As he descended the rock stairs he had made by packing layers of dirt between layers of flat stones he pulled the light bed back over the entrance. The store wasn’t too much taller than he was. It was, however a little wider than his living space above. He then crossed the large storeroom to a very large door. He swung the door open and looked in at the sleeping mule. He smiled as the strange mule twitched his ears in his sleep and decided to let the mule sleep a little longer.1
He crossed the room again and lifted open the wooden door in the floor. This door led into the secondary storeroom. He carefully descended the stone stairs into the cold basement below. When he stepped from the stairs the cold white substance the creature called Tommy had called snow crunched under his feet. It hadn’t taken him long to get used to that noise. He had begun putting the snow his lowest storeroom when he found it made his food last longer when it was the cold time and the snow covered the ground outside. He would pack the cold stuff into his wooden holders until it was solid then stack the solid chunks all the way around the walls. As he stacked up the solid chunks he would pack even more of the cold stuff into the cracks in between them. When he was finished he had a thick wall of the hard packed stuff. The wall would stay completely hard during the cold time and only turned to water a little during the warm time because the cold storeroom was so far underground. To keep the cold wall solid during the warm period he would haul loads of the cold stuff down off of the top of the high place that Tommy had called from time to time and pack it onto the wall.2
He picked up a box with a layer of the cold stuff packed into the bottom of it and packed some extremely strange food into it. He then placed more snow on top of the food. Next he tapped a wooden lid into place in the top of the box. He carefully carried the box up the stone steps and placed it on the wooden floor. After closing the door to his cold storage room, he woke up the sleeping mule. “It’s time to start your day. After all we have a very long trip ahead of us.” He told the little mule as he scratched his forehead. “Of course you don’t know anything about that yet do you?” He asked as he gave it some extremely strange feed. “I’ll need you to carry the rack today.” He said as he placed a light wooden rack on the mules back. He then began to pack it with things they would or might need. The food box sat above the middle of the mule’s back. There was a place for a water jug over his rump. Other various items and tools had their own places on the rack. When the supplies were loaded he fed the mule a second helping of food.3
He went quietly back upstairs to find scarf was now laying on top of Tommy’s legs. Both slept peacefully. Mr. Frogg went into his kitchen and began to make extremely strange cakes on top of his stone oven. A pleasant aroma soon filled the air. Before long, Scarf’s nose began to twitch. As he awoke he sniffed the air hungrily. Scarf became excited and began to wiggle. Within moments Tommy began to wake up.4
5
“Where am I?” Tommy asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.6
“Don’t you remember?” Mr. Frogg asked, as he turned over the strange cakes.7
“Oh, I remember now.” Tommy said as a tear rolled down his cheek.8
“Why is water leaking from your eye?” Mr. Frogg asked curiously.9
“They’re called tears not water. It’s called crying.” Tommy explained as he wiped away the tear.10
“Why were you, uh, crying?” Mr. Frogg asked kindly as he handed Tommy his extremely strange cakes.11
“Because I want to go home.” Tommy sobbed tearfully.12
“I’ll help you get home.” Mr. Frogg said as he sat down to eat.13
“Do you really think you can get me home?” Tommy asked doubtfully.14
“Of course I can! But first we must eat. We’ll need our strength for the trip.” Mr. Frogg said with a smile.15
They sat in silence for the short time it took them to eat their extremely strange cakes. Scarf, however, had eaten his before they even began. He then whimpered and whined impatiently until Mr. Frogg gave him the leftovers. Even though his belly bulged tremendously he sniffed around until he’d found every last crumb.16
“Thank you, those were great.” Tommy said with a smile. “How soon can we leave?” Tommy asked as he wiped crumbs from his mouth.17
“Let’s go see if Riggins is done with his morning food.” Mr. Frogg said as he crossed the room.18
“What or who is Riggins?” Tommy asked as Mr. Frogg slid his bed away from the wall.19
“He’s my mule.” Mr. Frogg said as he started down the steps.20
“I can’t believe you have a mule in your basement.” Tommy said in disbelief as he followed Mr. Frogg down the stairs.21
“What is a basement?” Mr. Frogg asked, wrinkling his brow.22
“This room we are standing in is called a basement in my world.” Tommy explained as he reached the bottom step.23
“I understand.” Mr. Frogg replied simply.24
“How did you get your mule down here in the first place?” Tommy asked as he stared at the little mule.25
“He comes in and goes out through that tunnel.” Mr. Frogg explained pointing to the tunnel behind Riggins.26
“Are we ready to go?” Tommy asked eagerly.27
“I believe we are. I’ll meet you outside if you’ll put my bed back against the wall.” Mr. Frogg said with a smile.28
“I’ll try.” Tommy answered doubtfully.29
He was surprised when the bed easily slid back into place. Scarf was right behind him as he crossed the room and stepped outside. He shut the door and looked around at all the strange creatures that were sneaking away in the morning light. Tommy was startled by a noise behind him. He spun around to see Mr. Frogg leading his mule out of a gate hidden by hanging vines.30
“How did you end up living in this tree?” Tommy asked as they started up the path leading across the meadow.31
After many interruptions by questions of how, why, and what for, Mr. Frogg managed to explain it in great detail.32
“How’d you make that hill over the top of the tunnel?” Tommy asked as they reached the far edge of the clearing.33
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