Crystal Hohenthaner

During Easter break one year at my very small Christian college, one night an unexpected and mystical plague of frogs descended upon the campus and pranks ensued.

To be fair, the boys started it. Guys will be guys, and these guys had a water-balloon launcher.

It started as a distance contest and continued with attempts to skip the frogs across the pond that was at the center of campus. Then the men decided height was the ultimate goal to achieve and decided to try to shoot the frogs over the buildings.

Then it happened – the misfire. Instead of shooting the frog over the building the boys accidentally shot a frog into the side of a building. And, for some reason it was hilarious.

Now, I’m a nice person (at least I’d like to think so) and I could not abide by the senseless killing of an innocent creature like a frog. So, I told the guys to stop and went straight back to my dorm room. I remember telling them that it was cruel treatment of a helpless animal before I left, but I also remember laughing after I returned to my room.

The next day there were little green and red splotches all over the outsides of every building on campus, including one on my second-story dorm-room window. It must have scared the frogs because by the last day of the long weekend the frogs were gone. Furthermore, because the school had a wonderful custodial staff; all of the frogs that had stuck to the sides of the buildings after being hurled with the water ballon launcher were removed before the rest of the students returned to school. Except for one.

One frog had been either accidentally left behind or unreachable by the school’s custodial staff. That frog was on the window of the dining commons. Because of a combination of gravity and a series of rainy days, that single frog slowly slid down the window of the cafeteria until it was in full view of anyone who was trying to eat.

I ate at Arby’s a lot that week. I also told the tale of the plague of frogs to anyone who stared disgustedly at the froggie on the window.