I looked into its only eye and, without much hesitation, deposited a kiss on the top of its head. It croaked with a hoarse and s’eepy voice. We both sat in tension, watching it. Every moment now was passing with difficulty and our Enchanted Prince was letting us wait. After about one hour we decided to call it quits and started to go home. We quarrelled all the time we travelled above the city. Ayako was saying that most probably her watch has been running fast, and we did not follow the exact time, whereas I was convinced that we kissed an ordinary and disgusting frog, and not an enchanted toad.

Until morning, all I did was to dream about the ugly monster and to wipe my mouth with the s’eeve of my pajamas. When I woke up, the first thing I did was to wash my teeth for a quarter-hour, with a quarter tube of toothpaste.

"Hey, Bravo! That's exactly how I like you to do it," cried Mum. "See how effective scolding can be sometimes?" she later told Dad.