"So how much for this?" The young woman called as James sat helplessly on the counter in front of her.
The last few hours had not gone well for the young man turned amphibian garden ornament. After spending the night in the bedroom of the teenage girl who had stolen him, he had suffered the indignity of being considered too cheap and tacky for a place in her household by her snob of a mother. Rachel seemed to have lost interest in him too after her initial impulse theft and offered to take him to the charity shop. Why not give him back to Elspeth? And where was she anyway? Was she trying to retrieve him? Did she even remember him?
At least James' initial fears about being dumped into a skip turned out to be unfounded. Rachel was as good as her word and took him to a nearby charity shop where he was now being appraised.
"Do you think we could sell it for a tenner?' the woman asked as her older colleague approached. The second volunteer worker looked James up and down dismissively for a moment then wrinkled her nose."
"Nah, more like a fiver" she answered "I'm sure someone will take it though. It's in good condition and there's no accounting for taste"
"I think he's kind of cute" the younger woman giggled, before seeming to notice something "Hey, what does this button do?"
James had no way of protesting as she reached down and pressed something on his rear he hadn't even realised was there. He then felt a cartoonish ribbiting sound eminating from him.
"Oh, that's so funny" the girl laughed, forcing James to croak a few more times for her amusement.
Once she had lost interest and stopped playing with him, James found hinself sitting on a shelf at the side of the store with a tag dangling from his webbed foot which simply read "Ornamental Frog Prince, £5"
He had been placed alongside various other unwanted decorative animals that were now considered his contemparies - a very merry looking pig, a carefully sculpted squirrel, a strangely creepy little badger. Across from him stared back a collection of human dolls, all of whom he could see were priced at least double his value. As the store opened, all James could hope was that Elspeth might cone in to rescue him.