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One day, a small girl was walking home, but she forgot her key. She knew her mom would be home soon, so she sat on the front step and watched the bustle of the city. Adults walking with brief cases, taxis exchanging person after person, and a few mice in the ally. "I wonder what the mice are thinking today," she thought to herself. She tried to imagine what was going on in their little mouse world.
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"There's so much food in the trash today!" Terry squeaked happily. He was a joyful mouse. He and Jerry had been buddies since they found each other in the sewers.
"Yes, it's a good day," said Jerry. Jerry was a cautious mouse. Good friends with Terry, but still wary about this new tag-a-long, Larry.
"I'm so full," groaned Larry. This was his first day scavenging with Terry and Jerry. He'd never seen a trash can quite so plentiful. Terry had seen him cowering behind an abandoned trash bag blown into the sewer just a few days ago. He hadn't had much luck finding food, and he couldn't understand why Terry was so eager to let him join their scavenging group. Food was a hard thing to find. Until he saw Terry and Jerry's great find.
The three mice dove into the trash bags left out by the nice neighbors, who never finished up all their food. The trash bags were always filled unfinished chip bags, unlicked paper plates, and napkins covered in food. Terry and Jerry had found this home a few weeks ago, and had been happily binging their little hearts out and returning to their own home in the sewers happy and full.
"EEP!" squealed Larry.
"What?" Terry and Jerry responded, poking their heads out of an unlicked bag of chips.
"Shhh shh shh, don't look now, but a big cat just sat on the wall up there," whispered Larry frantically.
Jerry cautiously raised his head, taking a good look at the big, fat cat, who found a comfortable spot on the wall and stretched out lazily. "It looks like it's had a great meal today too," he said.
"Yes," said Terry, "I think it's perfectly happy lying there. As long as we stay quiet and walk away slowly, it shouldn't notice us at all."
"But it's so big and scary!" Larry whimpered.
"I know, but it'll be okay if you follow my lead. I'll go first," Terry said, inching away towards their exit.
Jerry leaned close to Larry and whispered, "Trust us, before we knew you, we had to get out of much more dangerous situations."
Larry watched both Jerry and Terry, who were both almost to the safety of the dark shadows near the entrance of the alleyway. He inched out cautiously when he saw the two of them reach the shadows, keeping his eyes fixed on the cat overhead. Every time he felt like squeaking out, he glanced at his friends who stayed quiet, and kept on inching forward. After what felt like ages, Larry made it to where the other mice were hiding out of view from the cat, and let out a sigh of relief. The three mice scampered off down the busy street, sticking close to the curb so as to not get trampled or run over.
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"That little mouse stayed quiet," thought the girl, "and made it back to his little buddies."
At that moment, the girl's mom came up the few steps, unlocked the door, and held the door open for her daughter.
"Hi sweetie, have you been waiting long?" her mother asked.
"No! I got to watch the little mice escape the big cat," the girl said excitedly. "They had to stay really quiet."
She looked back down the street and watched all three mice slip into the safety of the gutter.
City Apartment Front
Author's Note: In the original story, two geese are friends with a talkative turtle, and want to bring the turtle to their beautiful home. So the geese warn the turtle to stay silent, take a stick in his mouth, and the geese would take either end to fly the turtle to their home. A group of children see the three of them flying, and comment on how ridiculous it looks. Unable to keep his mouth shut, the turtle opens his mouth to defend himself, and falls to his death. The geese continue flying, hearing the comments about how their friend couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his own life.
From the traditional story, I decided to make the three animals all mice because in a huge world, they have a lot of dangers around them. This change makes the danger equal for all three animals. When I first read the original story, I thought it was a little unfair of the geese to be so nonchalant about the turtle risking his life to see their home. The turtle can't fly to rescue himself and couldn't have known the danger of falling from so high because he most likely had never been so high off the ground. I decided to give the mice names that were similar because I thought it was cute, but different enough to portray each separate personality. I made the observer one girl in the bustle of a big city because she could relate to the small mice in a big world, and see the cause and effect of the mice's actions. But in my story, the girl doesn't have an active role in the life of the animals. I imagine this story as the girl trying to come up with what is happening to mice she sees. I decided to change the threat in the story to a disinterested cat, a physical but still avoidable threat. In the original story, the threat was avoidable, but the turtle was unable to receive support in the moment of his mistake. Lastly, I changed the opportunity of mistake to be without influence from the human observer because the actual threat in my story was a physical being, and I didn't want interference between two possible threats. I chose this image to set the scene of where the girl is watching from. I imagine her leaning over the rail, watching from above.
Bibliography. "The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit. Web source
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