The eldest mouse raised his paw to summon the mice to the Mouse Council.
The mice swarmed to the center of the attic of the little house on the outskirts of Saint Louis Missouri.
“Let us begin,” Elder Mouse intoned. “Scout mouse, report on your basement expedition. Is it habitable, or is is still the realm of death where so many of our ancestors were slaughtered? Thirty-one mice dead. Only two survived. Our population was decimated.”
All the mouse bowed their heads to honor the dead, except one silky mouse, who softly squeaked, “Decimate means to reduce by one tenth.”
“Whatever,” Elder mouse said, “My question is, can we live in the basement or are we stuck in this attic?”
Scout Mouse replied, “No, the basement is too dangerous. I found a strange artifact. A rectangle filled with glue!”
Elder Mouse asked, “What is it?”
“It’s a trap!” Scout Mouse squeaked shrilly.
The attic filled with squeaks. Elder mouse again lifted his wee paw. “Silence. The Great Ones will hear us. Well, that’s a mystery. Why does the basement contain these hazards? We will have to limit ourselves to the clouds of insulation in the attic.”
A young mouse added, “And the walls. I’ve been racing around the walls all night long.”
A cry from the crowd. “Tell us about the walls!”
Young Mouse hadn’t prepared a formal report, but after he thought a moment, he said, “I have found that if I scratch for an hour on the walls behind the headboard the Great Male will scream and pound on the wall. Obviously, he is trying to communicate. With every interaction his screams get more and more high-pitched. Perhaps someday he will learn our language. I think … I think one day we could speak to the Giants. Perhaps in your lifetime, Elder Mouse.”
Elder Mouse bowed his head in assent, but a flicker of doubt crossed his whiskers. Were the Great Ones as kind as the Young Mouse thought?
And, bold as they are, would these young mice survive?
7 responses to “The Council of Mice”
You need to borrow a couple of cats. Have you thought of fostering?
Silky mouse, snork! But she’s right, of course.
Cat won’t help if they stay in the attic and walls. You need a black snake.
BTW, termites will make that same sound in the walls.
A flicker of doubt crossed his whiskers…
Oh the mice came marching 2 by 2 hurrah hurrah!
I hope you plan a peaceful compromise with your new mousie overlords. They might hold the poison against you when the invasion is complete.
I like your image of the mice. Me, I had rats in the roof, and called in the Man With Poison, whereupon the rats died in the roof (no, they don’t go outside to die, Poison Man told me smugly) and maggots rained down from the downlighter holes all through the house.
Becs – Even though I grew up with cats, I became an adult and discovered I am allergic.
~~Silk – I would not be allergic to a black snake. However, Gary would want to feed it treats and massage it. I listened on line to the termites, THANK YOU, and they make a rustling sound. Not what we have at all.
Hattie – well, that makes no sense. I was on my way to work.
Zayrina – No peeps from the overlords since Sunday when Gary went heroically into the attic and set out traps. He said there was no mouse evidence.
Big Dot – Nooooo. Oh God no. That’s horrible.But I thought the poison dehydrated them so they would not rot and would not smell.