Mouse Hole

I stared at the wall. Abstract paintings covered the wall. Swirls of green, blue, yellow, orange. I smiled. It was as if the people who decided to decorate the waiting room like this put the paintings there as a joke, as if to say, “You’re at the eye doctor, so we’re going to put these paintings here for you. It’s easy to see, and we don’t want to make you feel bad by putting any finely detailed art!” However, I quickly lost interest in the paintings, and sighed. I had already been waiting for such a long time, no doubt at least for a couple hours. I directed my gaze to the clock, and then blinked. Oh. I had only been here for twenty minutes. I had come here with my mom right after school, and now I was waiting on my own.

I tilted my head up. What to think, what to do?

Suddenly, I felt something brush against my shoe. I leaned down and scratched my ankle. I stopped mid-scratch, as I saw a blur on the ground. I tried to follow it with my eyes as the blur went across the floor of the room to the opposite room. I squinted, but I couldn’t get the blur in focus, though I could tell it was...brown. The color didn’t stand out that well against the gray carpet. Then, the blur reached the other side of the room, and into a hole in the wall. A gold glint appeared for a tiny moment in the hole, and then disappeared.

A mouse hole? Had that mouse hole always been there? I rubbed my eyes. Did I just see a mouse? The waiting room seemed so clean, though. I looked around. Nobody seemed to have seen it, though another kid my age saw me looking at me and frowned. I looked back at the hole, then at the clock. Well, a whopping 2 minutes had passed since I had last looked. Well, my mom should be done soon… maybe in twenty minutes? Well, that certainly wouldn’t feel like a short time.

I stood up, and made my way over to the mouse hole. I sighed. What could the gold glint have been? Someone’s ring perhaps? I looked around the room once more, then I got down on my stomach and glanced in the hole. A tiny light seemed to be in the hole, seemingly far away. But there was no way my hand could fit in this hole. I thought back to my backpack, knowing I had pencils in there, and perhaps I could use that. I stood up. But… but the hole in front of me seemed to be the same size as when my eye was right next to it. I looked around.

What. Happened. Across the room, was my backpack. It was huge. So were the chairs that lined all the walls. I could see legs of people from the chairs to the left of me, and the huge people on the other side. 

I think I may have shrunk.

I started to run towards my stuff. A foot appeared out of nowhere, and I was nearly crushed. I yelped and tried to run faster. I made it to my backpack. Okay, what do I do now? I crawled up the backpack above the zipper and tugged on it. It opened, but, after staring inside, I decided against going in. It would be hard to get out once I enter, and those chip crumbs were a bit disgusting. I did yank on a piece of thread from a fraying area, and was rewarded with thread a couple times the size I was now. Or maybe I didn’t shrink, and everything just became so much larger?

As I made my way towards the mouse hole, I thought about how I should perhaps be more nervous. Sure I had a racing heart that hadn’t calmed down yet, but shouldn’t I be fretting a bit more? Ah well. That wouldn’t solve anything. Plus, I could go in the mouse hole now. A bit of exploring wouldn’t hurt. Besides, I had 20 minutes before my mom finished her exam. I smiled as I thought of her reaction when she found out my new situation…. Well, I’m sure there was a solution to remedy my situation.

I arrived back at the mouse hole. This time, there hadn’t been any large foot coming towards my way. I peered in the hole. It was a lot brighter than before. I blinked. It seemed like a tiny LED light was on the ceiling of the wall. I stepped in…

And gasped. This was crazy. The ceiling suddenly seemed so much higher, and one LED turned into a million. The space seemed to be in the shape of a giant dome. Well, at least giant in proportion to me.

“Hey! How’d you get in here? And who are you, anyway You don’t look like a mouse?”

I turned towards the voice and gawked. A brown mouse stared back at me, sitting on its haunches. I wondered if this was real, or if I had fallen asleep in the waiting room.

“Well?” it asked. “You’ll have to leave my home if you don’t answer.”

“Hm? Oh, ok. Uh, my name is Jack. I was just outside in the room, and I found myself shrunk, and so here I am.”

This was strange, a talking mouse, but… well, it was happening wasn’t it? No use getting all panicky and having a breakdown, now was there?

The mouse blinked. “So… wait, you’re human?”

“Yep. Hey, how is this even possible?” I asked.

The mouse smiled. I didn’t know that was possible, but apparently emotions could be shown on a mouse’s face. “Welcome, then! My, we haven’t had a human here for years! Come, come,” he said as he scampered towards a huge wooden table piled with food. I could tell that the food was crumbs, or at least crumbs in the sense of a normal human’s perspective. Now, each crumb was as big as a chicken drumstick in my eyes.

“Sit, sit,” the mouse tells me.

I shrugged and sat. There didn’t seem to be any danger from this mouse. Besides, I did need help in getting back to my normal size. “So… what’s your name?”

The mouse answered, “Mouse,” and then stuffed his mouth with a crumb that smelled like a chocolate chip cookie.

I blinked. That was… an interesting name. “So… what do you call your friends?”

“Well, there’s Brown, there’s Gray, Chubby, Pup,” he said between nibbles.

I took a piece of crumb for myself. It was green and smelled like broccoli. A thought occurred: “Hey, how’d you even get crumbs like this? It’s an eye doctor office, how’d you get broccoli?”

The mouse giggled, making a sound one might have related to squeaky furniture. “This place can get you to all sorts of different places!” Then it made a curious face. “What’s an eye doctor?”

“It’s someone who checks your eyes. Hey, any idea how I can get back to normal?”

Squeak, squeak, Mouse goes again. “Why do you need your eyes checked? Is there something wrong with them?” It giggles again. “Hey, do you want to go meet the others?”

I shrug. “I gotta get back for my appointment. And my mom’s gonna be worried. Know how I can get back to normal size?”

Mouse replied, “Well, I can’t get you back to normal.” He frowned. “Hey, the only guys who know how to do this type of stuff are the roaches. How did you even get….” Mouse’s eyes widened.

“What?” I asked. “And who’s the roaches?”

“Well…” Mouse shifted uncomfortably. “They’re like the… the Star Wars’ Empire to us critters”. 

I blinked at Mouse. “You know what Star Wars is, but not an eye-- never mind. So can I just ask them to make me normal again?”

Mouse put the crumb in his paws down. “Did you just hear what I said? They’re ruthless and--”.

I sighed and tuned him out. Then, I realized that Mouse was, well a mouse, and so he had to have similar interests.

“-- there are thousands of them, and they--”

“Hey, Mouse. If you help me get back to normal, I’ll provide food for you for the rest of your life.”

Mouse’s jaw dropped. Then he picked up another crumb and said, “including desserts?”

I smiled.

I hoped I wouldn’t miss my appointment.

Mouse padded next to me as we walked down a long hallway. It was lit, again, by LEDs, this time all yellow. It led to another larger room, this time in a more cubic form. There were hundreds of doors. I gawked at them. Each one, according to Mouse, led to a different place. 

“Here, Mouse said. “This one leads to where the cockroaches keep whatever items they steal from humans. Except for food, of course.”

I thought about what Mouse said. “Wait. So… this thing that’s supposed to make me big again… humans were the one to create it?”

“Of course. We critters can’t do what you humans do”.

“Okay… so what do I do?”

Mouse nervously chewed his whisker. “Well, there shouldn’t be too many roaches there right now… you should look for a green liquid… or blue, I forget. It should be in a small beaker”.

“Thanks.” I decided to ask the question that I had been thinking about. “How do you know all this?”

Mouse smiled. “Well, we mice are known for observing stuff, just like chipmunks are known for singing and cows are known for burping.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay then.”

I tensed my shoulders and relaxed. “Here goes nothing.” I opened the door and stepped through. I found myself in a room, several times larger than the dome I had eaten in with Mouse. Piles of stuff were everywhere, and shelves lined the wall. Shoot. This would be a bit difficult.

Suddenly, I heard a scuttling sound. I ran to a pile, just as a roach appeared on the other side and peered at the door I had just come through. It had a shiny, hard body, and reeked of rotten broccoli. Or maybe that was the crumb I ate earlier.

The roach turned back around. Okay, time to look for a green or blue vial. I could hear the roach’s feet, so I knew how to avoid him. I ran down aisle after aisle of piles of stuff. I passed earrings, trading cards, pills, even circuit boards. At last, I came upon a display.

Inside were dozens of vials. However, there were only 2 that were green and blue.

A voice echoed through the room, it’s scratchiness itching my ears. “Hey! Who are you!”

I took the vials and ran. I got to the door, opened it, and entered.

The roach managed to get in as well, right behind me.

“Hey, you got it!” Mouse cheered. Then, when he saw the roach, he trembled. “Um, well I’ll see you later, though!” and ran off.

I ran through the hallway, and burst into the dome. Then, I fell forward, as the roach latched onto my ankles. The vials, thankfully, were unbroken in my hands. The roach climbed unto my back. 

“Well, well, a human! You’d make a delicious treat, at this size, for us!”

I nearly choked. Eat me? I shuddered. The roach stabbed at me with its foot. “I guess I’ll have to take you apart here!”

What? I was on my stomach and couldn’t get the roach of. I didn’t really think, and without wondering what drinking the wrong one would do, I smashed both vials on the ground, and drank from the floor. Suddenly, I felt my skin stretch. I felt my bones grow. The roach scrambled off in shock. My head touched the ceiling. I kept growing. The ceiling cracked. 

A pushing motion seemed to throw me forward. A bright light blinded me, and one I opened my eyes, and found myself back in the waiting room. I sighed in relief.

A door opened. “Jack Micer? It’s your turn”. I smiled. Just in time.

That was when the 4-foot long cockroach flew out of the mouse hole and landed next to me.