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Chapter Thirty-Two
Point of View: Narrator

The first half of the drive went... well, it was okay. Zoe had to use the brake several times to slow Nick's speed down to the limit, and once to keep him from running a stop sign. She also repeatedly had to remind him to keep his hands at eight and four.

He was a habitual creature, she could tell that already, because he did things repeatedly. For instance, he obviously was used to the radio while driving because she had to keep turning it off on him when he'd reach to turn it on. He also would let go of the wheel to put his arm on the door arm rest. Zoe never understood why they put those there when drivers were supposed to keep both hands on the wheel.

Unfortunately, the things that should have been habits - you know, like head checks before merging, directional signals, following posted speed limits, and keeping his hands on the wheel - weren't.

"Take a left here," Zoe directed as he slowed to a stop sign. He put on his right directional. "I said a left," she said.

Nick looked perplexed, "What? I am."

"Are you dyslexic?" she asked. Zoe pointed left. "Left," she said. She pointed right, "Right."

Nick looked down at the flashing directional arrow. "Crap," he muttered. He pulled the lever to go left. "Sorry."

"Here, look, easy way to remember left and right," she said. "Here we are in the car, right? You're on the left. And me?" she smiled sweetly, "Nick, I am ALWAYS right."

He stared at her a long moment, her words sinking in. Then, when they did, he let out a loud guffaw. "Ohhhh God," he muttered, shaking his head. Zoe smirked. Kids reacted one of three ways to that line. Either they didn't get it, or they laughed, or they got pissed. Nick was hard to read, but she was pretty sure he was torn between being frustrated and being humored.

Nick took the turn, which led them through a woodsy area, quite a ways out of Los Angeles, but that would eventually lead them back to the highway two exits from Nick's. Zoe had spent a long time on Mapquest searching this route out. She didn't want to bring him through the city the first time she'd driven with him, so she'd searched for back roads. She'd never been down this one.

The rain was falling still, and Nick had the wipers on. Zoe had reminded him to turn on the Prius' lights - "It's a general rule that if you have your wipers going, your lights should also be on," she'd said. The water was starting to collect on the road. "You're going to want to slow down," Zoe told Nick.

"The speed limit's 30," he said, "We just passed it." Nick looked at the speedometer. "I'm only doing 28."

"I want you to be doing 20," Zoe answered. "The speed limit is for perfect conditions, Nick, not the mandatory rule. The conditions - are they perfect?"

"No," Nick said, "But I can see fine."

Zoe raised an eyebrow, "Slow down."

Nick groaned and his foot lowered over the brake. The rain kept hitting the windshield, the wiper blades squealing across the glass, and Nick kept his eyes focused on the lines on the road.

"Do you know what hydroplaning is?" Zoe asked.

"Like those planes that can float?" Nick asked.

Zoe shook her head, "No, Nick. Both hands on the wheel, okay? Now, look at the water on the road. It's building up. Right?"

"Uh huh," Nick muttered, feeling like this was leading into a pointless conversation.

"What do you think the car tires are doing?" Zoe asked.

Nick hesitated, squinting, "Going... over it?" Duh?

"And what is that making the traction like?" she asked pointedly, trying to get him there.

Nick slowed down, getting where she was going. "Uh, bad."

"If you go faster than a certain speed when the weather is poor, your tires aren't really touching the ground at all, they're actually gliding over the water. There's literally a sheen of water between you and the ground. You know that that means, Nick?" she asked.

Nick sighed, "That I need to slow down?"

"Have you ever watched hockey?" Zoe asked.

Nick laughed, this seemed such a random question. "Of course," he answered, "I love hockey."

"Okay, so when a player is skating and he falls down on the ice and he slides across the entire zone into the net...?" she said.

Nick nodded, "Kinda like hydroplaning?"

"It's slippery," she said, "You could skid and lose control."

"Okay, so I'll slow down."

"Next time it rains while we're driving I'll bring you out and we'll try pulling out of some skids. For now, just keep driving slow." Zoe was pleased with herself for having drawn the connection in Nick's head.

They were driving quite nicely for a few minutes, and Zoe was just about to tell Nick he was doing well when he suddenly jerked the wheel hard to the left and then back to the right, swerving around... well, Zoe hadn't seen anything. "What was that about?" she demanded, raising an eyebrow.

Nick looked in the rearview mirror, "Did I hit it?" he asked, slowing.

"Hit what?" Zoe asked. She had seen nothing.

"The frog," Nick answered. He put on the blinker and pulled over.

Zoe could feel her face contorting into an expression of suspicion. "A frog?" she asked. Nick hit the park button and started unbuckling his seat belt. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

Nick thumbed over his shoulder, "I wanna make sure the frog's okay."

Zoe licked her lips. "What?"

Nick rolled his eyes, "Dude, the FROG that I almost ran over! I gotta see if it's okay." Nick opened the door and Zoe watched in disbelief as he got out, slammed the door shut, and ran through the rain back down the street. She hit the emergency flashers and turned as much as she comfortably could in her seat to watch him.

Nick jogged, his feet splashing through thick puddles, eyes scanning the road until he spotted him. The frog was, in Nick's defense, a good sized bullfrog. It was sitting on the yellow line serenely, his neck pouch puffed out. Nick bent down and inched towards it, hands outstretched, "C'mere, lil guy," he said. As Zoe watched from the car, Nick dove forward and cupped his hands around the frog, just as it started to jump away. The result was Nick had a frog in his hands, it's legs dangling below, kicking as it struggled to get free of its captive.

"He was serious about that?" Zoe mumbled, raising an eyebrow. She'd half expected him to get out and be like hallucinating or... something. She couldn't even think what, but something besides rescuing a freaking frog off the road.

Nick walked through the rain to the opposite side of the street - the direction the frog had been looking, so probably the way he'd been traveling, and wade into the trees. He disappeared from Zoe's sight momentarily while he knelt down in the rush to drop the frog beyond a tree trunk. "There ya go," he said as it hopped away, probably scared shitless because some weird person had picked it up to begin with. Nick smiled as it disappeared beneath some wet reeds and leaves, satisfied with his good deed of the day, and made his way back onto the street.

He waited by the roadside as a car passed by, splashing him. He barely noticed the splash, though, since he was soaked from all the kneeling and walking in the rain. The yellow emergency lights flashed on the Prius and he crossed back over to it, and yanked open the door.

Zoe had pulled a blanket out of the emergency kit she kept in the backseat and thrown it onto Nick's seat. "I don't want the seat soaked," she explained when he looked at it funny.

"Oh," he said. Nick climbed in and rebuckled himself.

Zoe was staring at him.

"What?" Nick asked, genuinely confused by the stare.

"What the hell was that?" Zoe asked.

"I saved a frog," Nick said with a shrug, "He would've been squashed if I left him there. Did you see that car? It totally ran where he was. I saved his life."

Zoe blinked. "It was a frog, Nick."

"Yeah, it was a frog." He paused, "So?"

Zoe sighed, "Just drive the car."

Nick shrugged, "It's a frog, so what, it's still a life," he said defensively. He reached for the shift and moved it into drive. "What do you have against letting frogs live?" he asked as he turned off the emergency flashers.

Zoe shook her head, "Nothing except that you're driving and you just got out of the vehicle to go get one off the road. Swerving was effort enough, don't you think?" she asked.

"Didn't you hear me? That car that passed by would've squashed him if he was still sitting there," Nick argued, "I swerved, but what if they hadn't?"

"That's what he gets for being in the road," Zoe answered coldly.

Nick continued driving, swerving for frogs. The rain had driven every frog in LA county onto the wooded road, of course, and pretty soon Zoe was reaching over to steady the wheel, keeping him from swerving. There was no way to swerve to avoid the frogs safely. Nick tried to bat her hands away, "Stop it, you're killing them," he said, his voice whiney. His eyes were concerned.

"Nick, they're frogs," snapped Zoe.

"They have frog families!" he cried, exasperated. "Why don't you understand that frogs have feelings, too?!"

Zoe's eyebrow was practically off her forehead, "Nick, they're FROGS!" she yelled, "Not humans!"

"I don't wanna kill them!" he yelled louder.

"You don't have a choice! They're stupid and they're jumping on the road! You can't swerve them! You need to ignore them and drive!"

"They aren't STUPID!" Nick yelled, "They're making a MISTAKE!"

Zoe's temper flared, "DRIVE THE CAR, NICK."

"NO!" he yelled. And with that, he put on the brake right there in the middle of the road. He punched the park button. "I'm not driving until the frogs get out of the road."

The road was teeming with them.

Zoe looked at the clock. They had eleven minutes to make it back to Nick's house before she would be late for her next drive. "Nick," she said, "This is ridiculous."

"It's ridiculous to save lives?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"It's ridiculous to save frog lives," Zoe corrected him. Nick scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. The disgruntled expression nearly made Zoe laugh, but she managed to hold it back. Just wait until Kayla hears about this one, she thought, tempted to whip the phone out and call Kayla now, just because she wasn't certain she could hold it in. "Nick, you need to drive the car."

"I'm not killing them," he said.

"Nick, I have driven with sixteen year old girls that have more balls than you do," Zoe finally said. She reached in the back, grabbed her crutches, and got out. Nick watched as she walked around the Prius and opened the driver's door. "Get out. I'm driving."

"You're gonna kill them," Nick complained.

"Yeah," Zoe answered, "Probably. But Nick, we're not going to sit here all day waiting for the frogs to go away so that you can drive. Now get out."

Nick looked reluctantly at the road ahead of them and climbed out of the car, being careful not to step on any of the frogs. It was like playing hopscotch. He made it over to the passenger door and got in as Zoe was adjusting everything to her own preferences. "I'm sorry," he muttered, feeling foolish now that he was out of the driver's seat. He moved the passenger seat back so his knees wouldn't be bouncing off the dash board.

"Don't apologize," Zoe answered, but her voice was hard. She buckled her seatbelt. "Seatbelt," she said. Nick pulled it on. "Just be aware, Nick, that I can only count this as 40 minutes towards your 100 hours," she said, marking her clipboard.

Nick nodded, "Okay."

Zoe shifted and the car started moving. Nick swore he could feel the frogs under the tires, even though he couldn't really. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands against them, groaning as they rolled forward.

Zoe glanced at him. "Nick, why the hell are these frogs bothering you so much?" she demanded.

"Why don't they bother you?" he asked back.

"They're frogs," she said, not sure how else to make her point.

"So they're worthless?" he asked, "Because they don't particularly mean anything to you, their lives are worth nothing?"

Zoe literally had no idea how to make the point that the damn things were frogs. She sighed, "Nick they're not humans."

"But why is killing different?" he asked, "Just because they're frogs?"

"Because they're..." frogs, she thought, but finished with, "...little."

Nick still had his hands covering his eyes. He was pressing in with the heels of his hands, and little colored polka dots clouded the blackness behind his eyelids. "That's the stupidest thing you've said in this conversation yet," he said.

"Nick, I'm not saying they're important or that you should purposely try to hit them, but they're inconsequential, aren't they? I mean it sounds cruel when you start to word it out, but I mean..." she didn't really want to repeat again that they were frogs. It didn't seem like the sentence really got them anywhere.

"A lot of people think other people are inconsequential, too," he whispered.

Zoe listened, and didn't say anything, waiting for him to go on. When he didn't, she found herself wondering what that was supposed to mean. Her mind travelled over the possibilities. Finally, she could resist it no more. "What do you mean?"

"I mean unless you're famous - like A-list famous - or you're successful or you're pretty or you're impressive in some way, no one gives a fuck about you. You're just inconsequential." He didn't look up or uncover his eyes, even now, not wanting to see the frogs on the road anymore. "Like if you are imperfect, you're somehow subpar."

Zoe had often felt subpar. The word bothered her. Being handicapped had made others treat her differently.

"I've been the frog on the road too many times," Nick sighed, "I dunno. I mean it bothers me that people can over look stuff just because it's smaller or less important than they are -- or think they are," he added. "So, yeah I know they're just frogs, but... they're also breathing things."

Zoe looked at the frogs on the street as she drove. She felt bad now, and when they started to thin as they got closer to the end of the wooded road, Nick could feel the car swerving ever so slightly to avoid them.