we raced along a mountain coast, my fear of cars on cliffs declined.

but then our decidedly unhappy kittenfrog hopped into my hands and cried, so i rubbed her kitten head but noticed aloud that her amphibian hindquarters were drying. oh fuck it, ali said, and picked a steep old-cemented road we weren't entirely certain would could drive back out of and sort of tumbled down it in our red miata, wind blowing lots of bright heat. ali and brolaw told me not to worry, that sometimes one had to take the risk, but wasn't always meant to climb back out. i didn't feel like arguing: the kittenfrog was mewling.

at the end of the road, a sandy beach with feldspar tidepools, nearly everything flat but the road we couldn't go back up. i stood on the beach holding the kittenfrog in my hands and felt like i had just come home. barefoot and cold rock sand between my toes. the kittenfrog leaped out of my hands and i screamed. it was part amphibian, and who ever heard of a frog in salt water (not to mention a kitten. it was entirely wrong. poor kittenfrog in a salty body of water)!

but kittenfrog swam like a pro, her froggy limbs stretching and folding, her smooth form cutting just a foot under the surface. ali laughed at me, said i didn't know much about kittenfrogs, now did i? now did anyone? when I caught our kittenfrog, she leaped out of my hands again, and bounced over to the tidepools where she buried herself in the sand, little soaks of saltwater forming. this time i walked slowly over so' not to scare her, sat down and buried my knees, stroked our kittenfrog's head and she purred and purred as i pulled the saltwater across her fur.

later we bought five orange sodas from the soda machine at the top of the old-concrete road. we hiked up there and weren't surprised to find the quarters waiting for us, but called our mother to let her know.

at the end of our conversation, our mother forgot to hang up her phone and i could hear her cutting carrots in the greenhouse, listening to Guns N' Roses. i asked ali: "did you know mom listened to Guns N' Roses?" she didn't.