Bitten By A Mouse

“Don’t cry, sweetie. We’re going to the zoo, remember? You’ll love all the animals there. And I hear they have your favourite – meerkats!”

I had just woken up in the back of Uncle Luke’s smelly, old truck, but I didn’t recognise it initially. The stench of cigarettes and rust forming around the window edge gave it away. In any case, Auntie Nina’s soothing voice calmed me down a little. I wiped the tears away from my cheeks, but a few continued to fall as I tried to relax. I often get sad when I first wake up, especially in strange places.

“The zoo?” I asked Auntie Nina.

“Yes, sweetie. Don’t you remember mummy telling you that’s where Uncle Luke and I were taking you today?”

As we whizzed along the busy road, I gazed out the backseat window to see nothing but trees and fields. I hate the fast roads. They make me feel sick watching everything go past so quickly. I usually sleep through long car journeys with my family.

“Shut her up, will ya?” Uncle Luke huffed as I struggled to control my sobbing.

I don’t know Uncle Luke very well. Auntie Nina has been friends with my mummy for a long time now – since before I was born, Mummy always says. I love Auntie Nina because she always plays games with me when she babysits. I don’t think she’s my real auntie, like Auntie Louise, Daddy’s sister, but I’ve always called her Auntie Nina, and since she’s been bringing Luke over to our house, I’ve been calling him Uncle Luke.

“I know, why don’t we play a car game? You like those,” Auntie Nina said.

Uncle Luke looked at her, scowled and muttered something under his breath, but I couldn’t make it out.

“What kind of game?” I asked as my tears began to dry and flake on my cheeks.

“Well, let’s think.” Auntie Nina put her forefingers to her temples and pretended to push firmly as she squinted her eyes tight and tried to think of a game. She could usually make me laugh, and she hadn’t failed this time.

“How about The License Plate Game? Or I Spy, maybe? No, no! I’ve got it!”

I laughed out loud as Auntie Nina became super animated and swivelled almost 180 degrees around in her seat to look at me.

“Let’s play 20 Questions! You love that game.”

I couldn’t argue with her; I do like 20 Questions. No one can ever guess my ones because I choose characters from TV shows I know they don’t watch. I do that when I play with my brothers because they never want to watch the shows I like. Serves them right.

“So, what do you say, Mouse? Wanna play?”

Mouse. That made me want to cry again, but I held it back as best I could. That’s what my daddy always calls me. My real name is Charlotte, or Charlie if you’re my horrible big brother, but most people call me Mouse. My daddy says it’s because of my hair colour, but I don’t understand that. My pet mouse has grey fur, not brown. I like the name, though, so I don’t complain about it. As well as my pet mouse, Gerry, we also have a pet dog called Bongo at home. He’s my favourite pet. I called him Bongo because I think it’s a funny word, and it makes me smile to say it out loud over the park. Daddy bought Bongo as a present for Mummy, but she let me name him because she knew that was the present I wanted, and it made me sad that she got him instead of me. He’s more my dog than Mummy’s because he always sleeps on my bed at night. Plus, I get to feed him. Well, I give him my dinner when I don’t want it. Mummy feeds him dog biscuits, which are usually an ugly brown colour and smell funny, but I don’t think Bongo likes them much, so I give him human food. Daddy says he’s fat now because of me. I love my daddy so much. He’s a fireman, so his job is to put out fires and save people. He’s big and strong, so I think that’s an excellent job for him. I’d want him to be the one who rescued me if I were in a fire because I know he would be the best at it. I wish I got to see Daddy more, but I don’t mind if he’s out saving people who need his help. He’s always home for dinner and reads me stories at bedtime. My favourites are the ones he makes up himself because they’re always about superheroes. Sometimes, I play with him on weekends, too, although he’s usually at football with my older brother, Marcus. I hate Marcus. He’s 12 years old and much bigger than me, and he always takes things out of my room and hides them. He says it’s for fun, but I don’t find it much fun. I quite like my younger brother, George. He’s only four, so he can be a bit of a baby sometimes, but he enjoys most of the same games as me. And he even understands a lot of them now. We play hide and seek quite a lot, but I have to choose really simple hiding places, like behind a door; otherwise, he gets upset when he can’t find me. I don’t mind letting him win, though.

My favourite person is my mummy. She’s always at home and likes to do things with me, rather than the boy stuff. Boys seem to enjoy things like rolling in mud and getting dirty. We don’t do that. I think Mummy has a job, but I don’t know what it is. She says she works from home when we’re at school, something to do with her computer, but I never see her working. I don’t think she would lie about that, though. Mummy never lies. Our favourite thing to do together is drawing and colouring in, and we also enjoy making up stories about strangers we see outside. Mummy’s not as good at making up stories as Daddy, but hers are funnier.

After playing 20 Questions, me and Auntie Nina also played the other games she had suggested earlier. We didn’t play I Spy for very long because Uncle Luke got mad at us again. He kept telling us to keep the noise down, so Auntie Nina climbed into the backseat with me so we could be a bit quieter. She must love Uncle Luke loads because she always does what he asks her. I think he sounds a bit mean sometimes, but Auntie Nina says that’s just how he is. I got to go last for our final game of I Spy. I always try to find things in the car because they don’t move like the things outside. When I asked Uncle Luke to have a turn, he got mad at Auntie Nina and said she was an idiot for thinking this was a good idea. I don’t know why he was coming along if he didn’t like the zoo. When he shouts at her, she always looks down at her feet and keeps quiet, like when my daddy tells me or my brothers off for being naughty. I don’t think Auntie Nina is naughty. Because I had wanted Uncle Luke to play with us, I picked something related to him. He wore his usual rugged baseball cap, ripped jeans, and a plain white, dirty t-shirt. I thought his clothes were too obvious, so I chose his beard. When Auntie Nina was struggling with the letter B, I helped her out and said it was something brown with grey speckles. She looked even more confused by that, but I thought she’d get it because she must see it all the time. When she couldn’t guess, she gave up and I told her what it was. Uncle Luke shouted at Auntie Nina and me this time. I don’t know why. I think he’s just in a bad mood today. He keeps scowling and shifting in his seat, and he’s barely spoken throughout the whole journey. When he shouted at Auntie Nina in the backseat, she didn’t look down at her feet as much, not like she did when she was in the front seat, but she still wouldn’t look directly at him. Instead, she looked at me and smiled. It was one of those fake smiles, but it still made me feel better. It felt like we were a team back here. I think she feels stronger with me here next to her. I certainly do with her.

I’ve never been to the zoo before. I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon because it’s extremely far away from home. The sun was setting outside, and I was getting a little chilly. Auntie Nina gave me one of Uncle Luke’s old jumpers to wear, but he didn’t want to me have it, so she took her lovely bright pink cardigan off and gave me that. Uncle Luke opened the window to have another cigarette, which I hate because they always smell disgusting, and Auntie Nina asked him to close it because she was cold. I felt terrible about wearing her cardigan and tried to give it back.

“No, sweetie, you keep it. I’ll be okay,” she said.

I leaned over as much as I could with my seatbelt on and gave her a cuddle. I always feel warmer when Mummy cuddles me.

“I’ve had just about enough of you two today,” Uncle Luke yelled. “I don’t want to hear another word until we get there!” He didn’t close the window, even after finishing his smelly cigarette.

I woke up sometime later when it was pitch-black outside.

“Are we still going to the zoo, Auntie Nina?”

Uncle Luke glared into his rear-view mirror, and Auntie Nina looked back at him briefly with crinkled eyebrows before turning to me. I didn’t want to make her mad as well, so I put my head back in her lap rather than wait for a response. I’d never seen Auntie Nina get angry, and I didn’t want to now either. Once she’d come into the back of the truck with me, she didn’t seem to listen to Uncle Luke as much. I liked that.

“It took us longer than we thought to get here, sweetie, so we’ll go tomorrow instead, but we can stay at a nice, posh hotel tonight. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”

I tried to return her smile. I didn’t feel too good now. I was tired and hungry and wanted to go home. I began sobbing again. Auntie Nina looked up at Uncle Luke as he glared at me in the mirror. That look made me uneasy, so I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Just before I drifted off again, Uncle Luke looked back at the road as Auntie Nina continued staring at him. I didn’t know what she was thinking at that moment, but he seemed to understand.

When I next awoke, it was to Auntie Nina shouting from outside the car. I’ve never heard Auntie Nina yell before. Her voice was shaky but still had a great strength to it. I wish Uncle Luke would go home, then me and Auntie Nina could go to the zoo with Mummy. Uncle Luke grabbed her by both arms. That frightened me, so I sat up abruptly and banged on the truck window. They both turned and looked at me. Auntie Nina’s eyes were red and puffy, and her make-up had smeared under her eyes.

“Can I call my mummy now?”

Uncle Luke started yelling at me again. When he said I couldn’t call my mummy and would never see her again if I didn’t shut up, I wanted to burst into tears, but I knew I had to be brave. Auntie Nina was standing behind him, bent in half like she was about to be sick. If Uncle Luke was shouting at me, he wasn’t hurting her, so I pouted as hard as I could and stared straight at him. He stared back, but I wasn’t going to lose this one. My brothers had never won a game of stare against me, so I was sure I could beat Uncle Luke, especially through a window. Before we could finish our game of stares, Auntie Nina took hold of his arm and spun him around towards her. He hit her across the face with one loud crack, and she flew back onto the overgrown roadside grass. I scrunched my knees up into my chest and pressed my face hard against them so I didn’t have to watch. I heard several loud thudding noises and more muffled arguing. I’ve never liked arguments, so I put my fingers in my ears and tried to block it out. That’s what I do when Mummy and Daddy argue. I really wish my mummy and daddy were here right now. I bet my daddy could save Auntie Nina. I’m too small to help. It’s not because I’m frightened or anything; I’m just too small.

“This was your idea! We can’t take her home now!” Although Uncle Luke often raised his voice, I barely recognised his bellow this time. I hoped he wasn’t talking about me. I desperately wanted to go home.

“I made a mistake! Let’s just go back and tell them it was a misunderstanding.” Auntie Nina was crying.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Nina! We’re not turning back now. You said we could keep her, so that’s what we’re doing.”

Another loud thud came shattering through. And then silence. I sat as still as possible with my head buried deep between my legs and waited. All I could hear was my breathing, now appearing louder than I thought possible. The more I tried to quieten it, the louder it seemed to get. After what felt like ages, the car door opened. I held my breath and froze. I could sense a figure standing next to me, and I just wanted to disappear. I dare not look.

“Mouse?”

Barely able to hear Auntie Nina’s whisper, I gradually lifted my head to check it was her. One of her eyes was now half closed and black. The cheek on the same side was twice the size of the other one, and blood was pouring down from her nose into her mouth. I couldn’t see Uncle Luke. Auntie Nina beckoned me out of the car, but I couldn’t move. She reached in and grasped hold of my leg. I didn’t budge.

“Mouse? Mouse, look at me.” The urgency in Auntie Nina’s voice made me lift my head. Tears streaming down my face and hers battered and bruised, I could barely make out her features.

“Mouse! You have to get out of the truck. Now!”

I didn’t know what to do. My body didn’t want to move, and I couldn’t think clearly. Auntie Nina pulled on my leg until I slid along the backseat towards the door. As I got close enough for her to reach me, she held my hands and pulled me to my feet outside. The damp grass brushed against my ankles and the mud squelched underneath my shoes. There weren’t many cars on the once-busy road now. I heard one go past at that moment, but I didn’t see it. I was fixed on Auntie Nina’s bloodied face. Even though it looked like it hurt, she managed to smile and gently stroked my cheek to wipe the tears away. She must have seen the look on my face as I glanced over her shoulder because she spun around and hid me behind her back. Uncle Luke was on the floor coming out of what appeared to be a nap, although I’m not sure why he’d be sleeping on the muddy grass. One long stream of blood trickled down the side of his face from the top of his head onto his t-shirt. Before he could stand up properly, Auntie Nina turned back towards me and squeezed me so tight I winced.

“Run, Mouse,” she whispered.

I gazed vacantly at her, unsure of what to do. Uncle Luke grabbed her by the waist and threw her onto the floor. I nearly jumped out of my skin, and in an instant, my body became unstuck.

“Run, Mouse!”

The shrill of my Auntie Nina’s voice meant I didn’t need telling a third time. I turned away from them and ran as fast as my little legs would allow me. I looked behind me; no one seemed to be following. After a short time, I could no longer see Auntie Nina or Uncle Luke, only darkness. I just kept running.