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Phil the frog stood outside of his house. It was a new house, and quite nice. He had just moved in, just moved to this new island. The island was quite nice too. Not too big, a river, some hills. And he could walk to the beach. There wasn’t much here now. It was a bit rough around the edges, a human was around often, running around, picking things up, but nobody had asked Phil for any help so he didn’t help. He would walk, and sit. Sometimes watch the bugs, sometimes watch the clouds. But mostly he would just wait. For what? Well he wasn’t quite sure yet, but he was sure he’d find out.
***
There’s been some changes here. There’s bridges for one, that’s helpful, helps him get around. There’s some new neighbors down on the other side of the island too, they’re nice enough. Phil sees them sometimes when he’s on his walks, sometimes they will stop by his on theirs.
There’s a shop now too, for buying clothes. Phil loves clothes, but he never actually wants to buy anything. One day the human bought him a jacket which was nice. Blue with clouds, looked just the same as the sky. He’s been wearing it a lot. Everything is really quite, nice, and just fine. But it still feels like he’s waiting.
***
The human has put a construction lot next door. Phil thinks there will be a new neighbor soon.
***
The next morning there are new flowers outside of his door, just lovely. More notably there’s a house. Phil stands outside, watching. The door opens and a rat comes out.
“Hello, Rat!”
He’s got curly brown fringe, and wide brown eyes. Dressed in all black, but there’s a warmth to his smile. The rat gave him a long look, thoughtful. Careful. “It’s Dan.”
“Hello, Dan! Have you just moved in?”
”Yes, obviously. And you are?”
Phil gave a long slow blink. “Phil, I’m Phil. I’ve been here the longest.”
“Alright then, Phil. What's there to do around here.”
***
So the frog and rat go about their days. They go for walks and they watch the bugs and they sit and they talk and they laugh and they always have the other.
The sun comes up, the sun goes down. Season come and season go, visitors come, neighbors leave and arrive. The human is here, the human is gone for long weeks at a time. And the whole time the rat and the frog spend their days.
“Hey Dan,” says Phil one night. “Do you ever feel like you’re waiting for something?”
Dan thinks for a moment, nose scrunched and ears twitching.
“No. I don’t ever feel like I’m waiting. Do you?”
“No. Not anymore.”