A little scratch. Awake. Paint & paper was all she could see.
Another little scratch.
Her vision was a fibrous blur. She was looking through paper smeared with paint strokes. Through the sheet, she could see a small shadow; it was strange, like a little man standing far away but right in front of her.
Peeling the paper away from her face, she was struck by the lights around her. Charlotte’s eyes took a moment to regain focus. When they did, she could see a mouse. A tiny grey mouse no taller than the paint pots surrounding it; its little feet and hands just where you’d expect them to be; a nose with ever so fine whiskers that twitched gently. The key difference with this mouse was that it stood upright and waved at Charlotte.
“Howdy!” it bellowed as far as a mouse could.
“What..? How are you? You can speak?” Charlotte stuttered out.
The mouse dropped his hand to his side with a light sway. “I know. I was just as shocked to be able to understand you earlier!”
“Are you a mouse? You don’t look like one. You look like all the other big beasts teetering around everywhere.” He questioned with searching glances at Charlotte.
“I’m not a beast. You’re closer to being a beast, more a critter, but still…” Charlotte was talking to a mouse. How was this happening? Indeed this was utterly impossible. No one did that.
In this universe, Dr Dolittle was not real. That's like most universes. He's probably real in one of them, let's be honest, but I haven't been there. If you have, send me one of those inter-dimensional emails that most definitely exist.
“How dare you. I am Prin- no, Randy. The famous and unstoppable adventurer extraordinaire. I’ve seen all there is to see. My dear, I’ve slain monsters that would make you wet yourself.” His stance was filled with pride. He had been swinging a sword made of air wildly with his eyes firmly shut.
Charlotte stared at him, still confused, as he ranted about his quests. Had she hit her head at some point, maybe she didn’t just fall into a peaceful slumber on her desk. Perhaps she had passed out, striking the solid wood with greater force than she realised.
No bump on her forehead, though, and no headache or feeling of pain anywhere. It can’t be that. Had her mind finally snapped from all the drugs, maybe the stress or grief had caught up to her in this oddly miraculous way. Could this actually still be a dream? She remembers dreaming about the mouse on the rainbow bridge, but this was too vivid to be something like that.
“Just wait. Please.” She strained out at Randy.
“I shouldn’t be able to talk to you. I must be having a breakdown. You are a mouse. I am a human. We do not share a language, and this is physically impossible. How do you even know English?” The surprise and confusion were building up to frustration. Mostly with herself and a little with how long Randy had been waffling on.
Randy was upset with his stories being interrupted. “I have no idea what a human or in-gleesh is. I’m speaking mausian just like we all do. You, humans, usually just roar and grunt at each other and sometimes at us. Then you usually swipe at us with massive sticks or try and crush us with your feet.” he started to pace. “Why is it you do that anyway? We don’t do anything to you. We just try and exist. There are so many creatures that are bigger than us. You even keep some of them around, stroking and feeding them. Why must you attempt to kill us!?” The ranting had started again, and the pacing was speeding up.
“Stop.” with closed eyes and tightening lips, Charlotte stood.
“Where are you going?” Randy asked with worried confusion.
“I’m going to sleep. This is either all a dream, and going to sleep will stop this, or you’ll get bored, scurry off, and it’ll all be over then, even if this is real.”
It can’t be real. Charlotte doesn’t need this. Too much had happened. A mental breakdown was always likely, just different from this. She’d need to speak to someone about this; they’re going to think she’s insane.
“You’re right. This is a lot. I’m not used to this either. I do want to talk, though.” Randy propped himself against the glass of water Charlotte used to clean her brushes. “I’m not going to get bored. None of us have ever been able to successfully talk to you, humans. Is that how you say it?”
“Mmmhmm”, from the disgruntled and defeated Charlotte.
“I’ll stay right here. When you’re ready. When you fully accept that this is real, we can talk. I want to know so many things, and honestly, you humans have much to answer for.”
“Uh-huh.” Charlotte had reached her bed, undressed and climbed into it. She couldn’t deal with this right now, or ever for that matter. Chugging a few mouthfuls of water, she lay under the covers, pulling them up tight and facing away from her desk and Randy.
“You don’t seem so bad anyway. You haven’t swiped at me with anything yet or tried to squish me. You might just be alright. You might even be who I’m looking for. I expected a mouse, but let’s see.” Randy had closed his eyes and crossed his little legs. “Morning will be here soon. There’s no rush.”
Quiet fell upon the room. Charlotte’s eyes were wide open, but the panic in her head wasn’t fading.
Fighting her instincts to ignore the problem she encountered, “Who are you looking for?”
Randy jostled a little, re-positioning so that he was facing towards the bed. “It’s a long story. I’ll give you the highlights; we can talk more when you’ve calmed down.” The irritation rose in Charlotte. She always tried to be calm, and just like most people, being told to calm down stirred a bit of a frenzy.
She sat upright with almost enough force to snap her own neck. Charlotte leered at Randy. “I am calm. This is just a bit of an overwhelming situation.” She took a deep breath. “Go ahead. What’s this story?”
Randy leant back, staring at the ceiling, breathing deeply. As the exhale left his nose, he began, “The main thing you need to know is that I wasn’t always an adventurer. I once had my own kingdom of sorts. It had a grand metal staircase with rooms for different purposes all around. I had exercise equipment and a huge water reserve to drink from. Food was always aplenty if you looked around hard enough. It was quite the blissful time in my life.”
Is he talking about a cage? Charlotte couldn’t see anything but something like a cage where you’d keep a pet mouse. “Were you someone’s pet, Randy?”
With a scoff and a boast. “No, no, of course not. It was my kingdom. I claimed it and made it my own…” Randy had been silent for some time now. His whole body had slumped, a sense of sadness washing over and through him. “I started out as a pet, I think. It’s difficult to remember now. Eventually, though, things changed. It got colder, and there was less food, less water. It became more like surviving.”
Randy cleared his throat with a slight squeak leaking out. “Anyway, that’s not the point. After my time there, I found other mice like how you see me now. Courageous, bold and dashing.” Charlotte’s eyebrow raised, but Randy did not notice.
“One day, I found a rather aged mouse with many tales. The story of the paper mouse stuck with me and set me on my greatest quest.”
Genuinely curious, Charlotte leant forward. “A paper mouse? Like origami or a picture?”
“I don’t know what that first word you said means, and would you mind not interrupting. You’ll break my flow.”
Another squeaky throat clearing. “Right, a paper mouse, but nothing like you imagine, most likely. This was the story of a pale mouse-sized creature that wore a paper mask with scribblings that made it look like a mouse. Apparently, this creature had been seen only a meagre number of times and only once by the mouse telling his tale.”
Randy stood for this part. It was definitely an important part.
Critical, poignant and purposeful to our story. A paper mouse was a strange concept. I've made a paper mouse, origami-style. It didn't go well, and didn't live among the mice. Although, I've not seen it since...
“The paper mouse was heralded as some sort of omen. Apparently, no one could decide if it was good or bad. This traveller had heard tales of it saving villages from utter destruction and others of it murdering and slaughtering so…” with his arms tucked behind his back and a thinking stroll commenced, he continued. “The curious thing he mentioned was that he had this mask, the paper mouse was no longer with us, and he had found the mask. Can you believe it? So I tried to buy it from him. He told me I could have it, and that was that. I have the mask now.”
Randy’s steps grew slow. He had fallen away into a semi-trance. “Can I see it?” Charlotte interrupted.
“Of course, of course…” He wandered away to a small grove of paint pots on the desk. He revealed a small bag. It looked like a dapper little sack made from hemp or something similar. “It’s a little on the small side, and honestly, I still haven’t found any other clues yet, so I’m at a bit of a loss.”
Charlotte almost skipped out of bed, now completely enraptured by this tale. After a moment of fiddling, Randy pulled the mask from his bag and held it aloft for Charlotte to see. “The thing is, you spoke to me. That felt different. You even listened to me talk about all of this and.” Randy was cut short. Charlotte stared at the paper mask as closely as she could.
The thin white paper mask showed discolouration from how long Randy, the traveller, and any previous owners had carried it. A small orange dot signified the nose, with a few whiskers on each side. No mouth was visible, but where the nose seemingly was, it likely covered it. The ears were large, a little smaller than Randy’s, but still out of proportion to the size of the head.
The eyes were closed. Just faint dotted lines were in their place. As Charlotte grew closer, there was pressure. She kept on tipping closer until her nose was almost caressing the mask.
With centimetres remaining, the mask quivered. Randy had lowered his arms. “Now, don’t get too close. I don’t want it blowing away or anything with the gusts coming from your nostrils.”
He turned the mask around and lifted it again to look. It lined up in front of Charlotte’s face. The eyes burst, gleaming, churning with shades of green. Puncturing pupils at the centre started a fear within Randy. He let go.
The mask lingered. Positioned in empty space.