The Other Mice

For the rest of the week James was too overwhelmed to think much about what happened with Ronda. His crush for several years Ronda had been the idolized dream for James and pretty much every other boy in high school. To have had the chance to talk to her was more than he thought he would ever receive.

It didn't hit him that maybe Ronda might have been interested in more than his mouse till his best friend Bill explained it to him.

"She wanted to talk to you, you know."

Bill said on Friday. James had met up with Bill to study for a their college entrance exams.

"What? Who?"

James questioned back absentmindedly. His focus was on the math they were studying.

"Ronda. Ronda you idiot! She didn't need to invite you to her house! My heavens!"

Insisting, Bill had decided to explain things to James who probably would never get it.

"What, Ronda? How did you know she invited us to her house?"

"How? How could I not know? I heard it AND everyone was talking about it. Anything that happens with Ronda is discussed by the whole school, don't you get it?"

Frustrated with James' lack of understanding Bill pulled the math book away.

It was only when James finally looked up and really thought about what Bill was saying that something started to click in James' brain.

"Wait, do you mean, that Ronda ..."

"Yes, I D I O T, Ronda liked you. I don't know why, but she might have."

Spelling it out for James, Bill shook his head and then continued.

"It is probably too late now. I just wanted you to know."

Bill laughed at James seeing understanding dawn in his eyes.

"..."

As so often happened with James he could not find anything intelligent to say.

"No! I can get her back, if she still likes me, I can win her back."

And then James said something really naïve.

"Ha, ha! Let her go, it is way too late now. All you can do is wait for a miracle to happen again."

Standing up Bill started packing his bag as he explain how the world worked to James.

"Wait, what?? Where are you going?"

James asked Bill what was happening.

"I have to go. We have done enough studying for today. I will see you in the final on Monday!"

Saying that Bill walked away from the library desk that they had been studying at.

Closing his eyes, James leaned back into the hard wood chair. This was one of those times that he felt like the whole world was crumbling around him. His world view was changing and he didn't understand the new reality he was living in.

[Peep, peep!]

Wilbur emerged out of his pocket and sat on his hind legs. A cute little half grown mouse his hair all ruffled and fluffed out made noises at him while sending feelings through their bond. Wilbur's fur was still a little thin and it wasn't long enough or rather uniform enough yet. Wilbur was going to be a plain grayish brown mouse.

Smiling James offered a finger to his friend. Wilbur willingly jumped up on the finger and held it tight. Bringing his finger up in front of his eyes James spoke.

"Ahhh, I can always count on you, little buddy!"

[Peep, peep!!]

James couldn't understand what Wilbur was saying yet. Some pets learned to speak their master's language, but most pets communicated in emotion and images. For Wilbur, James was pretty sure their communication would be in emotions. It was pushing it too far to teach a mouse to speak.

However right now James knew that Wilbur was encouraging him. It was actually just what he needed.

[Cheep, cheep.]

Shaking his head James wondered what Wilbur wanted to say, but unable to understand for now he just said.

"Okay, let's head home, too. I think a nice afternoon and evening of searching for space pockets is just what we need right now."

[Cheep, cheep!!!]

This excited Wilbur no end. Constant movement back and forth in his pocket kept James distracted the entire time on the way back home.

Once they arrived back home it was all James could do to put his school bag and some groceries away between Wilbur's constant encouragement.

[Cheep, cheep]

and

[CHEEP, cheeeeeeeep]

This was all James heard until he arrived on the roof. At which point Wilbur climbed out of his pocket, down the shirt, down the pants to the knee, and then with a jump Wilbur was away.

"Hey, wait!!"

James called out, but Wilbur completely ignored James and disappeared among the air conditioning units.

'Well, I guess he is growing up. I wonder if other pets are this independent?'

As usual James posted himself by one of the unit air conditioners in the middle of the roof and then waited for the normal signs of a spatial intersection.

Today it didn't take long before a couple of lights eked out a dim resonance with each other. This was the first time since they started this game that Wilbur was not there. Still James went over to the two spatial anomalies and called for Wilbur.

"Wilbur, Wilbur!"

Call as he might, Wilbur did not appear, so it was left to James to just silently watch as the two points collided and then disappeared. This time there was only a tiny light show, at least after the collision, because James was not going to destabilize the space since Wilbur was no there.

Soon after that Wilber confidently approached James.

[Cheep, peep, peep, cheeeeeep!]

James noticed that Wilbur was making a lot of noises as he was talking all in one go. It was a little more than James was used from his thirteen day old partner. Looking around trying to understand James heart jumped into his mouth. A little ways behind Wilbur were two little brown mice.

"Oh, you didn't! Did you?"

Not knowing what to do, James had not thought in advance what he would do if Wilbur met any other mice. He knew that mice were social creatures, but somehow he thought that a contracted mouse wouldn't fit in with mundane mice. Now, James was reversing his thoughts quickly. Meanwhile the mice all started rough housing around with each other.

'Wait, this isn't that bad. Let them play. It will be fun to see what they get up to together.'

Thinking to himself, James just accepted the outcome.

'I wonder what my sister is up to these days? Did she contract a Bluebell songbird?'

Unable to leave Wilbur alone yet, James hadn't seen his family since the night that he had left suddenly. He felt like he was old enough to be out on his own, but he was also missing them.

Seeing these mice play around like this reminded James of his family a lot.

Unexpectedly another spatial anomaly began on the other side of the roof. Just as James was able to set himself to run over he saw that Wilbur was chittering to his friends. Shocked at the level of communication James hesitated more interested now to see what Wilbur would do. Unsurprisingly, Wilbur chased after the lights on his own bringing the other two with him.

Obviously showing off Wilbur shimmied up an air conditioner support and jumped at the light just after the two collided.

"Wait!"

Calling out from too far away James was surprised when Wilbur did more than just get close. 

But Wilbur ignored his master and jumped right into the new combined spatial pocket, disappearing.

The two friends on the roof below instantly became confused and even started wondering around sniffing to see if they could find their friend. Within a minute the spatial pocket destabilized and Wilbur came flying out amid sparks and a loud popping sound. Landing triumphantly after falling for at least four feet Wilbur emitted a few cute little sounds showing off.

[Cheep, cheep!]

But his two girl friends were terrified and cowered down away from Wilbur. Seeing that he had over done it Wilbur tried to make himself look small and nosed each of them cleaning their fur over and over again trading off between the two of them until it was forgotten. The three of them then went on to scurry and play all over the roof.

At one point James put down some of the mouse food that he had brought with him in a little tin saying,

"I only brought enough for you, Wilbur!"

Wilbur didn't hold his friends back and let them eat all of it without taking even a single bite. To James it was really heroic to see his little buddy acting so selflessly. So James left them alone and went back to the apartment to bring even more food up to the roof.

It turned out to be a very bad idea to encourage Wilbur.