Frog and the Ox

FROGS & THE OX
     “I’ll be bigger than YOU!” boasted the frog as she blew and blew and blew herself up, attempting to grow larger than the huge ox. “I’ll be bigger than a tree!” And she puffed again. “Bigger than a mountain!” And she puffed! “BIGGER THAN THE WORRRRRRLLLLLD!” And she puffed herself up again... until she burst. The ox hardly noticed the exploding frog, pausing only after hearing her pop, and then went on with its business. The frog’s sisters, however, did take notice. “There is a lesson here,” said one sister mourn-fully. “Self-aggrandizing can lead to self-destruction.” “No,” said Robyn, the youngest frog. “The lesson is that only I can be bigger than that ox.” And with that, she puffed herself up. “Sister!” exclaimed another frog. “You saw what happened to Debbie! Even if you blew until you burst you would not be so big! ”But Robyn ignored her sisters and puffed away, inflating to twice her size. Then three times. Then four times. Her astonished sisters watched as she inflated and inflated, growing much larger than her sister did when she had exploded. “She’s doing it!” cried one of the other frogs. “She’s getting bigger than Debbie did! She may even get as big as the ox!” “Maybe bigger!” exclaimed another. Soon Robyn swelled so large that she gained the attention of the ox, who watched her expand and inflate until at last...Robyn the frog was now as large as the ox! “See!” called Robyn. “See how big I am! And I’m just getting started!” She took another huge breath, and she puffed and puffed and grew and grew, until finally...She was bigger than ox! The ox watched as the once-tiny, insignificant creature now surpassed its own size, her sisters gaping in amazement. “If she can do it, I can do it!” said one sister, and she began puffing herself up to match her sister’s incredible growth. The other sisters, not wanting to be left out, followed as well, puffing and puffing and puffing. Robyn did not wait for them. “I’ll be bigger than a tree!” And she puffed herself larger and larger, growing until her inflated body rose her head higher than the nearest tree. Far beneath her, one of her sisters went POP! as she tried to surpass the ox’s size. Robyn didn’t notice, blowing herself even larger. Another sister managed to surpass the ox. But as soon as she tried to grow bigger--POP!! Robyn still did not notice her bursting sisters. “Now I’ll be bigger than a mountain!” she boasted, and sure enough, she blew herself up until she had dwarfed the ox, smothering it with her inflated abdomen, crushing all the smaller creatures as she filled up the field and rose to the height of a small hill, but kept on expanding further and further... Another sister  went POP! as she tried to swell larger than the tree. Only one  sister remained. Even though she had blown herself larger than almost any frog had even done, she was still tiny compared to Robyn, the biggest frog of all! “Look!” cried Robyn to the world. “Can you see me? Can you believe it?!” And she swelled and swelled until she grew to the size of a mountain! Her  last   remaining  sister,  as   big   as  she  was,  was  quickly  dwarfed  by  Robyn,  whose
expanding body threatened to squash her. “Sister!” called the frog to Robyn. “Please stop! You’re crushing me! The pressure is too much!” But Robyn couldn’t hear, and she probably wouldn’t have cared. “I’m the biggest frog of all! I can be bigger than anything! I’ll be bigger than the world!!” And she set about her task, inflating bigger and bigger and bigger! “Sister, please!” cried the smaller frog, but it was too late. Robyn’s bloated body billowed over her, growing and growing, putting greater and greater pressure on her sister, until at last she squashed the smaller frog, popping her like a balloon. And so Robyn continued inflating, growing so large that she burst through the clouds, rising into the sky, the earth seeming to grow smaller and smaller. She grew and grew and grew. Finally she was so large that she could see the earth disappearing from beneath her. “I’m going to be bigger than the world!” she shouted again, though no one could hear her, her head way out into the stratosphere. She inflated and inflated into space, her body blocking out the sunlight over all of the planet. And still she grew, her ultimate mission within her reach. She puffed......puffed......puffed......until.......she grew BIGGER THAN THE WORLD!! It now appeared that the moon was revolving around two planets: the earth, and a strange,light, green-ish planet right beside it--that was still growing! Now with her massive, planet-sized body, Robyn floated in space victoriously. No frog had ever been this big! Nothing had ever grown bigger than the planet from which it had sprung! No one was as great as she was!  She was the biggest thing of all! As her size increased, so did her gravity, which then began to form an atmosphere, which in turn began to absorb more and more of the sun’s heat. As she blew herself up, the heat caused her to expand twice as quickly like a helium balloon. She soon stopped puffing, but the air inside her still swelled, still expanded, causing her to grow out of control. But Robyn was unafraid. “I am so great!” she thought to herself. “I can be bigger than anything. I will never burst. I will NEVER BURST. I’ll grow until I’m larger than space...! ”Moments later, she felt her body ominously begin to wobble and pulsate.