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Things
around Granma's place in the boondocks
changed after they got spit out of that culvert,
and G & J were never the same again.
Sitting on the back porch, they started rummaging
through their baskets. Julio took his frogs and
snails up to the 3,000 gallon fish pond and put
them in. G didn't waste a thing, so she planted
the moss that the frogs were riding on around
the edge of the pond and it took off growing
like crazy; looking better than any moss anyone
had ever seen. It was fluffier, thicker, greener,
moister … and at certain times of year, has teeny
weeny yellow and pink flowers. The frogs
seemed particularly fond of it too, since it
came from their world.
The yellow frog with red dots had babies with
one of the pale green frogs. Their tadpoles were
orange, and when they changed to frogs, some
were green with red dots, some were yellow with
red dots like their dad, and some were pink with
green dots, from who knows where. One was even
red with yellow dots!
Smarty pants that he is, Julio made a mint off his
frogs, selling the babies to the local feed stores
as pets. The next summer the pale purple
frogs had babies with the pale green frogs, and
he made two mints off of them. The pale purple
ones were promoted in Earthworld as very, very
rare and expensive, and J helped pay for his
college education with frog money. Then he had
another great idea! He made silk-screened T-shirts
with pale purple frogs on them hanging from tropical
plants in the rain forest which he sold to vendors
who sold them at crafts fairs. Later he cut an
exclusive deal with Wal-Mart and sold his frog
T-shirts only to them, making another mint.
Then, when he was 12, the smarty pants made a
CD of a song about the Peppermint Mountains that
became a number one rap hit among the kids. "Pep
pep peppermints, pep pep peppermints, up, up,
up we went, found us some bones, on our way home,
diamonds and rubies ... "He saved all his
money and when he was 16, bought a Humvee.
The snails had millions of babies that also grew
really huge, and did such a good job at keeping
the fish pond clean that Granma barely even needed
filters. Some of them got to be as big as tennis
balls. Every summer Julio came up and harvested
snails and sold them to exotic aquarium places
in Los Angeles and New York, making another two
mints, and never had to work at all! He paid
for building a new house for his mom with a sunroom,
jacuzzi and swimming pool and bought her a brand
new Jeep too. He invested in the land his "tia" (Aunt)
Carmen bought in Oaxaca, Mexico, and they got
into the import-export business. J & C later
bought their own plane and Julio took flying
lessons and became a pilot.
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