A Short Story on the Website of
the Red Dirt Writers Society

Sawyer and the Naughty Little Mouse 
by Melissa Neely (Apr 2009)

            The Naughty Little Mouse came up to the Big House to look inside.  She liked to see what they were doing sometimes. The Naughty Little Mouse climbed onto the windowsill and looked inside. No one was around.

            Suddenly, the Naughty Little Mouse heard music, pretty tinkling music. It made the little mouse want to dance around. She looked to see where it was coming from. Hidden in the corner was the Little Blonde Boy. He was curled up around the music. The Naughty Little Mouse wanted to see what was making the pretty music; so she scurried down the window to get a better look.

            The Little Blonde Boy seemed to be holding a little table with teacups spinning to the music. The Naughty Little Mouse watched the tea cups spin and spin, slower and slower, until they stopped. “Oh, my goodness, there are mice in those teacups,” thought the little mouse. The mouse was happy to see that someone in the Big House liked mice even if the Mommy and the Daddy did not.

The Little Blonde Boy finished with the teacup mice and then tiptoed out of the room. When he came back the spinning teacup table was gone.

            The Mommy yelled, “Sawyer! Breakfast!” And the Little Blonde Boy ran to the table, bumping his cup and sloshing his drink. The Naughty Little Mouse licked her lips. The boy wiggled and squirmed and slurped and burped and spilled. The Naughty Little Mouse licked her lips and thought, “Mmmm, his breakfast looks yummy.” The boy suddenly jumped from the table and ran from the room. He was gone as quickly as he had come.

            The Naughty Little Mouse ran to the other windows to see if she could see the boy. “What would he do next?”

In raced the boy with a box in his hands. The boy was talking to himself, “And now Mousy the Magnificent will be shot from the rocket launcher.”

The Naughty Little Mouse gasped in horror, “Surely not!”

Then the Little Blonde Boy shot a white tube of cotton with a tail out of the tube it was in. Up it flew, sailing across the room. “Mousy the Magnificent breaks his own record. Yaah!” He ran across the room with his arms flailing in the air. He snatched up the mousy and began twirling the cotton tube by it string. “Now Mousy the Magnificent will watch as Mousy the Flyer flies from the rocket launch.” Poof! Out flew a new cotton tube.

The Little Blonde Boy ran to grab that one and then twirled both his “mice” by their string tails. The boy launched mousy after mousy as the Naughty Little Mouse looked on.

            Suddenly a shriek came from the doorway of the living room. “Are those mine? You clean this up and stay out of my bathroom,” the Mommy said.

“But they’re my mousies,” the Little Blonde Boy whined.

"You may not have any more mice. Those are mine, and they cost money," the Mommy said. The Little Blonde Boy stuffed his mice in his pocket and threw the rocket launchers and their wrappers away. The Mommy scowled and tapped her foot while he did his work. “You find something else to play,” said the Mommy as she left the room.

            The Naughty Little Mouse waited and watched the Little Blonde Boy all day. He was her favorite – he liked mice. Then she saw the Little Blonde Boy jumping around the room, swinging a sword and whacking at things. He threw cushions on the ground and bounced on his head and bottom. He threw himself into the cushion pile and whacked them with his sword. When he whacked his Mommy’s ceiling fan she yelled, “That’s it! Out of this house! You go run and play outside.” The Little Blonde Boy never missed a beat, swinging his sword as he went out the door.

As the Little Blonde Boy played outside, the Naughty Little Mouse crept closer and closer to watch and wondered, “What will he come up with next?”

He was scooping dirt and lining up his mousies. He grabbed his sister’s furry bunny and made the bunny stomp on all the mousies. The Naughty Little Mouse was horrified, but still she crept closer.

The next thing she knew she was being scooped up. The Little Blonde Boy snagged her by her tail. She squeaked and squeaked, “Put me down. I don’t want to have to bite you.”  

Loki Cat answered back, “Don’t you dare bite my boy. Just play dead, and you’ll be alright.” Loki Cat purred and meowed as he rubbed and wove around the Little Blonde Boy’s legs.

“You can’t have it. It’s my bunny,” the Little Blond boy told Loki Cat. The boy scooped his mousies up and ran to the door banging and kicking to get in. “Let me in!” he yelled to his Mommy.

“Let yourself in. You’re a big boy, and I’m busy.”

 “But, my hands are full with my pretend rabbit,” he answered back. The Naughty Little Mouse just hung there. The Little Blonde Boy dropped his mousies, but not the Naughty Little Mouse, and opened the door. “Looky what I founded, a pretend rabbit,” he said with pride. His Mommy glanced over at him and shrieked. She raced over to him and marched him right back out the door.

            As soon as they where outside Mommy said, “Drop it!” But the Little Blonde Boy would not drop the Naughty Little Mouse. So his Mommy grabbed his arm and began shaking it up and down, yelling, “Drop it! Drop it!”

All the while Loki Cat meowed and begged for the Naughty Little Mouse. This always pleased his family. Finally the boy dropped the Naughty Little Mouse and Loki Cat pounced on top of her. The Mommy and the Little Blonde Boy, of course, thought he was going to eat the Naughty Little Mouse. But he was really saving her life. The Naughty Little Mouse was very dizzy from all that shaking. The Mommy dragged the Little Blonde Boy back into the house and began furiously washing his hands and hers.

            Loki Cat shook his head at the Naughty Little Mouse. “When will you ever learn to leave the people alone?”

The Naughty Little Mouse trembled as she replied, “ but the Little Blonde Boy likes mice.”

Loki Cat sighed, “I’m afraid he is still a boy, and boys are not always gentle, as you have learned. You’re lucky all he did was carry you around.”

Loki Cat and the Naughty Little Mouse walked toward the Little Creek. “Stay in your tree root Naughty Little Mouse, before something bad happens and I’m not there to save you.” With that Loki Cat turned back towards the Big House and his favorite Little Blonde Boy.

 ------------------

Dedicated to my son Sawyer who really did bring in a “pretend rabbit” by the tail and to my nephew Elijah who loved to play with tampon mousies.