Speaker 1: You know, being bored can sometimes be a good thing.
But when you're so bored that's staring at a blank
wall starts to sound fun. Well, that's when you might
find yourself searching for things that probably don't even exist.
So if there's one thing I hope you'll learn from
today's story, it's this. It's okay to be bored, it's
just not okay to be that bored. This one's called
the Swamp Chicken head Man. Let's get into it. Helloll,
story time really not a boring time? Ram a standing
You'll be fine. Follow the whole storyline, Hellol, story time?
Might you live at least one time? This is the
story of three kids who let themselves get a little
too bored. So bored in fact, they started talking about
the legend of the swamp chicken head Man. Deontia and
Bailey couldn't, for the life of them, think of anything
fun to do. Oh Man, grumbled Bailey. I'm so board
right now, I'd probably have fun staring at a blank wall.
Tia robotically nodded her head. You think you're bored, I'm
so bored right now. I'd probably enjoy talking about the
weather with a statue. Dion wanted to one up them both,
but couldn't think of a better example. Well, I'm so bored.
I could just, you know, stare at a picture of
a statue on a wall and uh. In that picture,
the statue would be dipping some crackers in a hot
pul of soup. Both girls looked at Dion as if
to say what the kids had already spent hours trying
to think of something to do. Anytime one of them
had an idea, one of the others would say, we
already did that yesterday. It was as if they had
already done everything there is to do. Well, we could
go down to the swamp and look for tadpoles, suggested Bailey.
We haven't done that in a long time. Tia wasn't
so sure about that. Didn't we just do that yesterday?
Dion knew for a fact that they had not done
that yesterday. No way, guys, no way, I'm not going
down to the swamp. Are you crazy? The girls couldn't
see what was so crazy about that. Guys, do you
not know what's down there? Do you not know what's
down there? He repeated again, that's where the swamp chicken
head man lives. The girls pretended to fall down like
they had just been bopped on the head by the
hammer of made up ridiculousness. They studied Dion's face, searching
for the hint of a smirk. There was no way
he wasn't making this up, Dion, you are so full
of stuffed potatoes, Bud, Like, what did you even just
say a chicken wing swamp thing? Dion shook his head.
Swamp chicken head man, he corrected, and I'm not making
this up. It's real. He lives in the swamp and
he has a chicken head. Bailey was giggling at the
thought of someone with a chicken head, So like, what
does this guy have a full chicken where his head
is supposed to be or is it just a chicken head?
Cause chicken heads are kind of small, you know, So
then is it a people sized chickenhead? Dion had to
admit he didn't know. Ha, bellow, Tia, that's because you
made it up. Dion insisted the swamp chicken head Man
was real. Just because he himself had never seen the
swamp chicken head Man didn't mean it didn't exist. I
know a guy who has seen him. Well, like not
exactly the guy I know. But he knows someone who
has a sister, and that sister has a friend who
has a grandma who once had tea with another guy
who saw the swamp chickenhead man. That's how I know
it's real. Tia started walking away. Wait where are you going? Tia?
The other two called after her, I'm.
Speaker 2: Going to the swamp.
Speaker 1: Obviously I was only half interested when it was just
some tadpoles, but now I've got to see the swamp
chicken head man for myself. Dian was waving his hands
in the air. Oh maybe I didn't make myself clear.
This is a swamp chickenhead man we're talking about. Didn't
anyone teach you about stranger danger. You don't want to
have a run in with a swamp chicken head man,
do you. Apparently Tia did, because she kept on walking
toward the swamp. Bailey decided she really needed to know
the size of the chicken head so she followed after,
are you coming, Dion or what? Dion kind of felt
like he had to This was his fault, after all,
So together the three friends made their way down to
the swamp to look for something that sounded completely made up,
because that's what friends do when they're so bored. They'd
be willing to star at a picture on a wall
of a statue dipping crackers in a bowl of hot soup.
There was a reason the swamp wasn't a popular place
to visit. No disrespect to swamps, but this place stunk,
and being stinky made it a great place for flies
to hang out. You also weren't escaping the noise of
the city by coming down to the swamp. The bullfrogs
didn't know the first thing about being quiet. Hey, I
think I see some tadpoles, announced Dion, peering into the
stagnant water. Forget tadpoles, said, Tia, show us where the
swamp guy is. Yeah, agreed Bailey.
Speaker 2: Tadpoles.
Speaker 1: Wi. It sounded like a good idea when we were bored.
Now we have something exciting to search for. Dion tried
reminding of the girls that one should not actually try
to encounter a swamp chicken headman. Come on, Dion, just
admit it.
Speaker 2: You made it up.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as a swamp chicken head man.
The only things down here are tadpools. Fly isn't a
really swampy smell, or was that one of you guys.
As terrified as Dion was to come face to face
with a swamp chicken head man, he almost wished the
girls could get a quick glimpse of one so they
would stop telling him he was making this up. He
swore he knew a guy who knew another guy who
had a sister, who had a friend, who had a grandma,
who once had tea with a guy who saw one. Well, guys,
I don't think it's just as easy as coming down
here and then boom, he just pops out of the
swamp and says, Hey, it's probably like seeing a shooting star,
or finding a four leaf clover, or I don't know,
having a pink elephant asked to borrow your toilet. Tia
jokingly reminisced about the time she had a pink elephant
knock on her door and asked to use the toilet
and didn't laugh. He was thinking about how he needed
to start taking this search a little more seriously. He
didn't want these girls thinking he was just full of
stuffed potatoes.
Speaker 2: So you know how.
Speaker 1: People can usually get a dog's attention by whistling, Dion said,
changing the subject, Well, to get a swamp chicken head
man's attention. Don't do that, all right, Dion. So then
what do we do? Dion shrugged. I don't know. Just
don't bother whistling. Swamp chicken head man is not a dog.
A moment later, the kids were taking turns guessing what
sort of call you should make to get the attention
of a swamp chicken headman. Here's what I think it
sounds like, Dion began. Here's swampy, swampy, swampy chicken head man.
Here's swampy swampy chicken headman. Bailey was confident that was
not it. I don't think you're supposed to call him
by name. It's probably some kind of sound like this.
Dia just shook her head. It's like, neither of you
have ever called a swamp chickenhead man before. Here's how
you do it, Hey, swamp dude, get your chicken head
out here right now so we can see exactly what
type of head you're working with. Nothing called back to them,
nor did anything come crawling out of the swamp water
an other than a big dragonfly landing on Bailey's nose.
Nothing even moved ha get it off. Get it off,
Bailey howled. She tried swatting the dragonfly, but missed and
instead gave herself a bloody nose. Well, guys, I think
I've had enough of this swamp for one day. Walking home,
Dion kept trying to convince his friends that he was
not making this up. It's real, guys, I'm telling you,
But every time the girls would just tell him that
they thought he was full of stuffed potatoes. That night,
at dinner, Dion told his parents about the swamp chicken
head Man, thinking surely his own parents would believe him.
Speaker 2: We don't believe it, Dion, not even a little bit, Like,
where do you even come up with this stuff?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dion, did your teacher give you another creative writing
assignment or something? If so, why didn't you choose to
write about a polar bear named mister Freeze who lives
in the desert and goes up to everyone and says,
is it just me? Or is it a hot one today? Brutal?
Even his own parents didn't believe him. After finishing his dinner,
Dion decided to go back to the swamp for one
last quick look. He knew there had to be something
down there since his parents thought he was full of
stuffed potatoes too. They didn't even think twice about stranger danger.
Speaker 2: While you're down there, please say hello to my old
friend Wendy the swamp Mermaid. Okay, honey buns, And if
you bump into Jimmy the flying swamp Coat, please remind
him he still owes me fifty dollars. Dion stood straight
up and raised his chin.
Speaker 1: Well, I think everyone is gonna owe me a really
big apology after I come back from meeting the real
swamp chickenhead man. Dion marched down toward the swamp, but
stopped as soon as he was close enough to hear
the bullfrog. He wasn't feeling as brave without Tea and
Bailey by his side. The swamp almost had an eerie
glow at this time of day. He was about to
turn around when he saw something off in the distance.
At first, he thought maybe his eyes were playing tricks
on him, but then he saw it again. WHOA does
that dude have a chicken head? And that's when he
realized who he was looking at. He turned and started
running in the opposite direction, not because he was scared,
but because he couldn't wait another second to tell the girls.
Bailey's house was the first one along the way. Her
parents answered, quickly, thinking there must be in an emergency
the way Dion had been aggressively pounding on their door. Hey, guys,
I need you to tell Bailey that he's real. I
saw him. The swamp chicken head man. He exists. Dion
didn't wait for a response. He had to get over
to Tea's house, and he had to get there fast.
Bailey's parents stood there a moment longer, watching this boy
take off running down their street. Oh that that kid
just say something about a swamp chicken Bailey. It might
be time to start thinking about making some new friends.
When Tia answered her door, she said the same thing. Ah, Dion,
I think it might be time for me to start
making some new friends. No, Tia exclaimed, Dion, he really
does exist. I just saw him, and he wasn't even scary,
like I would totally go back and see him again.
Speaker 2: He reminded me of the.
Speaker 1: Kind of swamp chicken head man you could see yourself
cracking jokes with. He also seemed like the kind of
guy who would happily give you a slice of his pizza.
Tia still wasn't buying it. She just held out her hand.
Cough it up, then show me the picture. Surely you
remember to take a picture, right? Never had Dion had
more of a why didn't I think of that moment
as he did? Right then? Okay, Tia, So taking a
picture probably would have been a really smart thing to do,
especially since now I'm having a hard time remembering if
his head was like an actual full sized chicken or
if he just had a little chicken head sitting up
there on his neck. Dion may not have been able
to convince either of his friends that day, but he
did convince them to give him one last chance the
very next day. While walking back to the swamp, the
girls kept teasing Dion for not having too many answers
to their questions. How interesting that he couldn't remember how
tall the guy was or what he had been wearing.
Dion couldn't even tell them if the swamp chicken had
man had chicken wings or people arms. When they arrived
at the swamp, Dion became incredibly nervous that this might
turn out to be another bust. After twenty minutes of
looking around, the girl seemed ready to go home. No Wait,
we can't leave yet. He'll be here soon, I.
Speaker 2: Just know it.
Speaker 1: But even Dion was beginning to lose hope. Maybe the
calls we tried yesterday weren't the right ones. Oh did
that one work? Did anyone see him? The girls had
already left. Wait, maybe we were supposed to whistle for
him to come girls. Dion returned to the swamp three
more times than his camera held tightly in his hand
each time, but the swamp chicken head man was nowhere
to be seen. What's with this guy, Dion muttered. Just
as he was about to give up, something rustled in
the bushes. Dion slowly crouched down for a better look.
But it wasn't the swamp chicken head man. What he
saw was just a marsh rabbit. The rabbit spot a
Dion froze for a second and then looked ready to bolt.
Before I could, another bush rustled nearby. A second rabbit
hopped out, and then the first rabbit immediately relaxed. The
two sniff noses for a moment before happily hopping off together.
Dion watched them disappear. Huh, he murmured, I guess they
thought I was scary because I don't look like a rabbit,
and this gave Dion an idea. Instead of heading straight home,
he stopped at the supermarket top of the day. To you,
he said, to a lady who worked there, Do you
guys sell chickens here? Told him they did, Any chickens
that would fit over the top of my head. Dion
was told to leave the store. Fortunately, a nearby costume
store had a much better solution, a proper chicken head mask.
But the person who worked there had no idea what
he meant when he asked for a pair of swamp pants.
With his chicken mask pulled over his head and his
body covered in mud, Dion made one last strip back
to the swamp. He was quiet there when he arrived,
except for the bullfrogs and the birds and the bugs. Okay,
you know what, maybe it wasn't so quiet, but it
felt quiet to Dion because the one person or thing
he was looking for still didn't happen to be anywhere around.
Just some dude with a chicken on his head. Huh,
swamp chicken head man. Dion pulled out his camera and
quickly snapped a photo. He wasn't about to make that mistake. Again.
He then looked down at the screen to make sure
the photo wasn't blurry. It looked okay, but it was
kind of far away. Maybe he could get a better
one if he just moved a little closer. But when
he looked up from his camera, the swamp chicken Headman
was gone. Oh no, where did he go? I just
saw him. Dion started searching everywhere, but to no avail.
Come on, where are you?
Speaker 2: Chit chu chu chu chuchu chicken chit chichichichitch chicken.
Speaker 1: Come on. Dion was surprised when someone told him to
keep the noise down. You there, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Get down?
Speaker 1: He's gonna catch you if you're just standing out in
the open like that. Dion couldn't see where the voice
was coming from, but he appreciated the warning. Was the
swamp chicken head Man trying to catch him? All this time,
he'd been so caught up trying to prove the guy existed,
he'd forgotten all about stranger danger. Now that he thought
about it, he didn't even know anything about the swamp
chicken Headman. It was very possible this guy wasn't the
joke cracking pizza sharing dude. Dion had imagined him to be.
Where are you, Dion said to the helpful voice in
the swamp, Just be really quiet and make sure no
one sees you. Dion waded into the murky water, but
he still didn't see anyone. Suddenly he noticed bubbles rising
to the surface. Then a head popped up a moment later.
This was the moment Dion realized he'd made a big mistake.
He wasn't looking at the head of some kind helpful stranger.
He was looking at a chicken head. Only it wasn't
just a chicken head. It was like an entired chicken
resting on somebody's shoulders. Whoa swamp chicken Headman? When the
swamp chicken head man spoke, Dion was surprised that guy
had the same voice as the one he'd heard moments earlier.
Whoa swamp chicken head kid? Said the swamp chicken head man.
Dian had almost forgotten about his own costume. Listen, swamp
chicken head kid. I wasn't trying to scarey you back there,
but there have been a lot of people coming around
the swamp lately. I didn't want one of them to
catch you. Those chickenhead folk need to be careful. I
take stranger danger very seriously, especially when those strangers don't
have chicken heads. Dion realized his costume was working. Swamp
chicken head Man thought he was just like him and
had been warning him about people like Dion, Tia and Bailey.
The swamp chicken head Man kindly offered Dion a slice
of swamp pizza. Swamp pizza looked absolutely disgusting, so of
course Dion politely said no thanks, but he did appreciate
the offer none the less. The swamp chicken head Man
also cracked a lot of funny jokes about the people
who didn't have chicken heads. He said the other kind
of had reminded him of a bowling ball. Just try
to stay safe out there, kid, bowling ball had people
never come down here to be our friends. They just
come to point and laugh and take pictures of our
awesome heads, and they can be downright mean sometimes. It
pained Dion to hear this part, had he himself not
been one of those people who had wanted to point
and stare, well, mister swamp chicken head Man, I'd best
be going now, said Dion. I wouldn't want to worry
Mama chicken head and top a chicken head if I'm
gone too long. The swamp chicken head man said farewell
and let him know he was welcome to come back
and visit with his family anytime. This time, on his
way home, Dion didn't stop to visit Tia or Bailey.
All this time he'd been trying to prove that he
wasn't making this whole thing up, that he wasn't full
of stuffed potatoes. But now all he wanted to do
was protect the swamp chicken head man. The poor guy
deserved a little privacy from all the bowling ball head people.
There was just one problem. Dion was a terrible liar.
The next time he was hanging out with Tia and Bailey,
all he had to do was ask, Dion, aren't you
gonna try and convince us to go back to the
swamp with you. Dion tried to act like he had
no idea what Tia was talking about. Swamp? What swamp?
Ugh Dion stopping weird, don't you want us to come
see your made up little swamp chicken head man. Dion
looked mystified swamp chicken head man, and he definitely wasn't
a good liar. When the girls found the photo on
his camera that he had forgotten to delete, Dude, you
got a picture of the guy. He really does have
a chicken head. Dion began stammering, uh uh uh, that's
that's actually my uncle, uh, the one who recently had
head surgery. The girls weren't even listening at this point.
They were already running toward the swamp. Wait, stop, cried Dion.
You can't go down there. He might think you're just
there to point and steer. Bailey gave Dean a thumbs
up without stopping. That's exactly what we'll be there to do.
Dean didn't yet know how he was going to fix this,
but he knew he needed to act fast. Hopping on
his bike, he began peddling with all his might. The
girl stopped at TIA's house to grab her camera, but
then they had to go back to Bailey's and get
her camera too, because apparently Bailly didn't think Tia was
a very good photographer. When the girls finally arrived with
the swamp, they had no problem finding the swamp chicken
head man. He was just out there in the open.
Getting both their cameras out at the same time the
girls began snapping away. The swamp chicken head man held
up his hands like a bear might do, and started
making some uga booga sounds, But the girls weren't so
easy to scare. Is he trying to scare us right now?
Asked Ta. I think he's trying to be cute, answered Bailey.
He is awfully small.
Speaker 2: Isn't he more of a swamp chicken head kid?
Speaker 1: If you ask me, Tia was nodding yeah, and his
chicken head is not at all what I was expecting.
Looks more like a cheap chicken head you'd find at
a costume store. Just then, the swamp chicken head Man
started performing an educational rap song for the girls, though
how strange that his voice sounded an awful lot like
their friend Dion's. It's not okay to point and stare.
You gotta show people that you care. Some heads around
like a bowling ball. Some grown men are not very tall,
so let's speak kind to everyone. Say it altogether. They're
learning is fun. The girls didn't run away right then
because they were scared. They ran because never in their
lives had they ever felt more bored than they had
while listening to that song. After that day, the swamp
chicken head Man was never mentioned ever again, well until
many years later when a new generation of kids discovered
some weird photos their parents had forgotten to delete. The end.
That's the story, and here is your question of the week.
What is the most bored you have ever been? And
was it worse than staring at a blank wall? Thanks
to Diontia and Bailey and showed it to Rakeeb from Washington,
Will from Park City, Utah, Carter J from Dallas, Texas,
Mazie from York in the UK, Leo Freddie, Max and
Jewels from Montana, Jack from England, Evelyn Dunnica and their
dog Moves from Cork, Ireland, Lav and Ella from Israel,
and Rowan and Nasher from Philly. I'll have more for
you next time, but as for this episode, that's a rap,
So thanks for listening and I'll catch you on the
next one.