Chapter 10
Click. Click. Click.
‘’What are you doing here?’’
‘’I’m on a date--and I could ask the very same of you!’’
‘’Well, I’m different from you, I don’t need to answer to you!’’
‘’No I guess not. But all the same, can’t we just agree to be civil to each other?’’
‘’Civil? Civil? All I was was civil to you! I gave you everything you wanted- everything your little heart desired- and how do you treat me? How do you repay me? By doing THIS to me?! Daisy, you are impossible!’’
Kermit sighed, and stopped typing for a moment. He looked up at the large circular clock in front of is desk. 2:03, Robin was surely at his other job by now. Yet another pang of guilt and nervousness washed over him, letting the full force of what he had done (or rather what he failed to do) hit him once again.
‘’Let’s see- impossible, impossible, impossible…..’’
‘’Ring Ring!’’ Kermit’s office phone made its presence known with its rather shrill sounding ring. Acknowledging this interruption, Kermit groaned loudly, quickly considering the consequences if he didn’t answer the phone. How was a person expected to get any work done with so many distractions? And now, here was another person to bother him. Great.
‘’Good grief,’’ he mumbled, and reluctantly picked up the phone, obviously unhappy at having been bothered while he was on the clock.
‘’Hello, The Frog residence, Kermit speaking……oh hi, Piggy! How are you?………I’m working, sweetheart, you know that……..yeah……..uh huh……….. Oh are they? When did they get back?………oh yeah?………Sure, that’ll be great! It’ll be nice to see Braden again……………No, honey, that’s for when Robin gets home. He’s- huh? Oh, Samantha’s going with you?….Oh good, I’m glad you two are spending some time together…And she’s--oh my goodness, the dynamic duo are together again! I feel sorry for anyone who work in retail today…Listen, listen…honey?………Honey, I have to get back to work now, but uh, can you promise me something? Between the two of you, can you please leave something in the stores?’’
Kermit scrunched up his face at his wife’s response, inching his way from a one to a five on his scale of annoyance in a very short amount of time.
‘’What on Earth is so funny? Piggy- I mean it, don’t go overboard this time- I’m still recovering from the last time you two-- I’m trying to honey, but you keep talking to me!……..Yes, yes, six o’clock……….All right sweetheart, have a nice time……..And I you. Mwah! Bye now!’’
He hung up the phone an sighed again, this time with a happy, frog in love tone. He loved his wife to pieces, but he had to admit, she was a sucker for shopping-especially shopping with her best friend, Samantha. Together, the two of them made Hurricane P.S.
What a stroke of good luck! I couldn’t have planned that better myself! He thought. With Piggy gone shopping with Samantha, she would be well out of the way of the party. Perfect. Kermit shook his head wistfully, as he clicked down the keys on his computer again, when the doorbell rang. Kermit’s head shot up, his face wrinkled in wonderment.
‘’Now who can that be?’’ he wondered aloud.
‘’Coming!’’ he bellowed as he rushed downstairs, flailing every part of his body until he reached the door. Then, breathlessly, he opened to door to find Fozzie on the other side.
‘’Hi-ho, Fozzie!’’ he greeted.
‘’Hiya Kermit! Boy, am I glad to see you!’’
‘’Why? Bad day?’’
‘’Well, it’s-’’
‘’Well come on in, Fozzie, and we’ll talk all about it, In fact , we have an awful lot to talk about…..’’
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To describe the afternoon that Robin was having in one word: humdrum. He was now at his second job today, which was perhaps the more upsetting one- cleaning the Muppet Theatre. Well, what was left of it, that is. A concert had been held there the night before, and there would be another tonight; so the place had to be in tip top shape. Unfortunately for Robin, this wasn’t exactly going to be an easy task.
Robin stood with his eyes gouged, gazing around at the mess he had to clean up. It was enormous! This equivalent of cleaning up this mess would be like cleaning up after a party at the Boarding House-- after cannons were fired, and cake was had, and tantrums were thrown, and penguins were bored, and dinner was served--and somehow, yellow paint was involved.
There were cans on the floor- so many, Robin could barely see the floor. There were also burnt out glow-sticks and flyers all scattered about on the floor. Somehow, some kind of sticky food had gotten all over the walls, leaving unsightly stains as well as an unpleasant aroma. Food wrappers and plates of all different shapes and sizes were on tables, the stage, and crammed into every possible cranny.
But, perhaps, he marked not the pith of all-the ceiling. And this was the thing that baffled him most--somehow, by God’s grace, a piece of pizza got stuck firmly on the ceiling.
‘’Ughk,’’ Robin commented as he pulled it off using all his strength.
‘’Oh boy,’’ he said to no one really ‘’I know what Gonzo did last night.’’
………………………………................................................................................................
By now, the two ladies were probably annoying everyone else at the studio with their seemingly incessant laughter. The two had finished eating lunch, and were now enjoying some down time at the photography studio as everyone packed up their equipment. Piggy and Samantha were relaxed in a back room seated on Hollywood style chairs, and sharing a laugh at a picture of Braden tasting a surprisingly bitter Grecian lemon. For some reason, lemons served in restaurants in Greece are far more sour than in America-- which Braden found out the hard way. To fully give a picture of what poor Braden’s face looked like- one would have to picture a combination of a human skeleton and an anemic teenage boy. Yes, this was going to be the butt of many inside jokes to come for sure.
‘’And he couldn’t taste anything but lemon juice for an hour!’’ Samantha exclaimed, simply toppling over with laughter. Piggy joined in, until suddenly, she looked up a clock on the wall. It was almost four o’clock, and she and Samantha had yet to go shopping.
‘’Oh my! I’d better call Jerome!’’ Piggy said absent-mindedly.
‘’Oh, I don’t think that’ll be necessary, Piggy, I mean, we could take a cab.’’
‘’Nonsense, darling!’’ exclaimed Piggy. ‘’ Not when my best friend in the world is in town. We have to take the limo!’’
‘’Did someone call for a limo?’’
Just then a handsome, well-built, and charming young man walked into the room, keys in hand. He was dashing, tall, had dark hair and deep eyes, had a great smile - and was Samantha’s husband. Ever the patient and enduring one, he had come to pick Samantha up. If only he knew what he was in for, he would have backed out before he even got to the room.
‘’I volunteer to take you lovely ladies home,’’ he said with a dashing smile.
‘’Braden!’’ At the sight of her husband, Samantha went dashing into his warm and welcoming arms, almost smothering him with kisses.
‘’Sweetheart!’’ he greeted, kissing her firmly on the lips. He smile at her, and spun her around the room, causing her to giggle furiously.
‘’How did you know to find me here?’’ Braden smirked at her. Are you kidding me?
‘’Let’s just say I have it on very good authority.’’ For a second then, he turned his gaze from his wife to his best friend’s wife.
‘’And Miss Piggy, how are you, darling?’’ He reached for her hand, and kissed it gently, causing Piggy to blush a little.
‘’Oh, moi is beautiful as always,’’ she declared with a slight giggle.
‘’Oh, I can’t argue with that,’’ he said, giving her a mock-once over. ‘’And to what do I owe this delightful pleasure, dear?’’
‘’Well, vous kept Samantha away from me for so long, we had to do some catching up,’’ she said flirtatiously.
‘’I see, ‘’ Braden said, smiling to himself. ‘’I’ll be sure not to do that again. Now, if I hurry and buy you two lovelies dinner and get you home, I can be back to work in time.’’ Samantha, who had now taken a seat on her husband’s lap, groaned.
‘’Oh, do you have to go back to work, honey?’’
‘’Unfortunately,’’ Braden said through a sigh. ‘’So, where to, my lovelies?’’
‘’Actually, we already ate, but if you could just drop us off at Perrier’s, that would be wonderful, honey.’’
Another smile Braden gave to himself. He felt sorry for anyone who worked in retail today.
‘’Shopping, eh? Look out world! Here comes the troublesome two!’’
‘’Oh hush,’’ Samantha said, lightly tapping his shoulder. The two shared a small smile before they all got up and prepared themselves to move out. Braden then jingled the keys in his hand, using them as his signal that he was ready to go.
‘’Off we go, then!’’
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Normally, Robin loved cleaning the Muppet Theatre. It always gave him such joy just to be in it, and to be in the presence of the splendor of the epitome of performing arts. Today though, it saddened him. For some reason, today was a day of nostalgia rather than just happy memories. Before, his happy memories of getting to sing a song or play a simple tune on his guitar on the Muppet Show made him happy and helped get his work done faster. Now, it proved to do just the opposite.
As Robin cleared all of the rubbish of the back walls, he remember the imprint that Gonzo had left on the wall after crashing face first into it. There was still a yellowish brown mark on the wall from where his hands had been. He then cleaned all the backstage area, namely the costumes closet. He remember how Piggy always used to make a big to-do over her costumes, and tease Kermit with how great he knew she looked in them. He dusted off the microphones, and remember how nervous Fozzie always got just to look at one sometimes. Then, finally, the mother off them all. Robin worked his way up to the stage, sweeping all the wrappers, gum, cups, flyers, assorted papers, cans, other unmentionables and the like off of the stage. It was here that he remembered his greatest memory of all: the first time he ever graced this stage. It was a wonderful memory, and to him, it seemed like only yesterday.
……’’But right now, I’d like to introduce a special guest tonight. He’s handsome, enchanting, captivating, talented, amazing-- and five! Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome- my nephew, Robin the Frog! Yaaay!’’
Yes, so many beautiful things had taken place on this stage- and all not too long ago. Robin even had secret dreams that one day he would be in charge of this theatre. But after it was bought out, his dreams went with it. But then, Robin looked up, with hope gleaming in his eyes. Maybe there was a way that his dreams did not have to die?
‘’Hey! Why don’t we get things started?’’ he sang out, to no one in particular. He was excited, and there was no use trying to deny it.
‘’Yes, why don’t we get things started?’’ he
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