Pal.

• Baran Akhavan, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2017

Winter had just started. Too Cold to play outside, and I’m NOT an indoor kid. My name is Jake by the way. I’m 11 years old and I love traveling. My Parents and I used to travel all the time. But ever since my dad passed away 5 years ago, we’ve stayed in Canada until now.
I really wanted to start traveling again, so I decided to ask mum about it.
“Knock knock,” I knocked on her bedroom door. “Come in dear,” mum said sweetly. So I went in and sat next to her on the bed; she was reading a book called “Of Mice and Men.”
“Is something wrong, dear?” She asked.
“No, it’s just; I want to talk to you about something.”
“Go on.” She replied, opening her ears.
“Well, it’s just that I really want to start traveling again,” I said.
“Oh!” mum said, surprised. “Well, I guess we might be able to.” She said smiling.
“REALLY!!!” I shouted.
“Of course! I don’t even know why we ever stopped! Traveling is awesomely fun!” She said excitedly.
Two weeks later, we had bought 2 tickets to Australia.
The flight was so boring. It lasted for about 16 hours! When we finally arrived, we went straight to the hotel we had booked, which was called “Crown.”
Once we departed our room, I flopped on my bed as I was exhausted from being on that plane. “I’m so tired!” I said in a faint voice.
“We should get some sleep,” said mum. She went in to her bed and closed her eyes, so I did the same.
“Ahh!” I screamed.
“What! What’s wrong?” mum asked, sounding really worried.
“There’s a mouse in my bed!”
“Quick, get off!” she said. I got off as quickly as I could. We could see a moving lump under my sheets. Mum tried to hit it with her shoe, but she missed and the mouse came out from under the sheets.
“Pal?” mum said, surprised.
“Nancy?” the mouse could talk! Nancy was my mum’s name.
“Wait, you know this mouse?” I asked.
“Yes, this is Pal, a very gentle mouse! Pal, this is my son, Jake.” Mum introduced.
The mouse was wearing a shirt with a big pocket on the front, a pair of black slippers, and a pointy hat with a pom-pom on top. He sort of reminded me of Gus from Cinderella.
“Nice to meet you Jake!” said Pal.
“Nice to meet you too.” I said, shaking his hand.
Over the six days we were there, we did so many fun things together like going to the zoo or boating.
When we were packing up, I asked mum one of those questions that you’re not sure if you should ask: Can Pal come back with us please? She was silent for a moment, then she showed me something. It was a ticket, a ticket for Pal!
Pal and I definitely agreed that this was the best thing mum has ever bought.
The End.