Bands of Light on a Kitchen Frog- 適合中高級的英語短篇故事

A faint croak pulsed between the red and blue glasses—who was making that pocket-sized racket? Olive bent close and discovered a thumb-nail frog balanced on a celery leaf, its belly glowing pink where the crimson water filtered upward. She lifted the magnifying glass; the frame bumped the glass rim with a brittle ping. Steam from her breath fogged the lens, and the image blurred. The frog gave a second, mischievous chirp and hopped deeper among the stalks. A drip from the tap landed near Olive’s temple, and the sudden cold caress startled her hands just enough for the lens to slip, thudding onto the towel. The tap resumed its uneven sequence of plops.

Olive wiped the lens dry, then turned away to record heights of colour in each glass. The tap kept its slow rhythm, each plip followed by a hollow echo inside the sink. She slid the ruler against the stalks; the red water had climbed four centimetres, the blue only two. A draught rattled the windowpane, so she moved the blue glass toward the warmer sill. Only a modicum of dye remained in the bottle; she swirled what was left, hearing the liquid swish against glass before setting it beside the prep area where Wyatt sketched the scene with crayons, their tips scratching paper with quick, sandy whispers. Behind them, an adult sliced a fresh stalk; the knife’s chop and the board’s dull knock broke the sequence of tap drips for a moment.

When Olive slid the notebook closer for one last measurement, the tiny frog emerged again, now perched on the notebook’s corner as though the paper were a raft. Sunlight passed through the tinted water and cast crimson bands across its green skin. She held the magnifying glass higher; no clouded breath touched the lens, and the view snapped clear. The stripes belonged to a celery stalk waving in the water, not to the creature itself. The frog stayed calm, and a bead of blue dye rolled onto the blank margin, leaving a bright dot. Olive lowered the glass beside the creature.

微弱的呱呱聲在紅色與藍色玻璃杯之間震動——究竟是哪位小訪客發出的聲響？奧莉芙俯身靠近，發現一隻指甲大小的青蛙蹲在芹菜葉上，透過緋紅水面反射，牠的腹部泛著粉色光澤。她舉起放大鏡，鏡框撞到杯緣，發出脆亮的「乒」聲。熱氣在鏡片上起霧，畫面頓時模糊。青蛙又發出一聲帶點頑皮的啼叫，接著跳進更深的莖叢裡。水龍頭的水滴落在奧莉芙的太陽穴附近，那股冰涼的輕拂讓她手一抖，放大鏡猛地掉到毛巾上。水龍頭又恢復不規則的滴答節奏。

奧莉芙擦乾鏡片，轉向記錄每杯顏色攀升的高度。水龍頭保持緩慢節拍，每一下「噗」聲後都在水槽內迴盪低沉回音。她把尺緊貼莖身；紅水已爬升四公分，藍水僅兩公分。一陣氣流搖響窗玻璃，她便把藍杯移到較溫暖的窗台。染料瓶裡只剩一點點，她輕搖殘餘液體，聽見染色水拍擊玻璃的「唧唧」聲，然後把瓶子放到備料區旁；那裡的懷亞特正用蠟筆速寫，筆尖在紙上發出沙沙摩擦。後方，大人切下一根新莖，刀子「咚」地落在砧板上，暫時打斷了滴水的節拍。

奧莉芙把筆記本拉近做最後量測時，那隻小青蛙又出現了，此刻牠站在筆記本角落，像乘著紙筏。陽光穿過染色水，把深紅條紋投射在牠的綠皮膚上。她將放大鏡舉得更高；沒有呼氣起霧，影像瞬間清晰。原來那些紅條紋只是水中芹菜莖的倒影，並非青蛙變色。青蛙安靜不動，一滴藍色染料自葉尖滾到紙頁空白處，留下亮藍圓點。奧莉芙把放大鏡放到青蛙旁邊。