On a sun dappled, peaceful and bucolic English river bank trail, a former towpath (horses towing barges) from another slower and arguably gentler age, I was once jolted out of what had been to that point an idilic warm and dreamlike summer afternoon stroll in the countryside with my girlfriend, into a full-on hackles raised, heart pounding defensive mode. An inner voice cried out to me speaking of immediate danger and the need for defensive action. Incredibly high pitched and loud beyond belief, without warning the lady had suddenly let forth with a piercing blood curdling scream that spoke of if not the end of the world, then certainly something that had her on the ragged edge of intense fear that clearly wasn’t likely to abate any time soon.

Gathering what was left of my acoustically jarred wits, I noted that a sharp bend in the river was just ahead of us. She was positioned slightly ahead of me and on the river side of the trail. She was looking at something located either in the river, or on the low and marshy terrain of the steeply sloping embankment, all just out of my line of sight.

Both of us were in our late teens and I had never seen a dead body, let alone potentially one bloated and floating after perhaps two or three days in the water. Or had someone drowned more recently and already washed up on the river bank? It was likely I figured that she also probably hadn’t seen a dead body before and hence the scream. 

With her gaze fixated, she and I stood silent and motionless for what seemed like an eternity. There were no other people within our sight nor likely within hearing distance in spite of her decibels. Certainly she was looking at something deeply disturbing to her. Tightening the grip I already had on her hand I gently coaxed her to move a little until I might catch a glimpse of whatever had shaken her so. Was it in fact floating in the slow moving river or perhaps caught up somewhere in the aquatic vegetation at the river’s edge?

We cautiously inched forward and crept around the corner. To my considerable surprise and, I will concede relief, at first I saw nothing untoward nearby in or out of the water. I looked further ahead – still nothing. Perhaps I thought, the body was still in the process of sinking and had in those moments just slipped below the surface. My girlfriend was motionless and tight lipped. Probably still in shock I surmised, my youthful lack of knowledge of these things notwithstanding. Asking why she had screamed seemed like a dumb even uncaring approach. Whatever had scared her had to be still close by and a legitimate cause for concern to her.

I decided to take a closer look in the shallows and moved forward some more. At this point a frog appeared. Nothing unusual about that of course. Except that is, it was by a long shot the biggest frog I have ever seen from that long ago day to this and I have seen many frogs. I looked my girlfriend in the eyes and saw that she too was looking at the by any definition, giant frog. Slowly, very slowly, it began to dawn on me. Was she simply and unbelievably terrified of the frog? I didn’t need to ask!