In A Child’s Mind


Once there was a family of mice that all lived together in a tiny little mouse house in the

dick mouse

woods. Papa mouse drove his mouse mobile to work every day. He worked in the city at an electronic company. He sold lots of new video games.

Mama mouse stayed at home. She cleaned house and worked in her garden. She swept the house and dusted. She made her children lunches when they were hungry. Mama and papa mouse had two cute little mice named Faye and Ray.

Faye and Ray were twins. They were six years old. They both looked just alike. Faye and Ray went to the same school. The school was called The Country School. They loved going to school. At school they learned how to read and write. They made nice friends. They played with all of their friends at recess.

One day Fay and Ray were sitting in their class and they were raising their hands when the teacher, Miss Miller called their names. After this was all done and the teacher saw that everyone was in class, she said that they were all going to stand in a circle and hold hands and sing songs.

They all stood up and got in a big circle and then they heard noises. The noises were big and were so loud. They looked at Miss Miller to ask her what that was. The teacher told them quickly to all go to the corner.

All the children hurried quickly to the corner, because they knew that they were always supposed to listen to what the teacher said. Miss Miller put her fingers over her lips and softly told all of the classroom to sit very still and to not talk.

The children tried to do as the teacher said but a few of the girls began to cry. The teacher pulled the girls closer to her and the girls stopped crying. Miss Miller was a nice teacher. She liked everyone in the class.

The teacher crawled over to the door and shut the light off and then she crawled back over to the students. She whispered to the class that by turning the lights off, if anyone walked by the door, they would think no one was here.

The teacher and kids sat very still. There was loud noises in the halls and they could hear glass breaking. They felt scared but they knew Miss Miller would keep them safe because she was the teacher.

Pretty soon the noises stopped and they didn’t hear anymore glass break. The teacher asked them to all stay in this spot and to not move. Miss Miller said,” Sometimes there are people who get real sick. They go to the doctor but they can’t find what is wrong. They stay sick for a long time”. The kids stayed very quiet and they listened real well. The teacher continued,” I think one of the sick people is in the school. I think we should stay here until someone comes and tells us that they took the sick man to the doctor.”

They sat for almost a whole hour waiting for a knock on the door. Finally someone came and the teacher told the students to stay where they were. She walked over to the door and peeked out and it was a policeman. She opened the door and the kids got up without asking and came over to the policeman.

The students knew that policemen were nice people. They helped people and they are our friends. The policeman asked the teacher to come out in to the hall, and the teacher told the students to stay right here, she would be right back.

When she came back into the room, she said that they were going to play a game. They were going to  line up in a straight line and hold hands, and that they were all going to walk as fast as they could without letting their hands go. They were going to go over to visit the big red fire station.

The kids were excited. They were going to go on a field mouse trip. They all lined up and held hands and the policeman said for everyone to close their eyes. He said this was part of the game as he wanted to see how many could follow the rules with their eyes closed.

Together they all walked out the doors of the school. When they were outside the school the policeman told them they played the game very well so they could open their eyes. They walked quickly over to the fire station.

On their way to run across the field, they saw many police cars and they saw ambulance cars with big flashing lights. When they reached the fire station, they saw and ran to papa and mama mouse. Mama and papa put their arms around us and hugged us tight. I saw mama and papa cry when they saw us. They were happy to see us.

Mama and papa walked us home and soon we were all in our mouse home. Mama asked us to sit on the couch. We asked her if we could have some cheese for a snack, that we were hungry.

Mama went to the mouse fridge and got out two big pieces of Swiss cheese. The cheese looked funny. It had big holes in it. After we ate the cheese mama mouse said she wanted to tell us something real important.

Mama mouse explained that there were good people and bad people  who lived in the world. She explained that some  people were also sick. Ray spoke up and said, “This is what our teacher said too”! Mama said,” You have a very smart teacher. She is very nice too”. Ray and Faye smiled at mama mouse when she said this about their teacher.

Mama mouse continued to tell them that a very sick man had come into the school and he was so sick that he didn’t know what he was doing. He was so sick that he didn’t know that he wasn’t supposed to hurt children. He had hurt some children and they had to be taken to the mouse hospital.

Mama said, ” You did well though. You listened to your teacher and did everything she said. The sick man did not see you. He thought your class was empty”.  Ray and Faye giggled as they realized they had tricked the sick man. Mama said to remain quiet while she finished the story. Mama mouse said, “the sick man got too close to some of the children and then they got sick too. Jesus didn’t want them to be sick forever, so he took them home with them”. The children became very quiet as they listened to their mama. Ray said, ” You mean they won’t be in school anymore”? Mama mouse shook her head no.

Mama mouse said, ” You don’t want the sick kids to be sick for a long time do you? You don’t want them to not be able to go out and play in the field with you and all the other mice children do you”? The kids looked sad but they understood. They didn’t want their friends to hurt or be sick.

Mama mouse took Faye and Ray and held them in her arms and gave them lots of hugs and kisses. She held them for so long that both Ray and Faye fell fast asleep in her arms.

The End

22 thoughts on “In A Child’s Mind

  1. Terry, this is – I won’t swear – AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I have saved ALL your stories (and I hope you don’t mind, but I send healing to Al every day and pray for him. If it helps in any way I’ll be happy).

    Listen, I almost never do this, but your story is so well written, I would like to put it on my site (with your permission of course). We get an average of 90 viewers a day (creeping slowly to 100) and I would link to you and give you full credit.

    We have schools visiting the site now because of a writing programme I’m running – The Year of Continuous Writing which is backed by Peter James (thriller writer) and Jodi Picoult. I think yours is a perfect story to use to explain what happened in America. I liked the fact you used mice as characters too – the children will associate that with being little which, I realise, was always your intention.

    Would you be willing to allow me to use this story? I will understand and won’t be offended if you say no. I’m in awe of your writing ability.

    Take care
    Love
    Mel XXXXXXXX

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  2. Hi Terry

    Yesterday went … hmmm, pear shaped … I didn’t get the chance to post. Today I have an urgent meeting (sadly I failed my exam by two marks technically – when we got the script back AFTER the remark, I’d failed by one… then my tutor blew a gasket – I had picked up at least 8 more points but NONE OF THEM had been marked … now I’m being forced into a resit even though she would have given exactly the same answers!  The meeting is for 3 hours (bless her I even get a lift there and back) but I will be in from 12.30ish … at 1 p,m my intention is to update my website and that is when I want to put your story on. Usually I put stories in fiction – I’m going to put this in the blog part (I’ll check which is getting the most hits and act accordingly).

    I wanted to do it when I first saw it but life is bonkers. I lost a full day yesterday which was annoying, with unexpected meetings!  I have to say that I have kept copies of all your stories because you are so talented.

    I will email you later and let you know it’s on there, and I will send you a link to it, too, if that’s OK. I’m thinking of you and Al and still sending healing.
    Take care
    Love
    Mel XXX

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