Cat and Mouse

Adam was a nice boy. His mother always told him that he used to be, although he couldn't remember that now. He had just turned 10, a special time for him as he had just gone into the third grade.

His teacher, Mrs. White, was having lots of trouble with him at school. He was right around the age when children first start to rebel. I mean, really rebel. And his looks didn't help anyone but him. His eyes were a dark blue, complimented much by his short blond hair. His mother's hair was the same color. She saw herself in him quite a bit. The teacher, however, didn't.

Before that age, kids are usually pretty good. Almost always, even if they do some bad things here and there, they usually know they've done wrong. But sometimes, children need to learn the hard way. As a parent, that's probably the toughest part to go through. Every time.

Well, it was spring, and Adam's mother wanted to get out and do something special. Adam hated the idea, as he would rather stay home on his computer all the time. However, his mother had very different plans for him.

She had decided it would be a great idea to go up to his grandfather's farm for the weekend.

Adam had gone to his grandfather's farm many times before, and every time he always had fun. So this time, when he showed up and was extremely irritable, his grandfather was confused. He asked Adam many questions about himself, but Adam didn't care to answer them. He would only be able to give one of those 'I'm too cool' yes or no's.

Adam's grandmother was what one may call a spiritual lady. She had a cat, who was born in the barn many years ago. It would never leave him alone. The cat's name was Dinah, and she would constantly rub the sides of her body up against his feet. When she did, it made him mad, because she would get fur stuck to his clothes.

His grandfather would tell him, "Now, now, don't get angry at the cat, that just means she likes you".

Adam didn't care if the cat liked him or not. You see, Adam wasn't used to being around animals, as his mother always said they had no time for them. He had wanted a dog for a while, but she never let him have one. Cats, he didn't like at all.

While Adam was sitting out on the front porch steps, he saw the cat run by, chasing after a mouse.

He was excited to see the scene. He rooted for Dinah to catch the mouse and eat it. His grandmother was sitting nearby, rocking away on an old wooden chair, facing towards the sun. Her eyes were just out of the light's reach, shadowed by the roof of the country home's porch entrance. She spoke up.

"You should never take a side between a cat and a mouse".

He looked over at her and waved a hand. "Whatever," he said. "It's just a stupid mouse".

2

Later that day. Adam was moping around at the back of the house. There was an old barn on the property. Now I don't mean to say it was the only barn, oh no, there was a much newer one closer to the home. The old one, however, his grandfather had kept up to use for storage. The animals had all been moved to the new one.

He sat in the grass, staring at the old barn. His grandmother was watching him from the kitchen window. She slid the window open sideways and called out, "You stay away from that barn," Adam whirled his head around, then she said, "There's a spirit that lives there". She closed the window with a heavy thud, along with the curtains. Adam didn't believe her.

That night, Adam had a fantasy play out in his mind. He imagined that he would go out to the barn and that he wouldn't be afraid. Not only this, but he imagined playing in the hay and even finding out every inch of that barn himself, with no fears.

The one weapon in his arsenal was a keychain flashlight he carried. Standing up in the dark spare bedroom, he slowly made his way downstairs. Before he knew it, he was out the back door, 20 feet away from the house and right through the double doors of the old barn. He pulled them open quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up inside.

You would assume that a little boy such as Adam, may have chickened by now. But some children really don't have any fears. They haven't a reason to yet, you see. Saying this, you could now imagine that Adam was in fact having a great time playing in the hay.

He was having so much fun that he did something rather dangerous. There was a ladder that lead up to the second-floor open loft, and Adam saw that a large pile of hay was stacked so high it almost made it to the ceiling, so he thought. Rushing up the ladder, Adam ran and ended up jumping right off the side of the edge of the second floor, where he landed on top of the hay pile and rolled right down. He laughed as he rolled, and nothing bad actually happened to him.

He had so much fun in the barn that he was tired now. He lay looking out of the open barn doors with nothing but pride in himself, as usual. A very bad habit for a little boy to have, least of anybody. He put his hands behind his head and rested his eyes for a bit.

3

He woke up much later in pure silence, freezing. He was still on the hay, but his former feelings of pride were now gone. He uncurled himself from the stiff ball he had become while he slept and wiped his eyes while he sat up. He didn't like being in the barn anymore.

He looked over to the open doors that were still seen in the moonlight, but they seemed much larger than he remembered. He figured it was perhaps because he was tired, so he groggily stood up and stumbled his way one foot at a time forward, towards the doors.

As he walked, he felt so tired that he closed his eyes as he stepped. He opened them and looked forward, still right on track towards the doors. He closed them again and took a few more tired steps towards the doors, dreaming of his warm bed.

He opened his eyes again, but not much had changed. In fact, the door seemed just as far away as it had been. He was annoyed now. This was taking too long.

He finally stopped walking, rubbed his eyes a bit harder, and winced off into the dimly lit barn at the doors. There they were, right there, but they seemed much larger now... Absurdly large.

He couldn't figure it out.

Suddenly! A shadow dropped down from the rafters above, carrying with it a shrieking sound. Adam threw his hands over his head and turned around, running right back to the hay. But not only that, he jumped right inside, crawling into the pile.

He could see the moonlight coming through the dark hay that shone through the open doors. He waited in silence as he heard movement above him. Then- he heard movement near him.

He poked his head out from the hay and watched as a silhouette of some sort of small creature- perhaps a mouse, ran across the floor and towards the wall. Now, it was hard to see the actual mouse once it made its way over to the wall, but Adam's eye had followed it, and he saw something else. A speck of light along the bottom of the floorboards. The silhouette ran right for it.

A light? Thought Adam. He listened closely for any more movement, and when there was none, he felt a rush inside of him that made him want to leap across the floor and get to the wall. He did just this, with his feet moving so quickly beneath him that it was almost as if he was hovering as he went. Soon enough, even to his own disbelief, he was at the wall, almost running right into it.

He ran towards the light and as he came closer, he saw that it was, in fact, a hole.

The sound was heard behind him again and he didn't think twice. He ran forward into the light.

4

Ahead of Adam lay a faded yellow brick road. He saw the mouse up ahead, but it was the size of a lion! The road was lined with tall trees and nothing else but those could be seen as far as he looked in any direction. The entrance, the hole in the wall that is, from which he came, is now gone. Nothing but yellow bricks and green trees for miles.

He saw the mouse still, just barely, far off in the distance, going over the beginnings of a steep hill. Not knowing where he was, he decided to follow after it. The boy looked at the surrounding trees up and down, wondering if they were perhaps very short and wide trees of a variety he hasn't seen before, as they stood just as tall as he.

But that still wouldn't explain the size of the mouse. Why, the mouse would have to be about just his size for the whole thing to make any sense, from what he saw. But maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him.

He followed along this road until he came to a very odd-looking road sign. A tall wooden post. It had arrows sticking out that went in all sorts of different directions. There must have been at least a hundred signs in all. There was no more brick road, however. Only some little dirt paths that went off in all sorts of directions.

He read some of the signs. "The Lazy boy River, The Place Children Go When They Are Bad, No Toys For Us," amongst other terrible sounding locations. Adam frowned and crossed his arm's saying, "Who would ever want to go to any of these places?"

"How right you are!" said a voice from right behind him that made him jump. "Oh, goodness," said the voice as he turned around to be looking at a fancy yellow dress collared shirt underneath a quite elegant-looking red jacket. The jacket itself was very fine and had gold buttons that shone in the light in front of his eyes. Then he looked up.

The sight of the man, who sounded like a young man, was much different than what one would expect.

The man had the face, no, practically the entire body of a frog! He stood about 7 feet. Atop his head sat a rather tall and skinny gold crown. "Oh my," said Adam, "You wouldn't happen to be a king, would you?"

The frog cried out an unbearably annoying cry and buried his face into his hands. "A king!?" he cried, "Oh, no," he sniffled. A bizarre sneeze then emerged out of him that sounded like a cross between a ribbit and a cough. His tongue flew out of his mouth as he did this, and Adam heard the faint sound of a fly nearby being wacked out of this world. He swallowed the bug whole with a heavy gulp and finished his sentence.

"I'll never be king in a state like this!" He wailed, looking at his frog hands. They really weren't so different from Adam's, aside from the webbed fingers. Adam was confused. "But why not?" he asked.

The frog looked down at the little boy, bewildered. "You haven't noticed the fact that I'm a frog?"

"Oh yes," Adam said quickly. "But I thought that was normal".

The frog rolled his giant eyes.

"Normal?" he smiled. "Ha!" he then laughed almost hysterically, smacking his knee. The laugh itself was brief, but it was the kind of thing that would replay in one's mind if they were to see it. Adam wasn't sure what to say.

He became upset with the frog rather quickly as it began laughing again. "What's so funny!?" asked Adam, frustrated with the tall frog. He didn't like when people ignored him. The frog heard his question and laughed even harder, but ended up choking slightly on his own tongue. He grabbed his throat and his mouth opened wide. The long tongue was rolled up to look like a spiral in his mouth, and it rolled downwards through the air, unraveling. When it was done, he let out a little sigh from his mouth and let himself go, shaking his head twice, saying with a heavy mumble, "Oh dear, I hate when that happens, don't you?"

His tongue quickly rolled back up and he wiped his hands off on his shirt.

"Sometimes-" began the frog, "I get carried away, by what, I'm never sure".

Adam nodded and told him it was alright, and that sometimes he gets carried away too.

He then asked him how he was to get home from here, as he was new to this place. The frog shook his head. "Home? I wouldn't know where that is. I lived in a castle, once, with my father and mother, the king and queen. It wasn't so long ago actually. You see, I'm running away from home".

Adam was surprised. "Running away? From a castle? Why?"

The frog looked down at him as if he was just thinking about something else. "Hm? Why what?"

Adam shook his head and tapped a foot on the ground, asking again, "Why did you run away from the castle?"

The frog started to wail again and now Adam was rolling his eyes.

"Stop that!" yelled out Adam, trying to be louder than the frog. "You stop your crying and listen to me!"

The frog stopped crying and looked down at him. He sniffled. "And why should I listen to you? I'm a prince, you know". Adam hadn't fully realized this yet. "Well- yes, you are!" He began, again not sure what to say. Now, he certainly wasn't older than the frog, nor was he any bigger than him.

"So- so act like one!" Adam blurted out.

The frog stopped and put a hand to his chin. "Act like a prince?" pondered the frog. "Even though I'm clearly a frog?" Adam was thinking as fast as he could. "But frogs don't wear crowns, you see Mr. Prince-" the frog interrupted him. "You can call me Sire". Adam nodded, continuing on. "Well, you see, Sire, a frog may be able to be a prince too".

The frog prince thought about this. "Perhaps," he said. "Your life must have been wonderful, being a prince and all," said Adam as he began to walk down one of the dirt paths, with the frog prince following.

5

The prince lowered his head. "It was nice being a prince until I was turned into a frog". The frog prince shoved a webbed hand into a pocket of his jacket and pulled out a golden handkerchief, in which he blew his nose and then tossed the thing away. "Why did someone turned you into a frog? What for?" asked Adam.

The frog became angry and held a fist in the air.

"A witch! She is a wicked beast, with a war call not unlike a siren. She can come down at any time!" Adam shivered as he watched the frog himself flinch and look behind each of his shoulders and then cower as he looked above into the air. Adam, out of fear, went to look behind his shoulder too- but the frog continued right before he could.

"Yes!" He said loudly, catching Adam's attention back to him. "But there is a way we can turn me back!" The frog prince stood with pride, putting his hands onto his hips. "If we can put the witch back in her cage, then I will be free, along with many others like me!" He announced. "We must go to the witch's castle!"

The frog then told Adam that if he helped him, his father, the king, would be able to get him home. His father owned all the roads, after all.

It was decided. "Let's get going, then!" said Adam, leading the way down the dirt path they had chosen.

As they walked, it was inevitable that conversation would strike again, and the two had gotten along pretty well so far. Adam told him how he had gotten here, how he had followed a mouse. "A mouse?" asked the frog prince. "Why, there hasn't been a mouse here in ages".

"Why not?" asked Adam, looking back at the frog who was walking behind him. "Simply put? They don't like the witch very much. Rats, either". the frog tripped slightly over an uproot and then finished, "Rats don't like her either, I mean," he caught his balance as he walked off the trip.

"You must have been mistaken- I say! There he goes now!"

The frog prince pointed on ahead, stumbling again, and Adam turned forward to see the mouse, darting through the trees far ahead. "Yes, that's him!" Adam hurried forward through the brush but the frog prince called out, "Wait! Not so fast!" Adam looked back to see the frog's long legs were wobbling as he tried to get around all of the obstacles on the ground. Adam realized that perhaps, being a prince, he had never explored in the woods prior to this.

The mouse was out of sight again but Adam couldn't leave the prince behind. Not only because he felt bad for him, of course, but also because he wasn't sure how else he'd get home, and the promise of meeting the king was ripe in his mind.

Adam walked along the path and saw a yellow daisy. He plucked it from the ground, but just as he did the frog cried out softly, "Wait- Oh, dear". Adam looked back at him, asking what the problem was. "Well," said the frog prince, "The flower will wither and die now, you see. That's all". Adam smelled the flower and threw it away.

After walking for such a long time, the two of them became thirsty. Adam coughed and said, "Do you know where we might get a drink of water from around here?" The frog prince paused and stood with a hand on his chin. "I'd say our best bet is the well".

6

Adam saw that a stone well had just appeared nearby, and he wasn't sure where it had come from. However, he thought to himself that maybe he just didn't look in that direction yet to notice it. Most things out in the woods look the same, after all.

They walked over to the well, and the frog prince slowly cranked up the bucket. They drank the water but were soon thirsty again, so the frog prince drew another bucket and they drank. They became even more thirsty.

"You up there! Whatever you're doing, quit it!" The two looked at each other in shock and both mouths dropped. "This isn't a drinking well, it's a wishing well!" The frog prince shot both hands into the air and declared, "I wish I wasn't a frog prince anymore!" and poof, he was gone.

"Where did he go!?"

"I'm down here!" called the frog prince from down below, and Adam peered into the darkness. The other voice they heard before then called up, saying, "That's what I was trying to tell you! Don't make a wish, it's a trap!"

Adam looked around curiously, then asked down the well, "A trap for what?" The unknown voice called up again. "Not what, who!" Adam scratched his head. "Who?"

"Exactly," the voice agreed, although Adam was still confused.

"But who is the well for?" Adam asked again.

"Well, right now it's for us," called up the frog prince.

Adam nodded. "Shall I go to find some help?" The unknown voice called up again. "Well, you may, but it's of no use. You see, this well is owned by a witch!" The frog prince was heard wailing again from the bottom of the well.

"The witch!? Oh, we'll never get out of here!"

Adam pointed his finger down into the darkness of the well. "Listen here! I'm going to put an end to all this nonsense!" Adam heard the frog prince's wailing turn into hysterical laughter, joined by the unknown voice he had been hearing. "How do you suppose that will happen?" the frog prince laughed up.

Adam was very upset and left the two of them laughing in the well together. Their laughing echoed for a while more but eventually faded. "Surely," he thought to himself as he marched through the woods, "There must be an adult around here who can help."

He found himself back on the brick road and was crossing over a bridge, when on the other side, just as he was about to exit, a black cat crossed his path.

"Oh, dear!" said the cat, turning to him. "Pardon?" asked Adam to the little cat. The cat was about the size it should have been, compared to Adam, unlike everybody else he had met around this place.

The cat looked up at him with big, round yellow eyes and said, "I'm afraid that I've just accidentally given you some bad luck, please don't be upset!" Adam was confused by what he meant at first, but then remembered what his grandmother had once told him about black cats, as Dinah, her cat, was a black cat too.

"It's alright, I don't believe in any of that nonsense, anyway. I'm not very superstitious." The cat's tail perked up. "Nonsense? By what do you mean?" Adam shrugged. "Well, it's not too terrible you crossed my path. I think we could even be friends".

The cat was so happy to hear this, he started purring and rolling on the ground.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" the cat said in between a few meows. "I've never had a friend before! Everyone thinks I'm bad luck all the time. They're- what was the word you used? Superstitious!" Adam pet the cat, saying, "Yes, my grandma is very superstitious, but I think it's all just a bunch of silly stories".

The cat nodded, then agreed. "Yes, silly stories".

They walked along together. The cat asked Adam where he was off to. Adam told him about the mouse, frog prince, and the well. And how he was going to see the witch. The cat stood up on its toes as its hair raised by the sound of her title.

"Oh dear," he shivered. "I've seemed to have given myself bad luck! What are the odds!?" He cried out, "I knew it was too good to be true!"

Adam crossed his arms and stopped walking. "Don't tell me you're scared of a silly old witch." The cat shivered again at her name. "Things like this remind me how many lives I have left". Adam laughed. "So cats really do have 9 lives?" The cat wrinkled its nose. "9? I would be ever so lucky to know just how many I have! None of us cats know just how many lives we're given. 9 is just the national average, you see". Adam was unsure of what exactly the cat meant by that, but he let the conversation end. Good thing, too, considering they just came to a fork in the road.

Adam was upset by the fact that there were no road signs to tell them where to go. "Why don't they make roads that just go one way?" He insisted on telling the frog prince's father, the king, all about it once this was over with.

"Well," started the cat, "When one wants to go see the witch, not sure why they'd want to, one would go in the direction of north, as there is more winter and coldness there." The cat started down a path that it claimed was heading north, and Adam followed.

7

They walked on for a while. The trees were much taller here, more the size of regular trees, the ones that Adam was used to. The cat started to complain about its sore paws, and eventually, he coerced Adam to carry him. He did, and they kept on towards the castle. The sun was going down, and gray clouds had come in overhead. They walked over a tall wooden bridge between two rocky cliffs, overlooking the natural landscape around them. Snow began to lightly fall, and Adam felt a chill.

Along the rest of the way, they had started up a conversation about the differences between paws and hands. But before they could come to any real conclusions, they arrived. The witch's castle.

It was a lot smaller than Adam had been originally hoping for, and it was hanging from a tree branch above. The door was wide open, and the castle swayed back and forth in the wind. It was just like a little white and gold palace... But not one that any person could fit inside. That would be absurd.

Then they heard it.

A screech from behind, the two turned quickly to see what made the noise. Something was sitting in a nearby tree, shadowed under the leaves. The snow was falling a little more now, but through the flakes, a barn owl could be seen staring right into Adam's eyes as he saw it.

The owl flew down from the trees and went right over their heads as the two ducked down to avoid the creature. The cat jumped into the air and yelped. Adam raised an eyebrow at him. "Aren't cats supposed to eat birds?" The cat's mouth was hanging open and it looked up at him, gasping, "That's not a-" he gasped, "Bird-"

Suddenly, the owl called out another screech that drew Adam's eyes to it. He watched as the owl flew out again from the trees towards them, but this time it went to land on the ground. Mid-air, it began to morph and contort into something new, a person!

Two feet in white high heels hit the snowy grass, and Adam looked up to see a woman, wearing a long white gown, with white hair and a silver crown upon her head.

Adam immediately pointed a finger at the woman, who looked strangely like his school teacher, saying, "Well, I have come to tell you one thing and one thing only! That you will go back and fix all of my friends! You will make the frog prince into just a prince again, and you will get rid of that silly wishing well of yours!"

The woman smiled.

"And if I refuse?"

Adam hesitated. "Then- I will throw a fit!"

"But what if that doesn't work?" She asked him.

"Then- I will do it again!"

The witch crossed her arms.

"You can't just yell at people and expect them to do everything you say, Adam." She smiled. "I bet they told you I was a witch".

Adam shook his head. "I don't care if you're a witch or not. But if you don't listen to me, I will have to keep yelling!" She sighed. "You must start by speaking calmly," she began, "One word is stronger than any magic. Magic doesn't even exist, Adam".

He was more confused than ever. "But- what about the frog prince? Why did you turn him into a frog?"

She laughed. "Him? He has terrible manners. His father asked me to do that, to teach him a little lesson. He'll be fine, you see. Same with that other friend of his, a badger who made a wish on my well. He is always so greedy. He threw a penny down that well and asked for a million wishes!" Adam began to laugh when he heard this. He laughed so hard that he fell to the ground and sat there laughing.

Then he opened his eyes.

He was back in the barn, and the early morning sun was just coming up. The barn doors were still wide open, and the air was chilly as ever. He looked up to the rafters above for the owl, but he saw nothing.

Standing up, he made his way back inside the country home. No one else was awake yet.

But the cat. She meowed at him as she walked into the kitchen, coming right up to him as usual. He picked her up in his arms and said, "Looks like you've just brought me some good luck, Dinah".

The End