A Family Podcast (english)

Chapter 16

Coulder

"Oh come on, Susan. I just want to stop by for a moment" I pleaded outside the school, waiting for my little sister. As always, we're going to walk home together. But today, I really wanted to visit the playground in the park before that.

"I'm not sure" Susan tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Taylor said we should go straight home."

"But Taylor has a long day at school, so he'll never find out" I tried to persuade my sister. Susan looked at me uncertainly.

"But..."

"Oh, come on" I interrupted her, annoyed. "Well, I'm going to the playground now. You can do whatever you want" With those words, I left her standing there and ran off. We had been sitting in school all day, and I needed some exercise. When I reached the playground, I tossed my backpack onto a bench and jumped on the merry-go-round. It started spinning immediately as I nearly stumbled but regained my balance and lay down. The sky and treetops spun so fast that I couldn't tell where anything began or ended. After a while, Susan's head appeared over me. The merry-go-round was now spinning slowly, and I sat up.

"But we'll only stay for a short while, okay?" she asked, placing her backpack on the bench as well.

"Yeah, yeah. Now come on" I helped her onto the merry-go-round, and she sat in the middle while I started running along the edge, giving it more momentum.

I spun us around, cheering, but Susan found it too fast, so I let her down, and she played in the sand instead.

When I also got dizzy from all the spinning, I stopped and climbed onto the jungle gym instead. The wood creaked and squeaked under my stomping steps. As I crawled into the small house, I paused in surprise.

"Susan, look!" I called out and waved her over. My sister looked up from her sandcastle and shook her head. "Taylor said the tower is broken, and we shouldn't climb on it" she called out. I groaned, annoyed.

"Don't be a spoil sport. The tower won't just collapse" I said, trying to prove my point by jumping up and down a few times. The wood squeaked but didn't break. Susan didn't seem convinced, so I leaned over the railing.

"But look at what I found!" I crawled back into the little house and searched for my treasure. There were tiny frogs everywhere. Some still had tails. They have tails because they were todpoles when they were babies, or at least that's what Noah once told me. When I finally caught one, I held it up in the air.

"See?" I exclaimed excitedly. "Baby frogs!"

Now I had Susan's attention. Curiously, she came closer.

"Really?" she asked, brushing the sand off her tights, and I nodded. "I want to see it too, bring it down"

But I didn't feel like climbing down, so I simply let it fall to her. "Here" I called out, and Susan frantically tried to catch the frog. When she held it in her hand, she gently stroked its slippery skin before glaring at me angrily.

"Coulder! You can't just throw it down like that. You could have hurt it!"

I shrugged. "There are plenty up here, now come on."

Susan hesitated for a moment, but then she placed the frog in a small sandy mound and climbed up to join me.

"See?" I nudged her into the little house, and Susan crouched down, amazed, watching the tiny frogs.

"They're so cute," she exclaimed, lifting another frog and holding it up to her face. I couldn't resist the urge and playfully slapped her hand from below. The frog flew right onto her face, and my sister screamed in surprise as she fell backward onto her bottom. I could barely contain my laughter, and Susan stood up, angry.