MURRAY

The surface of the sea life home can be cut with a butcher knife. Whatever life lives beneath should never fear to get cold because nothing can crack that skin. Toasty warm all year through easy to burn off those pounds come summer. Always a cold chill near those waters steam rises but never warm as it mists.  Weird how the water may be green but the ground is mud brown never lacking in hydration. Meant for a casual slow walk of three or more days because you are not getting far running unless you want to give up your footwear and since that rock just blinked I wouldn’t recommend going barefoot. The trees, tall and fat, are not custom to being solo acts since they are all practically stepping on each other. No eyes so it is much easier to stand still instead of trying to find an exit.

Even if these future tables; chairs; and canoes did see a way out, the clumsy old things would trip into each other making a lumberjack’s job easier.  The trees are a worried type with those arms stretched out to the sky grabbing onto their neighbors for reassurance or to offer a prayer. Tightly knitted together with limbs thin as a pretzel but nonetheless strong to stand up to the elements, interwoven where light is gone in the noonday sun.Pitch black except for the critters who are part light bulb. No one comes by too often or perhaps note would have been passed along on how trees are not typically purple, red whatever lies between those colors because leaves forgot to borrow green from the swamp choosing to be brown crackling all hours of a clock. Watch your step, the fungus is big enough to live in. Condo mushrooms for all six or-legged critters.

The swamp did have a name but sadly the sign sunk to the bottom after being chewed and digested, no one bothered to remember what the name was much easier just to call it, ‘Swamp’. Short and sweet to the point with plenty of room to add as much or as little in regards to the description as an individual may feel fit.

Folks do live around here, a fella, but it may not be a person as you may or may not categorize one. Not a talker; he doesn’t wear clothes; he couldn’t rank him as an animal but not a person. More like a couch potato. Looks like a Murray than potato so Murray is he will be called.

Murray is a big, fat, warty old frog that is so lazy he barely opens his eyes for anything except if lunch is flying by. He croaks by accident as a belch than a comment. Looks behind, nope whatever is behind Murray does not matter as long as it does not eat him. Takes too much effort to turn around when you have no neck. What is behind him is in the past far too annoying to turn to see. Anyway, much of the wildlife in the swamp sees Murray as a rock a grey-white moldy green rock. Those eyes should be a hint that Murray is alive, with the breathing, since they just stare. The purple bats, Nah, they have fragile backs. It would take four of those flying rugs to lift one Murray and then how do four splits one fat frog? Size of a small hen, absolutely but no excitement at least a chicken clucks; tries to fly; shows determination but Murray just no. Someone is bound to get stuck with the legs still feel hungry no matter how many pounds each weighs. The grey tree wolves don’t like junk food and do not want to catch the boredom from Murray so they will gladly pass on that menu selection. Completely scratch that one-off, permanently.

Now, where would such fine creature as Murray live? Yes, he is already in a swamp but was in a swamp. He is afraid of heights; hates mud and dirt; easily gets seasick so he limits water exposure; therefore Murray lives on a rock. A big clean boulder attached to the side of the water edge. Cool and warm at the same time; good insect picking and close but far enough from the gooey water.A bit nomadic so no furniture or possessions Murray has no patience for luggage and no cash to hire assistance. Very affordable with no landlords or neighbors until the recent blasted away the old dirt holding it into place tossing Murray's home deep into the deep never to be seen again. Worse of all the shake chased the best insects off into the other side of the swamp. That is no good.What is a moldy old frog to do? Hop? Come on Murray too good for that and does not have his motion sickness pills since he suffers from vertigo, naturally. Then again Murray is a frog with no job; no money; already mentioned no clothes and has no health care. Please refer to the Murray is a frog portion of the previous line. Stuck on land in the mud annoyed it is not even Monday and Murray is quite annoyed. What to do about mealtime could walk completely around the swamp getting muddier and wetter since the sky dared rain for four days.

The swamp water surface would be easy to bounce off of; Murray has done it before, by accident. Nice and gooey like a jelly road if you are a bouncy ball, a future job for the frog, but the sinking of the rock house did cause the water to become choppy. Actual water can be seen, water cannot be walked on by anyone in these parts.  An idea is needed, Murray is getting hungry again. Can you blame him he just ate an hour ago? It was lint but Murray will try anything that does not eat him first as long as it is within reach of his tongue.Speaking of being within tongue reach, Murray noticed a fuzzy pink ball lying on the ground immediately next to him. He thought it was just a very flat bug. It happens often due to a careless shoe stepping on an unknowing pedestrian.Murray's red eyes lowered and rose to examine his find not being too impressed. He croaked no reaction from the pink ball. He hopped towards, no response at all from the goo. Murray decided it must be dead, food, or both so with a whip of his tongue he gobbled it up. A bit sticky though as it was difficult to swallow Kept getting wedged into the side of Murray’s mouth this was not at all amused his tongue was not giving it up.

Careful the frog opened his mouth raising his tongue so as to shake the pink glob loose. He stared down at a piece of wrapping that perhaps belonged to the glob. Pity Murray cannot read the word on the crumpled paper. Doubt he would know what the words Super Duper Bubble Gum meant anyway. The gum was not budging no matter how hard Murray tried. This annoyance was quickly becoming a concern. What if he could never get rid of it? What if the gum stayed, forever! Would M8urray need to feed it too? Fat frogs do not like sharing their food.At that moment a buzzing sound could be heard as a flock of tasty flies chose to return from across the swamp must be on their flight plan or taking a night stroll. Forgetting the appendage on his tongue, Murray flung his tongue like a lasso attempting to grab as many of the zooming horde ores as possible in one throw. He was considered an excellent sharpshooter in his time, at least his own opinion.  

Shockingly enough he caught six of them thanks to the gum on the tip of his tongue. What a stroke of luck that the smug amphibian decided to strategically strap that glob on his hunting tongue. Pure genius is what Murray saw himself at that moment as he smiled with a chuckled forgetting that these flies were not dead yet and apparently good friends as they all began to pull forward.

No worries, Murray is a frog with webbed feet he can stick to the ground if the ground was not wet itself making it very slippery to stand in one place while gravity was betraying you in favor of desperate insects who decide going straight up was the best mean to survive. One flipper was barely touching the ground.Was this even possible? After all, Murray is a very heavy fellow. Folks mistake him for one of those stone gnome statues found in yards all the time. Even if there was no such thing as a scale his ego alone must be in the triple digits capable of winning a super heavyweight weigh-in contest any day.

Nature was not on Murray’s side today a low gust decided to assist lifting cargo and the pilots higher enough to drift into a low riding branch. Murray’s bull rope tongue crashed into the branch flipping him three times smacking the flies into the frog's face sticking the wad of gum, with the flies still attached, on the nose. Unfortunately even six nearsighted flies are no match for a tree. Never have buzzing insects stuck to your face quite bothersome. Murray was smacking his own face trying to quiet down his neighbors realizing quickly he was now in pain.Was it mentioned that this particular tree was very old? A stone trunk with brittle splintering branches that were already snapping under Murray's weight.Swatting about did pay off, sort of, as Murray grabbed hold of his tongue pulling off the gum and the flies from his face. Very ticklish the tongue is with the old frog laughing loudly as he tears off the goo from the tip of his sticky tongue. The glob with the flies was now on his right flipper which he was very proud of the result. Easy snack down the hatch except the flipper was stuck to the flipper. Never a  break shaking rapidly the flipper annoying the flies only made them buzz more.  

Hopping about was making the branch a bit rickety as Murray finally freed his flipper of the gooey bother, flinging it as far as he could. Watching it shoot into the distance the glob continued to aim for the ground changing the flight plan to continue to fly forward slowly gaining height little direction with six pilots trying to navigate at the same time. No matter they had escaped their captor who was feeling very disappointed. How foolish it is for a frog of his age and status, as well stature, to throw away lunch like it was merely fast food, which it was.Don’t worry about Murray, he has another worry to occupy his brain. Remember that rickety branch he was hopping and thrashing about on, yeah it snapped. Never has a frog’s eyes been so wide as Murray’s was at that exact moment. Quickly swimming across the air he manages clung to the trunk of the tree to stop his fall thus remembering that the tree is splintery making him both ticklish and jabbing him in the stomach causing reflexes to push him off the tree continuing his increasing descent. Do frogs believe in God? Not sure but right now would probably be a great example of converting to the faith especially seeing the light is likely as a figurative or literal occurrence. Eyes closed muttering a few croaks loudly realizing that the falling has stopped and Murray is alive. A huge sunflower had caught him choosing not to hold Murray too long since after all, it is just a sunflower, dropping the frog into the dry ground mud a few feet away. That was an ouch if there ever was one.No bones were broken; the brain was as intact as before but the mud liked the company so Murray was stuck. He looked up at the sunflower as to say could you not have held on a little longer? Done a few pushups? Taken a vitamin or two so to be a little stronger not to drop me? Murray was actually pointing and yelling at the sunflower as if to threaten legal action.The sunflower gave a response by shaking some dirt, dropped on the petals from the trees, onto Murray’s head knocking him down to brood.  And so Murray was back to square one with his tongue stuck in the mud and now the sky is raining. Mud baths are all the rage these days and Murray deserves that luxury.

The good part is eventually the mud will loosen up so he can slowly hop away. In the meantime, a group of wandering ants is having a good old laugh at the expense of poor Murray. They would make nice appetizers if they keep laughing so as to be powerless to run. That would be fantastic otherwise Murray will have to chase them which is absolutely not really worth it, right?