A true story. Written by Candace Carteen

I figured it would be fun to go to the library to see a live performer that was going to be playing outside on the lawn. I started my 2007 Ford Focus, gave it a few seconds to get all of the engine fluids running through its veins, and then headed towards the library. About 7 minutes, into my 15 minute trip, something caught my eye on the right hand side of my windshield. At first I thought it was just a little leaf stuck under the windshield wiper, but each time I looked, the leaf had grown a little bigger. It was then that I saw the cutest little five toed hand reach up and attach itself to the window.
“Oh my gosh!” I said out loud, “That’s a tree frog!”
I continued to drive because there was no place to turn off to be able to deal with this little guy who obviously didn’t know he was going to be taken on an adventure. I watched him get a little farther up on the windshield wiper and then he just sat there. I thought
“Maybe he’ll be okay till I get to where I’m going and then I can put him in the greenery out back behind the building.”
Well as soon as I said that, he decided that wasn’t what he wanted to do and he started to crawl up the glass. What I know about tree frogs might fill a thimble, but I do know they have sticky little pads and they can crawl up a glass surface pretty easily. My knowledge did not allow me to know if it could handle the wind blowing against it 25 mph. I became really concerned that he was not going to make it another 7 minutes to the library, so, I started looking for a place to pull over.
Frustrated because there wasn’t any place to pull over safely, I finally looked behind me and realized there was no cars coming for several blocks. Pulling over as far as I could go safely, I put on my flashing hazard lights, and took another look at how far back the cars were.
Carefully opening the door and getting out as quickly as I could, I closed the door behind me. By that time the little guy had moved from the right side of the window to the left side. I told him I wasn’t going to hurt him and I very carefully reached down and picked him up in my cupped hand. I looked up and saw four cars we’re getting closer, but I wasn’t going to abandon this little guy in my car, or try to drive with him in my hand. Taking a quick look around my car told me I didn’t have anything to put him in, so I decided the next best thing was to find him a new home.
Stepping to the passenger side of my car, I analyzed the closest neighbor’s yard. There I found three different kinds of bushes all in the circle. I thought, what a nice new neighborhood for this little amphibian. Stepping carefully onto The corner of this unknown neighbor’s property, I placed him next to one of the beautiful green leaves, he turned around in the half circle and stared at me, then turned back around and leaped onto one of the larger leaves. He didn’t seem to be unhappy leaving a moving vehicle, a human’s hand, or standing on something that was no longer going to take him anywhere that he didn’t want to go.
As I looked up, I realized that the four cars were almost up to the back of my car, I made it as quickly as I could to my car, opened my door, and realized that all four cars had stopped. I waved to them as I slid into my car and turned around to get back in.
What I found amazing, is that all four cars waited till I was buckled in and had pulled out, even though they could have easily gone around me.
It’s another one of those things that I love about the particular community I’m in. It was obvious that the first driver had at least seen that I was doing something that needed to be done and that was the reason for my erratic parking position. They didn’t question why, just knew that there was a reason why I was doing what I was doing. When I put the car in drive I waved to the group behind me as I moved forward and the second car waved back at me.
I know none of those people probably knew exactly what I was doing, and I’m sure there’s some readers who are saying I just should have let nature take its course and let him jump off, but then two of us might have been hurt today. The chances of him surviving jumping off a moving vehicle and  landing on the concrete without being hurt either from that jump or being ran over by one of those four cars would have been astronomical, and I would have spent the rest of my life wondering if he had made it.
So I chose to do the kind thing, the four drivers who stopped their cars for me chose to do the compassionate thing, and all six of us got to leave feeling good about doing something unexpected. Five of us got to save a life, and one of us got a new home and a chance to live a long and full life. I’d say that’s a great ending to a short story.