Mitzie Mouse was working with her Mother each day after school. She liked to help with the house chores so she could put off doing her homework just a little bit longer. Her brothers and sisters were all very modern mice, they played tennis and soccer and rode bicycles to amuse other mice. (The bicycles were VERY SMALL.)
One sunny day when Mitzie finished the chores and didn't have too much homework, she had the time to play with her brothers and sisters. She asked if she could ride one of the bicycles and her biggest brother gave her his bike to ride. Mitzie felt like a bird while she was flying through the air on her brother's bike--she didn't have a helmet on, either, so the wind was blowing through her ears. It blew so loud that she truly couldn't have heard the big crow cawing and cawing. Did you ever hear a big crow caw? They are very loud and rude. Well, Mitzie didn't hear the crow until he almost landed on her head. She was moving faster than mice should when they are riding their bikes and she was scared of the crow. He startled her. She glanced at him and rode the bicycle into the big tire from the house baby's buggy. Mitzie flew over the buggy and landed on the baby's blanket. The baby was startled and began to cry, actually you know when babies cry, they really scream!
Mitzie was so upset about the baby crying and the bike wrecking and the crow cawing, she didn't even think to look and see if she was all right. She just scampered away from all the noise as fast as she could.
Below the house was a basement, a room that was cozy and dark and warm because all the soft clothes were washed and dried down there by her Mom. Mitzie ran to the basement searching and calling "Mom", "Mommie", "Mom-Mom", "Mother", not knowing what her Mother would hear, she tried them all. However, Mom was very busy in the house with the dinner - she was making cheese balls - Mitzie's favorite, but Mitzie didn't have any dinner. She waited in a nice warm bushel of clothes for her Mom and then fell asleep.
Mom called all the kids to eat the cheese balls and everyone sat at the table quietly, all hands were clean. They didn't know what to say to Mom about the baby and the bike and the bird and Mitzie. Mitzie? "Where is Mitzie?" Mother asked. All the mice children looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They were all very scared mice. Now they HAD to tell their Mom what happened. They would need her help to find Mitzie. Nobody ate cheese balls that evening. They were too, too worried about Mitzie. Everybody looked in different places and then everybody looked in more different places. Then, everybody looked again in the first different places. Nobody found her. She was sleeping through all the excitement. Mother finally decided to put all her mime mice to sleep. They were sooooo quiet, because they were soooo worried. Nobody slept easily. All of the little mime mice laid in a row under the covers with their eyes full of tears.
That night after all the nice mice were asleep, Mom went to get a clean blanket to cover all the middle mice who didn't have enough covers. She reached into a basket and found Mitzie. "MITZIE!!!" "MITZIE!!!" Mitzie heard her Mother and tried to open her eyes. But her eyes were all swollen shut because she hit her head when she fell. Her Mother was so glad to see her and then she REALLY saw her and felt angry. Mom was angry because Mitzie didn't listen to her Mom about wearing her helmet on the bicycle. She didn't want to see her sweet mice girl all banged up and hurting. It hurt Mom to see Mitzie like that. Then, Mom noticed that Mitzie only had one ear. "Where is your ear, child?" Mother said. Mitzie felt her head and found one ear, but not the other one. "Oh, Oh," said Mitzie. Mother told her not to worry too much right now, it was time, past time, for bed. She carried Mitzie upstairs and put her into the nice warm bed with her nice brothers and sisters whe looked so hard for her.
Mitzie couldn't sleep. She only had one ear! She looked different now. What would the other mice think at school? Maybe Mom wouldn't make her go to school anymore. Maybe she could just stay home and help her Mother all day--where it was safe! Oh, she really couldn't go to school and face her friendly mice again, ever! Mitzie did fall asleep and dreamed about her ear.
Dreaming is a mice pasttime. Mitzie, being the mini--mouse she was, spent a lot of time dreaming of what it would be like to be an elephant. Elephants had ears like she did, only bigger, of course. They didn't fly, either. She always wanted to meet an elephant in person but they were such hard creatures to "reach." Dreams were mixed between elephant ears and Mitzie's missing mouse ear.
And school.
"I am going to be different." "I am going to LOOK different.""I AM DIFFERENT!" Mitzie Mouse dreamed. (Actually, this was closer to a scary nightmare than a dream.)
Morning sunbeams burst into the mice' bedroom and landed on the mice clean faces. Every mouse in the bed said, "MITZIE! YOU'RE HERE, DEAR." Mitzie was still hiding her head so nobody could see that she only had one ear. But all her mice brothers pulled and tugged at her until she gave up the pillow over her head and looked at them all, ready for laughter. Nobody laughed. Not one mouse opened his mouth. Nobody snickered, no body. One at a time, each little mouse gave Mitzie a hug, gently, because she WAS all banged up. They all stood in a row and asked, "Where WERE you, Mitzie?" Mitzie explained that she ran into the basement looking for Mother Mouse, and fell asleep.
Now that all her mice family had seen Mitzie, they were all hungry. Starved really. They remembered that they hadn't eaten last night because of worrying so much about their mice sister. All of the mice made a "bee"line to the cheese ball table. Mother put the cheese balls in front of each little mouse and encouraged them to eat quickly so they could get to school on time. Not one hungry mouse was slow at eating the cheese. Hungry mice put all the cheese balls in their mice tummies and grabbed their homework.
Except for Mitzie. She wasn't there at the door when Mom kissed her mice goodbye.
"Oh, Mitzie, where are you? called Mom. Mitzie tiptoed across the floor and pulled on Mother's apron strings. Mother looked around and said, "Mitzie why aren't you ready for school?" Mitzie pointed to her ear, the ONLY one she had. She told her Mother that she was afraid the other mice would not be nice to her with just one ear. Mother said, "Mitzie, you might run into a meany mouse, or two. They might try to make you sad. They are already very unhappy inside - like they have lemons in their tummies, all the time. Don't let them make you look like you eat lemons, you are too sweet for that. Remember, Mitzie, all the nice mice in school know you. And they know how smart you are. AND they know how hard you work to help them when they have a problem. Don't you know that you are special to them because of who you are? There is nobody like my Mitzie Mouse with one ear, or two. Please, go to school and let the mice be true."
Mitzie took her kiss from Mom and said, "Goodbye, Mom." Off she went to school. She knew what her Mother said was true, because her Mother was a true blue mouse. She NEVER told a lie. And, it is true that she was
School was fun! Mitzie learned how to count three blind cats. She played with her friends. Some of them asked her what happened to her ear - it had a scratch on it. She told them and felt very happy because they didn't fuss.
Mother was waiting for all of her mice. She gave them each a piece of bread and a kiss as they came in the door from school. Then, when Mitzie came in, Mother said, "Mitzie Mouse, come out of the house, please." So, Mitzie Mouse left the house and followed her Mother Blue, true.
"A mouse in a house, could be caught in that house by a big cat wearing a bell. So, I looked all around and I think I have found you an ear."
And Mitzie said, "Well, well, well!"
She put on the little mouse ear and could very well hear; then said, "Mother, You Dear!"
And, that is the END.
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