Being travel-sized is not always advantageous.
By the third time Olivia’s mascara missile hit me in the back, I wondered if this trip wasn’t better as a dream than as reality. The nice thing about being a mouse is that you can fit in very small spaces without being seen. The sucky thing about being a mouse is that you can be easily squished by practically everything.
I thought of my father, who tried to warn me off this trip. “Hazel Huntington Graymouse,” he squeaked. “What if you can’t sneak into the luggage home? What if the luggage lands on you? What if the beach house has a big cat, or a small dog, or an exterminator?”
He always used my full name when he was worried, and I missed his loving concern, but it had been so long since I’d seen the ocean. I loved our previous life on the beach. If it wasn’t for what had happened at the pier, our family would still be together and living there.
I should probably explain—when my siblings and I were born, there was a particularly unusual lightning storm that night, which hit the pier and ran down the wiring to our nest. Our mother died but we survived. The next morning, we found we could understand human language. Then later, when my brother got caught in a net by a child, he yelled out, “Let me go!”
That’s how we found out we could speak human as well. As surprising as it was to us, it was quite a shock to the little two-legged beast.
Until last week, I had not paid much attention to Olivia Bent, the girl who took up space in what was supposed to be my room. She is vain, shallow, and mean. She is also the least likely person I would ever talk to, even if I did want to talk to humans.
I don’t see a need to speak with two-legged giants who want to kill me at every opportunity, so I have kept my words to myself. And I definitely don’t want to talk to Olivia. My biggest enjoyment is to jump out at her from behind her mirror and send her squealing from the room.
But I heard her whine and mope and complain about needing a trip to the beach house with her besties. When “Mums and Daddy” said yes, I made my plans. Now here I was in a Caboodle, bouncing around the trunk of her Audi.
After a lifetime of road noise and faint laughter from the girls, I finally felt the car jerk to a stop and heard the engine stop engine-ing. Car doors slammed, more laughter, and then silence. I hoped they wouldn’t leave the luggage out here all day—this trunk was already hot enough without sitting in bright beach sunlight.
A popping sound and a few musical notes announced a beam of light in the seam of the makeup kit. As the trunk opened, I heard the end of Olivia’s condescending orders.
“…and don’t just throw them in the rooms, Leo. Take care with our bags.”
She must have gone, because I heard several choice words from Leo, spoken low enough to keep him out of trouble. I’d repeat them, but I think I’m still too young. In addition to the colorful opinion he expressed about Olivia’s orders, he also mumbled succinct yet graphic descriptions of what he’d rather do with Olivia or any one of her friends.
Again, I’ll leave that to the imagination.
I felt my container lifting, followed by the rough bouncing of being carried quickly and carelessly. Doors were slammed open and slammed shut, and then I heard the thud of items being thrown. Luggage. Was he going to throw my hiding place? How far?
I braced myself for a tumble, just as everything flipped upside down, hit the ground, and slid. Jars and bottles hurtled toward me, and I pushed at them with all four paws to keep them from running into me. One of the jars lost its lid and powder exploded into the space.
I wasn’t going to be squished, I was going to be suffocated by eye shadow.
“Leo!” Olivia screamed. “What the even?!?”
“Sorry, miss. It slipped.”
“Slipped my eye,” I mumbled.
“What was that?” Olivia picked up the makeup caboodle. “Did you hear something?”
“I didn’t hear nuthin’,” Leo said.
I smiled and, lowering my voice, muttered, “I just wanna hear you cry for more.”
“What did you say?” Olivia snapped.
“I didn’t say nuthin’,” Leo said.
This could be a fun game. “We could have a good time,” I growled softly.
That’s when I heard a slap.
“Get. OUT.” I could feel her anger shaking the makeup kit still in her arms. “I’m calling Daddy RIGHT NOW to FIRE YOU!”
“Good luck with that.” Leo’s voice was getting further away.
Olivia set the makeup kit down and opened it. I scrunched myself into a corner.
“Ohmahgawd, what a mess.” Her fingers reached in, picking up the jars and bottles. “My Dior shadow—I just bought that.”
Fingertips came toward me, and I squeezed myself flatter against the side of the case. Olivia touched the edge of the opened jar, pulling her hand back when she encountered the powder.
“Ugh, I need a tissue, this is going to get all over my nails.”
She turned to the nightstand and opened a drawer. This gave me enough time to leap out of the kit and race across the room. I slid under a door and found myself in the bathroom. There was a small open window near the mirror, so I scampered up the exposed plumbing and made my escape, stopping briefly to look at my reflection. I was very purple and sparkly.
Crawling along the roofline, I reached the beachfront and stopped to sit in one of the gables and look at the scene. The coastline ran southwest, and the early afternoon sun was sitting high, giving the waves a disco-ball glimmer. Tide was low but the waves were not, lifting into curls and crashing to the sand before being pulled back out to sea. The rush of water and wind, out and in like my breath, tempted to lull me into napping. Not a bad idea, but first, I needed to feel sand between my twenty toes.
I made my way down the woodwork, from the doorframe to the window, and finally to the deck, where I shot off to the beach. The sand was deliciously warm and soft. I found a decent-sized footprint to drop down and roll in, splashing the sand up and over myself, giving my gray fur a shake before rolling again and again. It was a luxurious way to remove the eye powder. Finally de-glittered, I trotted to where the water met the land and stood until I felt the very tip of the wave wash ashore. I wished I could go further, but when you are very small, the least amount of water can whoosh you away.
If there’s a next life, I thought, maybe I should return as something bigger.
