Now imagine a foggy spring day a long time ago -- about, oh, say, 1732. And imagine a fellow who we'll call Edwin Meeps. He's poling his little wooden boat around the very shallow bay that we've just invented, looking for crabs and things. Suddenly, as happens on shallow bays such as this one, a storm brews. It brews something fierce. It brews Edwin Meeps right out of his boat, and washes him up on the shore of -- you guessed it -- our very small, very swampy island. When the storm stops, Edwin Meeps explores the island. Luckily, he has taken along his leather-bound writing book and a good pencil, so he keeps notes about what he finds, which is how we know about this story today. Well, that and the fact that we're making it up ourselves.

Part 2 . . . in which we finally get to the point . . .

some music plays to indicate that a long time has passed, and when the fog clears we're no longer on the island.

N ow we're in a library, and it's two hundred-and-some years later.

In this library there's a young lady who we'll call Melody Roulet (pronounced roo-LAY), who is studying to become a biologist. On a forgotten shelf in the library Melody comes across a dusty, leather-bound writing book. It's not easy to read, because it's very old and there are smudges on the pages that look a lot like smashed flies. But Melody is able to figure out that this is a diary kept by a fellow named -- that's right -- Edwin Meeps. It tells how he accidentally washed up on a little island, and how he explored it, and how he even named the island after himself: Meeps Island. Then he left, because he'd been practically eaten alive by biting flies and he'd caught a really itchy case of poison ivy. But the day he left, he wrote this in his notebook: "This day saw a tynee kroaker, not a bugg, flying most ably amongst the trees." (The Spelling may look haphazard, buy that's the way it was done in the 18th century.) This makes Melody incredibly curious. She packs up a knapsack and paddles her canoe over to Meeps Island. Four days later, she goes home with lots of fly bites, a bad case of poison ivy, and the first known specimen of the Meeps Island Flying Frog! (Well, Edwin Meeps knew about it, but Melody was the first to show it around.)

Part 3 . . . in which we explore the ironies of celebrity . . .

Let's say it's about, oh . . . six inches long -- that's a normal frog size. You pick the color. On each side of this Frog, stretched between its front legs and back legs, there's a thin membrane that looks like a wing. When this Frog leaps into the air it flaps its membranes furiously up and down -- and flies!

So Melody shows the Flying Frog around. Much to her surprise, it's a sensation. Everybody wants one. Lots of people come to Meeps Island. Pretty soon somebody builds a souvenir shop on the island and starts selling live Flying Frogs on strings. Then some other people drain most of the swamp and build the Meeps Island Water Arcade, featuring a giant roller coaster called -- you guessed it -- the Flying Frog. They also build a parking lot, a ferry landing, and a bunch of concession stands to sell hot dogs and things. Meeps Island is famous! The Flying Frog is a celebrity! Melody Roulet even appears on the cover of Natural History magazine, holding up a Flying Frog. Meanwhile, in what's left of the swamp on the island, Flying Frogs are getting harder and harder to find.

Part 4 . . . in which something is done about it . . .

accompanied by some more time-passing music. Now it's not so long ago . . . let's say, 1970.

The Water Arcade has taken over most of Meeps Island now. About the only way to see a Flying Frog anymore is to look at the old photographs in the little Meeps Island history room that's just inside the entrance to the Water Arcade. One day Melody Roulet, who's now a respected biologist, goes back to Meeps Island to visit the one little remaining patch of swamp. She doesn't expect to find any Flying Frogs -- but to her amazement, she does! She finds a whole family of them! Melody goes into action. She forms an organization and calls it Friends of the Flying Frog. She and some other scientists conduct research in the little swamp to find ways to save the Flying Frog from extinction. This kind of project takes a while, so let's roll some more fog across the island and play some music and let a few more years go by.

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