Chapter Five
Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Fire Hydrant. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Fire Hydrant. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Muppet Boarding House. Tree. Tree. Tree. Wait?
Kermit broke out of his endless boredom. They were miraculously at the boarding house. “Uh, driver, we’re here.”
“Oh, this is where you live? Great! Help yourselves out.”
“Thanks.” He glanced over to see sleeping Piggy and a moving leather bag. He climbed over the seat. “Piggy?”
No answer.
“Piggy?”
She still didn’t answer. By now she was somewhere on the borderline between snoring and not breathing. He shook her. “Piggy?”
Her eyes finally emerged open, and she stared at her green friend. She put her arms around him and pulled him toward her. It was naturally a near-death experience.
“P...p..ig...we...her...” He was gasping for air, and maybe dear life.
“Why thank you.” Piggy mistakenly responded, pulling him tighter.
Mrmamddmadm.
A noise seemed to arouse from her leather bag. “Robin!” She pulled the leather bag off of her maybe future nephew, at least she hoped so.
“Um, Miss Piggy, do you think you should let Uncle Kermit go now?”
Piggy stared at her wonderful, blue frog. He had such wonderful eyes and-wait? Blue? She quickly let go of him.
“Th...thank...you...Piggy,” he somehow managed to get out, gasping for air. “Just...give...me...a...moment...to...catch...my...breath.” The color gradually came back into the amphibian skin. The three assembled out of the car and walked back to the boarding house.
“We better go visit him, now.” Kermit headed toward the road again. “You guys stay here.”
“Alright Kermie, I’ll just be here making sure the house didn’t get destroyed.”
Kermit gave a quick chuckle and began to depart.
“Uncle Kermit?” He hesitated. “M-may I come?”
Kermit didn’t even want to go into the prison. Should he take Robin? What if it scared him? No, Robin was strong. He could handle it. This might be a good experience for him. But would Rowlf be broken up? Would seeing Rowlf like that affect Robin? Robin was the strongest five year old he knew. He should be OK. And besides, Kermit could really use the company.
“OK, Robin, come on.”
Robin ran toward his uncle as he was picked up and slung over a pair of shoulders.
The prison was only a few walking minutes away. They gradually strolled down the street, observing every little car, tree, and pinecone that they saw. They eventually made it to the dear old building that housed their favorite dog.
They walked toward the door, where a guard was standing. “Visitors?” he asked.
Kermit nodded.
The guard looked down at Robin. “Er, we usually recommend that young children don’t come to visit.” The guard was trembling through the sentence. “It might take a...well...an emotional toll on him.”
“He’ll be fine, thank you though.”
The guard pulled the door handle as the uncle and nephew pair went inside. They looked around the building. It was the first time that Robin had ever been into a prison like this. The walked through, looking in every cell, to find Rowlf’s current home. There was a man sleeping on his bunk. There was a woman pacing around her cell. There was a collie reaching under his bunk, trying to retrieve a lost item. Each cell seemed to have a story attached to it.
They finally spotted their favorite dog, resting on his bunk, head in hands.
“Hey Rowlf.”
Rowlf put his hand up and down in the matter of a second, sort of a half wave, but not.
“What happened?” This was no different than talking to hurricane victims. He just had to choose the right strings to pull.
“Well...y-you...guys left...and..and I went...t-to dinner.” His speech was broken as he tried to overcome every emerging tear. “A-and then...these...these guys...they...t-they came...they came up...and...asked if I w-wanted...it.” Tears began coloring the dog’s trademark fur. “A-and I took...I took it...an then...” He put his head down.
Kermit nodded slowly, a stopping nod that said, “I know.”
“I kn-knew it was stolen...I knew it...b-but...I...I just...it...it just all...it all happened so fast.”
The dog refrained from the spot he had taken behind the bars, and returned to the bunk, his back turned to his two friends. “I...I just don’t understand it...why did this have...have to happen to me? If only...if only I had just gotten the bus...none of this...”
Kermit tried to speak. His mouth moved, but there was no sound. He was at a loss of what to say. For once, the person who did this the best of anyone in the world, was at a complete loss of what string he should pull.
It was Robin who broke the silence. “Well, Uncle Kermit told me that there’s this little thing called fate.”
Kermit immediately shot a look at Robin, a look that said, “Don’t. Just don’t.”
Robin stopped and nodded.
“Alright Rowlf, we’re gonna go. If you need us, we’ll be at the boarding house, so you can call.” Rowlf nodded. He had gotten his examination, and Dr. Kermit prescribed some alone time.
Kermit and Robin left the prison, and walked out into the night sky.
“Uncle Kermit, why-”
Kermit cut him off, already knowing what he was about to say. “Well, you see Robin, when people are having a hard time, they usually don’t like to talk about fate. They don’t want to accept the fact that this is happening for a reason. It’s hard for them.”
Robin nodded as the two headed home.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rowlf sat on his bunk and stared at the night sky. What was that thing Robin was saying? Fate? He knew the definition of fate, but what was it really? It had to be something more, something more intimate. Is it that things happen, yet there’s nothing we can do about it? If that was what it was, he didn’t like it. There had to be something more than that. There had to something. Was it a sign for him? That he should do something? That he should leave the Muppets? That he should help prisoners?
Rowlf sighed. He knew there was something there. Something that he was being told to do. But what? What could he possibly be getting told to do? He was so happy with his life as it is. Why would he ever need to make a change? Did he have to figure it out? Or would it just hit him in the back of the head?
He was lost and he knew it. Lost in some bigger universe. He was safe and comfortable in his own little world, but there was something more, something for him in the bigger universe. The only problem was that he didn’t know how to find that something.
He looked out his window, desperate for any that might come his way. He hoped to see anything there, a piece of nature, a person, even a star. But when he looked out, only one thing came to him, a song.
This looks familiar, vaguely familiar,
Almost unreal, yet, it's too soon to feel yet.
Close to my soul, and yet so far away.
I'm going to go back there someday.
Little did Rowlf know, he was not the only one who had a song come to him that night. There was another person looking out a window, lost, with only a song. They unknowingly harmonized each other.
Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls.
The sky calls
Is that a song there, and do I belong there?
Do I belong?
I've never been there, but I know the way.
I know the way
I'm going to go back there someday.
Come and go with me, it's more fun to share,
We'll both be completely at home in midair.
We're flyin', not walkin', on featherless wings.
We can hold onto love like invisible strings.
There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met.
Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place?
You can just visit, but I plan to stay.
I'm going to go back there someday.
I'm going to go back there someday.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
It tugged at my heart most when Robin asked to go and reading about Rowlf in prison.
