The True Story--Well, Almost True--of a Christmas Mouse!

I am a mouse that lives in a house. 

It is the Lucas house. 

I am not supposed to live in that house, but I do.  

At least I did. 

But that is getting ahead of the story.

Things looked so interesting through the window in the Lucas house that I decided I wasn't going to live in the pasture or barn or garage anymore. 

When they brought a tree into the house from the mountain up near Divide, Colorado, somewhere, I decided that if that tree could be in the house, I could, too!

I would see if I could come in and make a nest in that cowboy hat on top of that tree. 

Meantime, I was enjoying the smells of the baking going on--like these chocolate rolls with peppermint frosting the girls made for the Christmas dinner at the fire station for firemen's families.  

 

I also wanted to nibble some of this cheese, but it was just a picture on a screen that the mom of the house liked, and they never did make any for me. 

Too bad!

If I could just have nibbled off corners of the Christmas cards, I could have a whole nest!

Must have been a hundred cards went out, I think, though I didn't count them.  They got put into the mailbox. (Would that be a good place for my next nest?

I would love to say "Merry Christmas!" to the postman, but I'm not sure he would say it back to me!)

 

I had to stay at least six feet away in case the coughs and colds going around the house were contagious. I wanted to cuddle up to this sleeping going on right on the floor, but I was a little worried about the dogs waking up and discovering me there. Those dogs have made short end of my cousins out in the barn.

If you ever wondered if a mouse's mouth waters, well, now you know. 

When apple pies are baking, a mouse's mouth waters. 

Well, one day I found a nice spot to hide out, and this is the actual truth, at least as far as a mouse's memory is concerned. 

It was somewhere in this corner of the laundry room by the freezer, inside the ironing board, or else inside the wrinkly clothes on the ironing board. I can't quite remember which, because I wasn't paying that much attention until suddenly the mom of house pulled my hiding place out and took it to the living room by the wood stove where she usually irons. 

She was setting the ironing board up, and something inside the contraption squeezed me, and the board's legs wouldn't go up right, and she was jerking the thing around and I jumped somewhere. 

I don't know where I jumped, but I ended up somewhere and started running.  

I thought I was just inside the clothes on the ironing board where I used to be, but the lady of the house started screaming. 

She started screaming and running about (something like this last night in their skit), and I realized I must be in HER clothes!

Well, I ran even faster, and the mom screamed even louder, because as it was, I found out I was running all over under her knitted pink top!

I was frantic to get out of there, and she was just as frantic for me to leave, and the next thing I knew, she was hollering for her daughter to help see what was under the back of her top. 

"It's a mouse!" Carrie exclaimed, and I took the cue to make the most terrible jump I had ever made. I had to get out of there!

I landed in the lady's recliner while the lady screamed even louder and her daughter just started laughing.
Laughing, mind you!

And then they got those dogs.  

Those dogs weren't sleeping anymore!

They were out for blood! 

They chased around with their terrible black noses and I ran and ran and ran. I ran right into the powder room and ran and ran.

And then I disappeared. 

They shut the dogs into that powder room for a few seconds, but I wasn't about to be in there with them.
I was long gone. 

I don't even know where I went. 

They looked in the waste basket and behind the toilet paper holder that an uncle had made for the family, and they looked in the toilet! 

But they never found me. 

They found a wee hole beside the water line coming through the wall, but they never found me. 

Never. 

I left behind forever that horrible screaming woman, the laughing daughter, the slathering dogs, and the cowboy hat on the  Christmas tree. 

I don't even know where I went, but I went!

Goodbye!

The End