ON THE SHORE
"Story?" you say. "I'm collecting information for City Councilman Pierce."
"Oh," Sandy says. "Oh. Sorry, but I have to put you ashore. And find the magazine people, wherever they are."
She paddles the canoe up to the shore, and you look for a place to land. "Hey," you say, "look at those. Aren't those frog eggs? Looks like a lot of them."
She glances into the water. "Yeah, those are eggs. All in a mass, right?"
"Er – no," you say. "In big long strings."
"Hunh?" She looks more closely. "I'm not sure what those are," she says finally. "They look like frog eggs but - never noticed them before."
You leave her puzzling over the phenomenon as you walk back to the road. In a minute the big black car pulls up. "Time to make our next visit," Carolyn says.