Saturday, September 27, 2008

Chapter 4: The Two-Thing

Mustardseed

As I awoke this morning to a beautiful Fall day, I tiredly wandered over to the Frog dwelling, to see if they were yet awake, and if so, if I could Visit with them over a bowl of bran cereal.  

I immediately noticed a Peculiarity, for while Mote was in a typical position behind the Log, Mustardseed was in the Deep End of the tank, completely submerged, grasping the bottom-rocks of the Dwelling, looking very Wet and Winded, and surely Out of his Mind, or possibly even unconscious or Dead, death-gripped to an unfortunate Rock of the Deep.

In haste, I opened the lid to the dwelling and shot my hand into the water, in an effort to discover if my newly-found Friend, Companion, and Poet, suffered a Watery End, perhaps because Odysseus the Bug was poisonous, or possibly because of my Negligence and Ignorance of his Bodily Needs as a Frog.  

Up squirmed Mustardseed, clumsy and tired.  He squirted water out of his mouth upon reaching the surface, and looked at me in annoyance.  I expressed my worries, and asked what he could Possibly be doing down there, looking so Dead and out of Breath.

Mustardseed hopped onto the dwelling's log, and said that he was merely taking a Nap, and the best kind of nap, the Submerged kind, where Frogs may clutch a Favorite Rock and fall asleep to the sweet sounds of Water, all the while taking in Breath from the water through the Skin.

I was taken aback, and immediately asked Mote if this water-breathing was true with all Frogs, or if Mustardseed was pulling my Hind Leg.  

She replied that Yes, Frogs can breathe with either Nothing-air or Water-air, or both at the Same Time, if they chose, and in fact, many Frog-pursuits require both abilities.  She said that she enjoys very much the feeling of Wet, and that she doubts Man has a similar feeling for it, and asked Mustardseed if there was something comparable, again stating that she was Skeptical of the Possiblity.


Mustardseed and Mote

Mustardseed preached that Frogs love always to be Wet, and that Wet feels a bit like Liberty, though he is not Completely Sure about that, and that Wet gives extra Breath to the Supreme Hunters or the Supreme Lovers, whichever Frogs choose to be at the moment, for they are very Versatile.  Mustardseed said that there was a word that meant a Two-Thing, another word for Versatile, a Word which he did not know at the moment, but that there was a very Appropriate word, that gets at the Core of what Frogs are, and perhaps what Man is.  I ran my mind over Two-Things, and I drilled him in vocabulary, asking about Double, Duality, or Dichotomous, but he rejected these, his morning-Frog voice saying that he thought it began with a Vowel, but he could not For Frog's Sake remember the word that is at the Core of All Frogs and thus All Things.

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