Hello.
My name is Harper.
I am a mouse.
My momma hasn’t let me out of our nest very often yet.
It has only been a short time since I stopped taking
her milk.
And, even still, sometimes,
when I am frightened by
a bad dream,
or feeling very small and very alone,
I will again take some of her milk
and she will sing to me,
stroking the fur on my face and neck
while she sings.
I want to tell you about my home and my family.
My momma, my papa, my two sisters, and I
live in a neat and tidy little hole
behind the refrigerator that sits
in a warm little house.
The house belongs to five humans.
So far, the humans do not know
that we live with them.
(My papa says that they would not like it, if they knew.)
But, the humans have a cat.
And, the cat knows about us.
The cat’s name is Chauncey.
I hate him.
He scares me.
Papa doesn’t think so,
but our human family is nice.
There is a momma and a papa.
two loud boys; one older one who is
tall and thin.
The other boy is small,
but very loud.
He reminds me of the squirrels
that live in the trees near the
back of the house.
The small boy never walks,
he runs everywhere he goes.
Sometimes he jumps and jumps
for no reason at all.
The girl is in the middle.
She is usually very quiet.
I like her best.
The girl reads stories from books.
Sometimes she reads aloud,
when she does,
I sneak in to listen.
I like stories.
I don’t know much about the human momma
or
the human papa.
My papa tells me not to get too close to any of
the humans.
My papa tells me to
stay especially away from the adult humans;
to never let them see us.
I do my best to follow the rules,
to do as I am told,
but I like the human girl
very much.
The stories that she reads to herself
are full of adventures.
I do so very much like to hear her read
the adventure stories.
(I wish I could go on an adventure.)
But, I must be very, very careful.
Chauncey, the cat, likes adventure stories
too.
*
-JBClaywell
© P&ZPublications
*an exercise in fiction