Swamp Call

Katzi428

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Awww Lisa...that was beautiful!:smile: I know where you got Jane & James though:wink:
That conversation between Kermit & his mom was so sweet!
 

Beauregard

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I loved Kermit's Father's remark about the collar (which I can't spell). It was too perfect!!! I sware they should make this into a film. A touching, remarkable, amazing, muppet film. Whole cast. A large part for Robin, new character, Robin's parents. Plenty of room for new characters, while keeping all the old. Maggie (not Mit) should be played by Karen Prell. I think Jerry should do Kermit's mum. It's so fab!!!
 

theprawncracker

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TogetherAgain said:
The elderly lady frog shook her head. “You know what I mean,” she said softly. “I know you’re happier when you play it.”

He shrugged, stood up, and hugged her. “I know who to thank for that,” he whispered.

“So do I,” she said as she hugged him back.
Well Lisa, you've done it, you've referenced all of my fan-fics! (Well, except my Fraggle fic, but I won't count that) Oh, and I wanted to say your welcome, and I'm glad I could help. :smile:

But the chapter!! Oh it's amazing!! James and Jane! Wha ha ha! That's awesome!! And Kermit's talk with his mother was (excuse me for sounding like Dan here but) fab!! Can't wait to read more!! :big_grin:
 

G-MAN

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When I first saw that Kermit's mother's name was Jane, I was hoping that his father's would be Jim or James, and that's so cool, keep up the good work Together Again
 

redBoobergurl

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James and Jane. So fitting. Perfect! Anyway, I'm so glad you're back, I've been looking forward to reading this story for the LONGEST time! This is without a doubt my favorite fan fic of yours and I agree with Beau, it should be a movie!
 

TogetherAgain

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Chapter thirty-five

The next evening found Kermit and Robin at the train station surrounded by their friends. Robin was comfortably seated in Sweetums’ hand, and Fozzie was hugging Kermit a little too tight.

“Fozzie?” Kermit said. “I need to breathe.”

“Oh! Sorry,” Fozzie said as he released his friend.

Kermit took a deep breath. “Whoo! That’s better,” he said.

“Kermit, are you sure you can’t come back with us yet?” Gonzo asked.

“We’ll be back soon, guys,” Kermit said. “But Mom’s just getting back to the swamp tonight. I’d like to stay a little bit longer. Just until she’s settled back in, you know?”

“That’s alright, Kermit,” Rowlf said as he pat the frog’s shoulder. “Just come back as soon as you can.”

“I will,” Kermit said.

“Yeah, and Boss?” Scooter said. “Don’t worry about the show at all. We’ve got it under control.”

“At least we did when we left yesterday morning,” Clifford said.

“Si but jou don’t wanna know what dat band might’ve done about dat, hokay,” Pepe said.

Kermit shook his head. “Nothing we can’t handle, I’m sure,” he said. “But hey, you guys should get going. Your train should be leaving any minute.” They started gathering their luggage, and Sweetums set Robin down.

“Wait!” Miss Piggy said. She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Kermit, and kissed his cheek. “Oh Kermie,” she said, “Moi will miss vous so much!”

Kermit cleared his throat. “I uh, I’ll miss you too, Piggy,” he said. “But I’ll be back soon. Trust me, I’ll be at the theater again before you know it.”

“Oh Kermie,” she sighed, “It will be like an eternity!”

“Well, uh, that may be, Piggy,” Kermit said. “But you don’t have an eternity before the train leaves, and-“

“Oh! Right!” Miss Piggy said. She dropped another kiss on his cheek. “Bye Kermie!” She grabbed both of her suitcases and dashed towards the train.

The others chuckled as they lifted their suitcases and started to walk towards the train.

“Yeah, see ya, Kerm,” Clifford said.

“Later, Cliff,” Kermit said.

“Adios, hokay!” Pepe said.

“Bye Boss! Bye Robin!” Scooter said.

“See ya!” Gonzo called.

“See ya, Little Buddy,” Sweetums said. “Bye Kermit!”

“Bye Sweetums!” Robin said.

Fozzie put a hand on Kermit’s shoulder. “I’m glad your mom’s okay, Kermit.”

“Me too, Fozzie,” Kermit said.

“I’ll see ya!” Fozzie said as he joined the others.

“See ya, guys!” Kermit called as he waved after them.

“Bye everybody!” Robin called, hopping in the air as he waved.

After a moment, their friends poked their heads out of the windows as the train started to pull away. Kermit counted them off as they passed. “Piggy, Fozzie, Scooter, Rowlf, Clifford, Pepe, Sweetums... Hey wait a minute, where’s Gonzo?”

The train picked up speed and the last car passed, with Gonzo latched onto the railing, flying behind.

“THIS IS SOOOOO COOOOOOOOOL!” the weirdo shouted as the train whipped him out of the station.

Kermit scrunched up his face. “Sheesh.” He reached down and held his nephew’s hand. “Come on, Robin,” he said.

“Okay, Uncle Kermit,” Robin said. He stayed at his uncle’s side as he hopped out of the station.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Over a hundred frogs paraded out the hospital doors, laughing as they hopped into the back of a red pick-up truck.

The elderly lady frog held her husband’s hand as she settled in. “You know,” she said in her forever-gentle voice, “We need to celebrate. I think we should have a dance this evening.” The other frogs cheered. She turned to her son. “Kermit, you’ll play your banjo for us?”

“Of course, Mom!” Kermit said, “I’d be happy to.”

“Oh boy!” Robin said. “We’re gonna have a dance!”

“We are?” a very small frog said. “But I don’t know how to dance.”

“Don’t know how to dance?!?” Robin repeated.

“You don’t know how to dance?” Kermit asked. He turned to his parents. “Mom, Dad, what has this family been doing that Josh doesn’t know how to dance?” He turned back to his nephews. “Why Josh, that’s impossible! Of course you know how to dance, you just don’t know you do. I’ll show you, as soon as we get to the swamp.”

“Thanks, Uncle Kermit,” Josh said.

“I’ll help,” Robin said. “Dancing’s a lot of fun, Josh. You’ll love it!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Later that night, Kermit sat with his banjo, as usual. But now he sat across the pond from his favorite log. Instead of hiding in every corner of the swamp, everyone had congregated in this clearing. A few frogs were sitting on the logs that sprinkled the edges of the clearing, but most everyone was dancing up a storm. Kermit played lively songs that he almost never played in the evenings. A few of his brothers sat with him, laughing, clapping, singing, and drumming along.

Kermit looked out at the crowd of dancers. Robin and Josh were closest to him, clearly enjoying themselves. Josh was a natural dancer, despite his original hesitation. Past them, he could see his mother on a log. She hadn’t danced much, because she was still pretty weak, but she was clapping and singing along with every song. On another log, across the clearing from his mother, Kermit saw Maggie trying to convince Croaker to dance. Apparently Croaker wasn’t in a dancing mood. Kermit glared at him.

“Alright Brother,” Jimmy said as he clapped along next to Kermit, “What song’s next?”

Kermit smiled. “Well,” he said, “We still haven’t done Happy Feet.”

Jimmy smiled. “Does that mean you’re dancing?”

“It sure does,” Kermit said. He set his banjo down and walked straight to the center of the clearing. His brothers and sisters played the rhythm in whatever way they could, and everyone sang.

Happy feet
I’ve got those happy feet
Give them a low down beat
And they begin dancing
I’ve got those
Ten little tappin’ toes
And when they hear a tune
I can’t control
My dancing heels to save my soul!
Weary blues
Can’t get into my shoes
Because my shoes refuse
To ever grow weary
I keep cheerful
On an earful
Of music sweet
Cause I’ve got hap-hap-happy feet
!”

Kermit tapped his heart out in the small circle his family had formed around him. The circle grew smaller and smaller as the mass of frogs converged and tapped along with him.

Weary blues
Can’t get into our shoes
Because our shoes refuse
To ever grow weary
We keep cheerful
On an earful
Of music sweet
Cause we’ve got hap-hap-happy
Cause we’ve got hap-hap-happy
FEET
!”

Kermit laughed as he strolled back to the log, sat down, and swung his banjo back across his lap. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see his father standing there.

The old frog set his cane against the log. “Play a slow one for us, son,” he said. He started walking towards his wife.

Kermit smiled as his father led his mother out into the clearing. He played a very slow tune, one he knew his parents had danced to on their wedding night. He glared at Croaker, who was still resisting Maggie’s pleas to dance. Croaker caught the glare and instantly snapped to his feet to drag Maggie into the clearing to dance. Maggie glanced at her brother and laughed.

Kermit turned his gaze back to his parents. He smiled. All was well.
 

theprawncracker

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All was well!!!!!!!!

Oh that is so good to hear!!! Finally we hear that all is well!! Finally!!! Oh Lisa this chapter was great! Gonzo was perfect!! And everything else! Oh it was awesome!! Now I've got Happy Feet too! Which is ad becasue it's 11:20 at night here and I shouldn't be dancing but I am...Oh well! Croaker and Maggie are great too, now I know what that random sentence was...:wink:

GREAT CHAPTER!!!!!!
 

redBoobergurl

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Ok, even though Happy Feet will now be stuck in my head for the rest of the day...I loved this chapter! Everyone is happy and everything is ok! And Gonzo was priceless. I'm sad to see this might be ending soon!
 

Fragglemuppet

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Yes, but I have the feeling that within two weeks of this being finished, we'll see something new from either Lisa or Ryan, Lol! That was beautiful Lisa! All of it was so perfect. I wonder what can possibly happen next!
 

TogetherAgain

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Warning, brag post ahead

First of all, can I just say, Beth, I am very proud of myself for getting "Happy Feet" stuck in your head. I feel like that might be cruel of me, but... Anyway.

The next chapter is chapter thirty six. It is, ladies and gentlemen, the final chapter of Swamp Call. I would like to announce that this is, in every way measurable, my longest fanfic.

First unit of measurement: Number of Chapters. I have written stories with twenty chapters, twenty-four chapters, and twenty-three chapters, but this one sets the record at thirty-six chapters.

Second unit of measurement: Number of pages. All of my stories are saved to my computer in Microsoft Word, size 12 font, Times New Roman. I have written stories with eighty-eight pages, seventy-three pages, and eighty-seven pages, but this one raised the bar to 147 pages!

Third unit of measurement: Time. Destination: Home ran from May 31, 2005 to June 19, 2005- less than a month. Chasing Robin ran from July 4, 2005 to July 19, 2005- a mere fifteen days. Summer in the Theater ran from July 31, 2005 to September 4, 2005- a little over a month, really. But Swamp Call? Swamp Call has been running since September 7, 2005. We're getting very near to four long months.

Since it's getting so near to the end, I have some thank-you's to dole out. This may seem corny, but I feel it's necessary.

Thank you to Beauregard, who unwittingly caused the length of this story. You see, after I posted a "deleted scene" from Summer in the Theater, you, Beauregard, posted this:
Beauregard said:
You know what Lisa, you gotta stop cutting great chunks from your fan-fics!!!
Therefore, I didn't cut ANYTHING out of this. And it got very long. And believe me, there were some things that I considered cutting... but, I didn't, and then those were some of the very things that people commented on the most. So thanks, Beau.

Thank you to theprawncracker, who helped write more of this than I think even he realizes. Take the next chapter, for example. He was the one who reminded me of a certain element of the Muppets that had somehow escaped this story completely, and I realized that this element was the perfect ending I was looking for. As I mentioned before, he was also a great help in Chapter Thirty-Four, with Kermit's conversation with his mother. I had known for a long time that I wanted them to have another heart-to-heart after the operation, but I sat down to write it and realized I had no idea what they would talk about. And prawnie, you helped with that. You also helped me for almost the entire length of the story, by answering questions like "One, two, or three? L, M, or N? A, B, or C? Six or eight? Give me a random guy's name..." Such questions were used to make decisions on word and character choices, without giving anything away. They were also, I believe, a great deal of torture for prawnie, especially when I asked "a, b, or c?" and then realized I didn't know which letter stood for which option, and therefore had to ask "1, 2, or 3?" Although probably more torturous were the comments like "Oh my gosh, you are going to LOVE this line! Oh I can't wait to post this part! Oh my gosh I just got shivers typing this! Oh my gosh you are going to hate me for this! Oh my gosh this is going to be SO COOL!" So thank you, prawnie, for putting up with my torture.

Thank you to Nyssa, (RedDragon,) who also put up with those torturous comments and questions, and put up with my random rambles about the story before and after gym class, and is patient enough to sit on my bed while I sit here and type this story up in a rather unsocial manner. Really, Nyssa, you're very good about putting up with me, and you don't complain about it, either. So Thank you.

And most importantly, thank you, to YOU! Yes, you, whoever is here reading this! You who have read this story from beginning to- well, what I've posted, but who will read it from beginning to end, and comment on it, too! YOU! You are probably the biggest reason I even write in the first place, and you rock! I love reading your comments, it honestly makes my day so much better when I see a comment! So THANK YOU for reading it, and I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you like the last chapter, too! Thanks for sticking with me, everybody! I appreciate it so dang much!

And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final post... I dread it, I honestly dread it. I think I shall be so depressed when I am completely done with this story. Yes, it is true, I already have a short story completely written out which I will post in its own thread sometime after this, and yes, it is true, the next five stories after that are roughly mapped out in my head already. But Swamp Call has been a wonderful, major part of my life for almost four months now... Actually, probably more than that, because it was burning in my head while I was still writing Summer in the Theater. But the point is... I think I'll miss it.

Alright, enough with the mushy stuff. After all this, will you hurt me if I don't post the final chapter tonight? <sits back and waits for response>
 
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