The Clever Mouse

• Sarah Ong, Grade 2, Claremont College -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

One hot summer’s day, a fierce lion called Fang was having a relaxing dose in his den, but he was awakened by a loud BANG!! A little mouse’s cooking pan fell on the floor! The mouse’s name was Sally. She had tried to get her homemade rock pan down with all the stools she has, but none of them seemed to work! So, she tried jumping up to get it down. Sally needed to make another pan. This one was her fourth one of the day, her first three fell through a crack in her cupboard. “Oh no!” cried Sally when the pan fell down.
“Grrrrrrrrr!” growled Fang. “What have I done?!” Sally exclaimed. Sally lived inside Fang’s den wall, but Fang never noticed until now. Sally quickly locked her door because she was afraid he would eat her up! But just at that very moment, Fang found the little doorknob! He knocked on the door quietly. Sally slowly opened the door, then quickly scurried outside. Fang was close behind. She ran and ran, so fast that Fang could not catch her. Finally, he gave up and left. Just before he left, he said, “I’m going hunting.”
Now, Sally was a thoughtful creature and she did not want her Woodland friends to get hurt, so she called for a meeting with everyone. In a loud voice, she said, “So we all know that all mice look very similar. Correct?!” “Yes,” replied everyone. “Here’s our plan: deer, rabbits and all other animals except mice dip themselves in the lake so you smell different, mud smell. Then you will all go behind a tree around Fang, each mouse will go behind each animal, so they can get ready for their part. I will distract Fang first by running around him in circle then passing three trees. On the fourth tree, I will go behind and tell the mouse behind the animal by the fourth tree to do what I did, while I stay in his spot. This will continue until every mouse has moved to a different spot. Then Rocky, the giant rabbit will do his important part.”
Everyone followed the plan perfectly. When Fang got close to the first creature, he could only smell the first mouse, who is Sally. As soon as Fang began chasing her, she disappeared! The second mouse appeared and as soon as Fang began chasing him, he disappeared! This happened over and over again until Fang was out of breath. Then Rocky did his part as Sally had planned. He thumped his foot really LOUDLY that it echoed down the forest. Fang got such a fright that he ran far away and never came back.
Sally came out of her hiding and whispered, “It’s safe now, you can come out.” One mouse shouted, “Your plan was great, Sally! You are the best!” A deer came out to Sally and said, “Thanks for helping us Sally. Hey, you should be called Clever Sally!”