Our Friend Murray, Chapter 4

Our friend Murray, the spider, had no luck in finding another rock in the stream. The narrow stream was no longer so narrow and no longer so shallow. It had now become a bustling and rapid and deep field of water. And there were no rocks on which to climb.

“Murray, are you doing ok? I am worrying greatly about you.”

“Well, as long as I can keep my head above the water level, I can breathe, but I do worry that it is getting harder and harder to do so.”

Unbeknownst to our friend Murray, our friend Tessa the fish was giving a good strong eye towards our floating friend Murray. Tessa was hungry and a nice juicy meal sounded good right about now. Our friend Murray was about to find himself to be that meal today.

Our friend Tessa swam in the direction of our friend Murray. She swam faster and faster so as to catch up with the quickly flowing spider. She neared his legs, opened her mouth, and prepared for the catch of the day.

But just then, a current in the water went a bit faster than it had been. Something upstream must have caused a rush of water all of the sudden. This rush changed the perspective for where our friend Tessa’s mouth was to reach and grab our friend Murray.

So instead of reaching our friend Murray and placing him in her mouth, our friend Tessa bumped into the our friend Murray, jolting them both up into the air, higher than either of them thought they would go.

With this new situation, our friend Murray suddenly found himself thrust into a few low lying branches of a tree. He quickly realized his luck, spun out as hard as he might, grabbing hold of a limb and hung there above the water for safety and to catch his newly acquired breath.

Our friend Tessa, not having the same natural physical characteristics to be able to grab hold of a limb with web, plunged back down into the stream, realizing now that the meal she had hoped to make of our friend Murray would be lost. For now at least.

“My my, dear Murray, it looks as if you’ve had a stroke of good fortune.”

“Oh, my, yes, I am so thankful. I am still not clear what happened, but I do know that somehow I was pushed out of the water and into this tree. I am so lucky and so grateful to that dear fish down there for saving my life!”

“Oh yes, the fish, I am sure she considers you very lucky as well.”

“Now I am going to just hang here for a moment and rest. I have had the wind knocked out of me!”

“Yes, of course, Murray, you should get some rest. You have had quite an adventure.”

Our friend Murray continued to hang, let the wind blow him slightly here and there, but knowing that his web was strong enough to keep him connected to the tree which is connected to the land which is connected to, but not trapped in, the stream below.

“How long do you think you will be hanging around there on the limb?”

“Oh, I’m feeling better now. I just needed to rest a moment.”

And with that, our friend Murray grabbed hold directly of the limb above and walked out onto the top of the limb. He stood there, contemplating what had occurred and what laid out before him. The no-longer-narrow stream, the now wide stream, was below and there certainly was no way he was going back into that. He could however, utilize this limb which connects to the tree which connects to the ground on the other side of the stream, the other side to which he had previously tried to get, and venture forth into wherever the land there would take him.

Our friend Murray thought, “Wow, I am happy to be alive.”

“I am glad that you are alive still too. Life is always taking us in directions from where we may not know before.”

“It sure is. And now I will see what is next before me in this next chapter, traveling where life takes me and going with the flow, always knowing that I have a home.”