Homesick Mouse

by Rebecca Styles

“Hurry up Yulia!” shouted my Mum. She’s always like that, rush, rush, rush. ‘We-have-to-be-on-time-otherwise-everyone-will-think-we’re-not-organised’ sort of thing. While I’m quite relaxed, I get it from my Dad.

I hate going to family reunions, I don’t get along with my cousins, they think I’m weird.

I hopped in the back seat of the car and Dad drove us to my Grandmas house. I love my Grandma; she is the only person who really understands me. I usually go to her house on the weekends; we paint, cook and do some other stuff. But with all the cousins there it’s not going to be good.

Once we got there I said ‘hello’ to everyone, then snuck off to the back garden, which is practically like a forest. I make up games there, I even have my own imaginary friend, but she stays in the forest. I ran over to my hut and opened the door. There, in the middle of the floor, eating a centipede was a little brown mouse. He flicked his head around as quickly as a possum does it’s on the road and a car comes. He sprinted over to the corner of the hut and sat as still as if he was dead. I picked him up and he started squirming. So I hugged him to my chest, I don’t how I did it, but he calmed down. I played with him for what seemed like minutes and when I looked at my watch hours had gone by. I decided to call him Quiver, because when I first saw him he was shaking so much. I put him in my pocket and headed back to the house.

When I went into the lounge only my parents and my Grandma were there.

“Finally, you’re back. Now lets get back home, it’s nearly your bed time.” Mum said. I ran over to Grandma and gave her a big hug and kiss that said ‘goodbye’.

Once we got home I made Quiver a little house in a shoe box, then went to bed. The next day Quiver was looking really bad, he was just lying on the ground shaking. “What’s wrong with you?” I said to him, but he just looked at me with those big brown eyes. ‘Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring you home with me.’ I thought to myself.

That day my Dad took me back to Grandmas house because I said that I’d forgotten my bracelet, but I was actually going to put Quiver back in the forest.

While Dad was talking to Grandma, I ran to the forest and set Quiver down. I watched him until he scuttled under the big leaves. I walked happily back to the house knowing that I had done Quiver good and I might see him again someday.