Little Mouse & Her Four Gifts - Storytime & Talk

Thank you so much for joining me today for our bedtime story.

This is a story about Little Mouse and the wisdom that she wants to share with us.

I hope you enjoy this story before moving into a place of quiet before bedtime.

The story is called Little Mouse and her gift of small nothings.

Time for bed,

Mom said.

But I'm not sleepy,

I moaned.

Mom gave me that look.

You know the one like,

Um,

Don't argue with me,

Missy.

That one,

Though I didn't,

But still I wasn't tired,

Not really.

As I ran up the stairs to get ready for bed,

I sneezed.

Bless you,

Mom shouted up to me.

Thank you.

Mom had just finished dusting some shelves downstairs.

The dust bunnies had been as big as elephants,

Practically.

We laughed as they tumbled off the shelf.

Maybe they were getting ready for an animal parade through our living room,

Mom giggled.

Imagine that,

A herd of wild dust elephants parading through our living room.

That would be amazing.

After reaching the top step of the staircase,

I walked down the hall toward my room.

Well,

Skated is more like it.

I slid across the floor in my slippers,

Pretending to ice skate.

That made going to bed more fun.

All of a sudden,

I saw it from the corner of my eye.

A mouse,

A brown and white little mouse sitting up wiggling its nose at me.

I squealed,

But it was so high-pitched,

No noise escaped my lips.

I stopped sliding down the hall and ran instead,

And fast.

The door to the bathroom was open.

I jumped inside and turned to see the mouse was definitely still following me.

I slammed the door shut.

I turned on the light,

Snatched a towel off the rack and threw it on the floor,

Covering the slit under the door.

Oh,

I just know she's going to eat me,

I wanted to scream.

Her teeth are so pointy and sharp.

Five minutes passed.

Ten minutes.

I stared at the door.

I swear I didn't blink once,

And I would know too.

I've had lots of staring contests with my mom,

And I almost always win.

I stepped off the toilet lid where I was perched,

Just in case the mouse did in fact come in.

Tiptoeing to the bathroom door,

Which is hard to do when you're wearing fuzzy pink bunny slippers.

I turned the knob slowly and cracked the door open.

There she stood,

On her hind legs,

Just waiting for me.

She was kind of cute though,

And she didn't run at me.

She stood there staring.

I stared back.

I took a deep breath in and opened the door a little bit more.

That's when the cute little mouse held up her paws.

She was holding something small in them.

What you got little mouse?

I asked her.

I bent down to take a closer look.

A gift,

She answered.

You can talk?

She nodded.

Yes,

I know lots of humans.

They teach me new words every day.

Whoa,

That's so cool,

I said.

Now I was way more curious than scared.

I plopped down in the doorway of the bathroom.

The light from the bathroom streamed into the hallway.

The gift is for me?

I asked not knowing why a mouse would want me to have a present,

Especially since we had never met before.

She lifted her paws up towards me.

The gift was so small,

Just a little ball.

It didn't look like anything at all,

Really.

Thank you,

I said.

I reached down and took the present from her.

I did my best not to squeeze it too tightly.

My mom said to say thank you when you get presents,

Even if you don't really like the gift.

I brought it up to my face so I could see it better.

Lint?

I asked.

It looks like one of those dust balls my mom just cleaned downstairs.

Mouse shook her head.

She rubbed her ears with her front paws,

Then placed them on the floor.

She looked away from me.

I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings,

Little mouse.

I know how you feel.

Sometimes I make drawings for my mom,

And I get so upset when she can't figure out what I've drawn.

I mean,

It's so obvious.

Mouse sat still.

She didn't talk,

But she didn't leave either.

Little mouse,

Can you show me what's in the gift?

I hope that would make her want to talk to me again.

I put the little ball of fuzz back down on the floor in front of her.

Why didn't I think of that?

Mouse squeaked.

That's when she started to gently pull the fabric of the fuzz apart.

She bit gently with her teeth,

Tugged it with her small front paws until the ball of fuzz had unraveled.

From it,

She pulled out four tiny objects.

A seed,

A tiny piece of green thread,

A piece of white fur,

And a trident gum wrapper.

Well,

This was definitely not lent,

But it sure looked like nothing to me.

I already hurt her feelings once,

So I decided to be polite,

As my mom would say.

Neat!

I said louder than I wanted to.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

I know,

Here,

Let me show you.

She picked up the seed and her paws.

This is an orange seed.

A couple of weeks ago,

I was outside under a porch looking for water.

I was so thirsty.

I couldn't find any anywhere.

That's when Robert showed up.

Robert?

I asked.

A young boy,

I think he was 12.

He had a juicy orange.

He came out of his house,

Sat down on the top step of the porch,

And peeled the orange and began eating it.

And?

And I was more scared of being thirsty than scared of the young boy.

I ran up to his shoe,

Tugged on his shoelace,

And pointed to his orange.

He wasn't scared at all.

Most boys aren't.

He handed me a piece of his delicious orange.

It was so juicy,

I wasn't thirsty after that.

So the seed,

That was from an orange?

I wondered.

Yep,

It reminds me of how Robert shared with me that day.

It makes me happy.

Mouse set the orange seed back down on the ground.

I like oranges too,

I told Mouse.

Next she picked up both a tiny piece of green thread and the white piece of fur.

Now this was quite a day,

She said,

Practically jumping off of her feet.

What happened?

After getting a piece of orange,

I thanked Robert.

Then I made my way down the sidewalk.

I was taking a walk through the small neighborhood when I heard a little girl crying.

Mouse had placed the piece of fur on the ground and began making a heart shape around the fur with the thread.

Why was she crying?

Was she hurt?

No,

Not her,

Her kitty.

Mouse stood on her hind legs.

What'd you do?

I asked.

I had an idea about helping the kitty.

Mouse looked up at me like I wasn't following her story quick enough.

What was wrong with the kitty?

I asked.

Mouse tugged at her whiskers.

Oh my,

I do get ahead of myself sometimes.

I thought I told you that part already.

It's okay,

Sometimes my mom says I talk faster than my brain can keep up.

I giggled.

Well the little girl's kitty was up in the tree and didn't know how to get back down no matter how loud the little girl yelled at it.

Mouse shared.

I couldn't just stand there and watch her cry.

What'd you do?

I asked.

Took a deep breath,

Ran up the tree,

Stood on the end of the limb where the kitty was on and waited for her to notice me.

Oh my gosh,

Weren't you scared out of your mind?

Yes and no.

Yes,

I mean I didn't want the kitty to catch me and no I knew once I ran down the tree the kitty would be more focused on how to climb down.

Little Mouse picked up the fur.

I was lucky.

What happened?

Did the kitty get down?

Did the girl stop crying?

Did you almost get eaten?

When I get nervous I sort of ask a lot of questions and stop breathing.

I can't help it really,

I mean I just want to know things.

I ran down the tree.

Kitty saw me and bolted after me.

Once I started down the tree,

Kitty had no choice but to follow me.

I ran in the grass and hid behind the little girl's shoes.

Kitty leapt from the trunk and tried to grab me,

Swiping around the little girl's ankles.

That's when Little Mouse picked up the piece of green thread in her other paw.

This little piece of thread saved my life.

It was hanging from the little girl's dress.

I grabbed it and ran up the back of her dress.

Whoa,

Did she freak out?

I asked.

My eyes must have been bugging out of my head because Little Mouse started to laugh at me.

She realized I had helped her kitty.

She didn't scream or anything.

I was able to stand on her shoulder.

Where was the kitty?

I asked.

She was still on the ground pawing the little girl's skirt,

Trying to get to me.

Mouse sat the fur and the thread back down on the ground next to the orange seed.

The little girl thanked me.

My name's Becca.

What's yours?

Little,

Thank you for saving my kitty,

Becca told me.

That's when she yanked off the little piece of string and handed it to me.

Little Mouse said there was a small piece of white fur that had attached itself to the string.

I kept it because it reminded me of that adventure,

Of meeting Becca and how scared I was facing that kitty.

That definitely was something,

Not nothing.

I said realizing that those two small things,

The fuzzy fur and the piece of thread,

Had almost gotten Little Mouse killed.

What about this little wrapper?

I asked,

Pointing to the trident wrapper folded up next to the other three things.

That was from Vivian,

Little Mouse answered.

Who's she?

Well,

After I left Becca and her kitty,

I needed to find a warm place to sleep for the night.

A couple of houses down the street from Becca,

I found a little wood house with white painted trim.

I noticed that the front door was open.

I went into the house and climbed upstairs,

Making sure to keep quiet.

I needed to find some paper.

What for?

That's what I make my bed out of,

Little Mouse said.

You sleep on paper?

I said.

Well,

That was just weird.

I mean,

Can you imagine sleeping on paper?

Not me.

When I went into the bedroom,

I saw there were some little pieces of paper on the desk.

No one was around,

So I went and took them.

They were so small,

Four tiny wrappers.

That's when Little Mouse stopped.

She started to cry.

What's wrong,

Little Mouse?

I reached down,

No longer afraid of her,

And began to pat her head.

Well,

I had the four pieces in my mouth,

And I had taken them under the bed so I could build a nest for the night to sleep in.

And that's when Vivian came into the room.

Who's Vivian?

The teenager who lives at the house I was visiting,

Little Mouse said.

Well,

How'd you know her name?

Had you been there before I asked?

No,

She told me later on.

I was under the bed getting ready to shred the wrappers.

When I heard a big commotion in the room,

I peeked out from under the bed and saw Vivian going through everything on her desk frantically.

All I heard her keep saying was,

They're gone.

They're all gone.

Little Mouse shook her head.

The wrappers?

I said.

Yes,

Little Mouse answered,

Shaking her head side to side.

What happened next?

Well,

I felt so bad that I went back under the bed,

Grabbed the wrappers,

And brought them back to her.

I stopped by her feet until she looked down to see me holding them.

What'd she do?

I told her that I was sorry for taking her wrappers.

I didn't know they were important to her.

That's when she shared her story with me about the little wrappers.

Where'd they come from?

I asked her.

I'll tell you what she told me,

Little Mouse shared.

This is what she said.

When I was little,

I would take long rides with my grandma in her car.

She always had a pack of Trident gum sitting on her dashboard.

Every time we'd go for a drive,

She would give me a piece of her gum.

We would drive for hours not saying anything and just chew our gum together.

See,

Little Mouse,

My grandma,

Well she died a couple years ago.

It's been lonely without her.

One day I came home from school and there was a small piece of paper sitting by the front door.

I bent down to pick it up thinking it was trash.

It wasn't though.

When I uncrinkled it,

It was a gum wrapper and it said Trident on it.

That's how I knew she had said hi to me like she was still talking to me.

I'm so glad you hadn't shredded those wrappers up,

I said to Little Mouse.

Me too,

She said.

Vivian gave me one of the wrappers though.

She wanted me to remember her and her grandma.

I picked up the four little things that had been a gift.

The orange seed,

The tiny piece of green thread,

The white puff of fur,

And the Trident wrapper.

When you first handed these to me,

I thought they were nothing.

I mean,

You know,

They sort of look like trash.

Little Mouse stood still,

Not saying anything.

She raised up on her hind legs and cleaned her whiskers.

But now with all the stories,

All these little things really are something.

Little Mouse nodded her head.

I think she was agreeing with me.

It's time for bed now,

She said to me.

Oh my gosh,

Bed.

Mom is totally going to kill me if she sees I'm not in bed yet,

I said jumping up.

What's your name,

Little Mouse asked me.

Annabelle.

Better go to bed now,

Annabelle,

Little Mouse said.

You want to spend the night,

I asked her.

If you think that's okay,

Little Mouse answered.

What about a bed,

I said.

I looked down at Little Mouse and saw that my feet were wearing fuzzy warm pink bunny slippers.

I know.

I shuffled over to the drawer by the bathroom sink.

In it,

I found little scissors.

I bent down and clipped a piece of pink fur from my slippers and handed it to Little Mouse.

Here,

I said handing her the small piece of pink fur.

This will make a lovely bed,

She smiled.

We both scurried down the hall to my bedroom.

I jumped on top of the bed and Little Mouse ran under it with the pink fur in her mouth.

Good night,

Little Mouse.

Good night,

Annabelle.

Thank you for the gift of little some things,

I said as I turned off the lamp by the side of my bed.

It was nothing,

She said.

The end.

The mouse,

As a spiritual animal,

As a totem,

Asks us to pay attention in our lives to the smallest of details.

Sometimes we get caught up in wanting to see the larger,

Seemingly more extraordinary things in life.

In our story tonight,

Little Mouse reminds us to remember that even the smallest of tokens carry significant meaning.

We just have to focus our attention.

I invite you,

Before going to sleep tonight,

To take just a few moments to call into your mind some small event from the day that seemed like nothing.

And by focusing your attention and remembering,

It actually holds great value,

Like the treasure of an orange seed.

Little Mouse,

Annabelle,

And I thank you for joining us tonight for our bedtime story.

We wish you sweet dreams and let your life be filled with lots of little treasures.

Good night.