like it had before?”. Her memories shifted from Amphibia to remembering attempts at recreating a portal. A few years after returning to Earth, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy realized that even though their time in Amphibia had been traumatic, they all missed the amphibians that they had made connections with. Anne, her parents, Sasha, Marcy, Terri, and Dr. Jan had spent a few years trying to reopen the portal that had been destroyed by the red mantis falling on it. They could never replicate the portal though, no matter how many times they tweaked settings for it. They all could not have known that the Calamity Box had disintegrated once they returned to Earth. Anne snapped out of her trip down memory lane into the present. “Okay, come on Anne. Focus on the present and do not dwell on a past that is impossible to return to.” She returned her focus back to the plans and notes.
Ten minutes had passed when her cell phone’s ringtone started. She picks up her phone expecting to see her parents, Marcy, or Sasha calling. Instead, the caller ID says “Unknown Number”. Anne decides to let the call go to voicemail because she assumes a telemarketer or scam bot is calling and she does not have time to deal with either. However, four seconds after her phone stops ringing, it starts ringing again with the same caller ID. Anne is now confused as she wonders why an unknown number would call her twice within such a short time. She decides to answer her cell phone to find out who could be calling.
Anne stays silent for eight seconds, still expecting to hear a telemarketer or bot. Finally, the person who called speaks. “Hello? Anne?”. Anne gasps and her heart starts beating at what feels like one thousand beats per minute. Time feels like it has frozen. She thinks, “It- it can’t be! This has to be a dream!”. She pinches her arm to attempt to find out if she is dreaming. The pinch hurts. It hurts… which means she is awake! At this realization, tears form in her eyes. The voice from the phone speaks again, “Hello?”. Anne, now gobsmacked, finally speaks into her phone. “SPRIG?!”.