The Bromeliad Trilogy: The Collection

nineties,

The frog’s forehead bulged as it tried to get its mind around a new idea. One and one were one. But if you had one here and one there … The other frogs watched in bewilderment as their leader’s eyes whizzed round and round. One here and one there couldn’t be one. They were too far apart. You needed a word that meant

Dorcas was really unhappy about this. ‘You’re killing a truck,’ he said. ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Grimma. ‘It’s a machine. Just bits of metal.’

both ones. You needed to say … you needed to say … The frog’s mouth widened. It grinned so broadly that both ends almost met behind its head. It had worked it out. ‘.–.–.mipmip.–.–!’ it said. It meant: one. And one more one.

‘Yes, but someone made it,’ said Dorcas. ‘They must be very hard to make. I hate destroying things that are hard to make.’ ‘They ran over Nisodemus,’ said Grimma. ‘And when we used to live in a hole, nomes were always being squashed by cars.’ ‘Yes, but nomes aren’t hard to make,’ said Dorcas. ‘You just need other nomes.’ ‘You’re weird.’