Mckayla Mouseling

Chapter One

I suppose it started on a rainy April day. The professor had let his three cats, Mr. Elegant, Beatriss, and Hugson, in for fear they might get wet. The raining had ceased, but it was still rather muddy. I was wondering the entry hall looking for something to do when they spotted me. I darted to the hole from whence I came, but Hugson blocked me. The cats chased me outside and I had to run to the gutter. Their claws tried to swipe me but, thankfully, the gutter was not wide enough for their fat paws. Once they found this out, they went back inside. I peeked my head out to make sure of this, then I started on my way home.

Our house was in the professor's strawberry patch in the Green Garden. It was just big enough to hold twelve mice. It is constructed of sturdy pieces of smooth bark. There were little square cut out holes with perpendicular sticks in the middle. A human might say it was adorable, but compared to a richer mouse's house, this was a shack. The roof was made up of dried leaves, playing cards, flowers, and sticks. It was more or less in the shape of a rounded square. The playing cards stretched a bit over the walls creating a nice shaded porch in the front. It had two chairs with a table between them.

Like I said before, we lived in a strawberry patch. Strawberries where most prized by mice since they were especially delightful to eat. So how am I poor? The Market Under the Willow, or the Willow Market, is far out of our reach, and that was the closest market. Each melca (or month as a human would say) Father would make his way there with three carts full of strawberries to sell. He would come home with little treats hidden in his coat, and one by one he would let us search for our treat. Now, however, he makes us wait 'till morning because he is to weary from the journey to stay up any later.

When I arrived at home, my siblings and my father were out picking strawberries, while my mother cleaned the house while she was talking to Mr. Flutter's wife, Mrs.Flutter. I went to get the proper attire for picking strawberries when mother called me over. "Mckayla! It's about time you showed up! Your father and siblings are out there picking strawberries. You know how long it takes your brothers and sisters to pick simply one. Hurry up and get changed. They're in the south field. Hurry now!" She turned and continued to talk to Mrs. Flutter. I made my way through the dining hall. We weren't rich, so my mother and father relied on the professor loosing helpful nick knacks, such as thimbles or coins. Our dining table was made up of a large piece of polished bark father got at the Willow Market supported by sturdy sticks. The chairs consisted of rounded rocks. There was a doll house shelf on the right side of the room. When the Professors' little human girl came, she always left little playthings outside, whether intentionally leaving them for us to use is beyond my knowledge. Upon this shelf were thimbles, little pink teacups, and small silver coins we used as plates. I went down the hallway made of pressed red, orange, yellow, and green leaves decorated with colorful feathers my family had found.

I pushed my door, which was a leaf, aside and closed it. In the time I was not picking strawberries or reading and writing words, I was collecting things to decorate my room. I gathered paperweights, coins, flowers, leaves, sticks, feathers, playthings such as a doll dresser with a mirror, along with a little fancy wood closet. I also had found a little coatrack, but I put it right by the front door. You may be asking why I didn't give these fancy playthings to my parents. They have a rule, whatever you gather is yours unless you want to trade, and since my family is not as brave as I, they do not get lovely glamourous things found closer to the Manor, so, they had nothing of great value to me. Although, we do occasionally trade. I give them dust bunnies to put in their bed cushioning for colorful feathers or vines I can hang from my ceiling.

The walls to my room had green pressed leaves creating the walls. I had all the shades of the mist colors (or rainbows as you call them) in feathers on the wall next to the door except green, which is the rarest of all feather colors for mice, unless you were exotic, but even then they were rare, for they all want to keep these beautiful green feathers, unless one was offered a lot for it. My dresser and closet was straight across from my door. Next to my dresser was my bed. I had little petals for blankets and small fluffy feathers tucked into a leaf to create my mattress. I had four sticks at the corners of my bed rising to the ceiling that was decorated with vines twirling and twisting around them. My floor was made up of soft patches of green moss and the occasional sprout. I had a window right between my dresser and closet that when the sun was setting, it let in brilliant oranges, reds and yellows, and when it was practically down, a soft purple.

I threw my little brown jacket on to my bed. I went over to my closet and pulled out my working dress that was tattered and stained with pink. I pulled of my simple light blue dress and slipped on the tan stained dress. I set the blue one on my bed along with my jacket and grabbed my hat from my dresser. I quickly slipped out of my room and out of the house, passing Mrs. Flutter and mother. Mother gave me a glance that told me I better hurry up so that I could help prepare dinner.

I quickly went around the house to get a mouse made wheel barrel from the shed, where we dried the strawberries. I wheeled it to the south field where I could hear my siblings grunting, trying to get a straw berry of the plant. "It's about time you showed up!" father said jokingly. I gave him a weak smile and got to work on my own plant. I looked around, looking for strawberries that could be picked. As I was looking, one of my younger sisters, Sarah, came up, sucking her small thumb. She was my strawberry helper. I would pick a strawberry and toss it down to her, where she would catch it, make sure it was a big enough size to sell, and put them in the fitting wheel barrel.

I began climbing up the plant, and once I reached a suitable strawberry, I perched myself on a neighboring stem. I took out my knife from my dress belt and began sawing at the stem that held the bright red strawberry. Once I got it off, I said loudly "Sarah! Heads up!" My little strawberry helper tucked her blanket under her arm and held her hands up, symbolizing she was ready to catch. I dropped the strawberry. She caught it with a tiny grunt then measured it with her fingers. She set it in the barrel that was to be sold. I worked my way around the main stem, making sure not to fall. I again set myself next to a slightly smaller strawberry and began sawing.

I heard a grunt, a thud, and mocking laughter. I peered around the stem to see that one of my brothers had been pulling on a strawberry and putting all his weight into it. He went flying with the strawberry when it had come loose. He lied there with the rather large strawberry next to him. Father went over, picked him up and dusted him off. "You ok, Squirt?" Father laughed. The boy mouse simply nodded with a big grin stretched across his face. A few of my siblings carried the large strawberry over to the barrel.

As my father was walking over to his plant to begin working again, he stopped by ours. "Everything going smooth over here?" he asked. Both Sarah and I nodded. Father gave a small laugh and ruffled Sarah's head fur and said "Keep up the good work, girls!" We smiled and went back to work. We picked all the good strawberries of that plant, which was about 8 medium to large strawberries that we would sell, and about 4 small ripe strawberries we would save for ourselves.

By the time we finished that plant that was surprisingly fertile; it was time for me to help mother with supper. I climbed down and gave Sarah a hug before I wheeled a wheel barrel full of big red juicy strawberries back to the shed. I left it for my brothers to unload to the large wagon that father took to the Willow Market. I raced into the house and into my room where I changed back into my blue dress and brown jacket. I tossed my work dress onto my bed and grabbed my cooking apron with multicolored stains on it. I ran my brush quickly through my fur and went into the kitchen to start the fire so that we could have soup. As soon as the fire began to grow, I pulled out two large pots and put them on a stick that I put behind my neck. I carried the pots over to the little spring just outside the strawberry patch in the Roses around the Flutters house. Now, this walk wasn't easy with two empty buckets because it was quite a bit away from my house, and it was even harder with two full buckets. When I got to the spring, I saw Mr. Flutter taking care of the roses.

"Hi McKayla! You wouldn't happen to know where my wife would be would you?" He called

"I think she's still talking to my mother!" I called back as I set the pots next to my feet.

"Ok! Thank you!"

"Yes sir!"

I knelt down and filled the pots. Once they were full, I hung them on the stick and put the stick upon my shoulders and behind my neck. With some difficulty and little water spilt, I made it home. I placed the pots over the fire and put some ingredients in it and then let it boil. I pulled out some of the bread that I found in the Manor that was on the floor and set it on the polished table. Then I went out back where my brothers were unloading the strawberries and took some inside that were to ripe to sell. I chopped some of them into small pieces and set them on a plate, then I set them on the table. After, I used the remaining strawberries to create juice that we drank from thimbles. I looked around for the dinner bell, and when I could not find it, I looked outside. I picked the bell up and rang in six times, which meant it was supper time.