Week 7 Story: Alice the Mouse

Alice the Mouse: An Adaptation of Belling the Cat

Photo by Flickr

Alice nervously ran her paws down her tawny fur.  Her tail flicked agitatedly as she implored Frank for the third time, “Are we absolutely sure nobody else can do this?”

Frank huffed as he shut his book and adjusted his glasses to better meet her obsidian eyes.  From his seat in the recliner in their small living room he could see her eyes crinkling with worry and her nose twitching intermittently. 

“Did we not decide this was the best course of action?” he replied calmly.  He didn’t want to send Alice into harm’s way, but she was the most dispensable mouse in the nest.  She was too young to begin her work as a master, but too old to remain an apprentice.  It wasn’t his fault that she hadn’t chosen a specialty on time. 

“Yes, I understand, but how do we even know this is feasible,” Alice rambled, “I mean, how am I actually supposed to even get that close to the cat? Do I sneak up on it? Won’t it smell me? Won’t it hear the bell as I move?”

Frank rose from his chair and padded across the living room to sit with Alice at their small kitchen table.  

Is it too cruel to send Alice on this mission when the very cat she’ll be approaching is the cat who killed her parents?

Pouring himself a small glass of milk and grabbing a hunk of cheese off Alice’s plate, Frank observed the young mouse.  She was the closest thing he had to family.  It had been Alice, Max, and Frank for as long as he could remember. 

Until Max was caught by the cat, that is. 

“Walk me through your plan one more time, Alice.  I know it’s scary.  All you can do at this point is to be prepared,” encouraged Frank quietly.  He loved this little mouse so much.  She was braver than any other mouse he’d ever met.  He wanted her to be as prepared as possible to face the cat. 

“Frank, you know that I don’t have any plan.  I’ve been given no guidance from the elders.  I’ve been given a bell and an order to attach it to the cat who terrorizes us and steals our family members in the night,” snapped Alice, slamming down her cheese and pushing away from the table. 

Alice cleared their plates, snatching Frank’s from underneath him before he was finished with his dinner. 

“Alice, please, leave the dishes.  Go rest.  You only have a couple more hours before your mission.  I know you can do it, but you need to be well rested and you have to think of some semblance of a plan,” begged Frank. 

“I know, Frank, I know.  Now stop using my name in every sentence.  It makes me feel like an ill behaved child.  It’s simple.  I’ll lay down above the cat’s bed in the big human house.  I’ll wait until she falls asleep, and I’ll attach it to her collar.  Simple,” resigned Alice.

“Right…” drawled Frank as Alice stomped unhappily from the room.  He hoped the elders were not misguided in assigning this task to Alice.  Her life was just beginning, and they were pushing her out on a limb with no way down but to jump. 

Esther is a coward to have brought this idea to the nest and not been willing to volunteer to do it herself.  Why put someone else’s life on the line for an ill conceived notion that this might rid us of our troubles?

Bibliography: 

The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs

Author's Notes: 

I adapted this story from Belling the Cat, an adaptation of Aesop's Fable.  In the original story, the mice get together to determine what to do about a cat that is terrorizing their people.  One mouse suggests that a ribbon be tied around the neck of the cat with a bell on it.  The original moral of the story was that it's easy to propose a remedy which will never be possible.  In my adaptation, the cat has become such a problem that the population of the nest is dwindling and something MUST be done about the cat.  The most logical choice is the orphaned young mouse, Alice, who is under the care of her almost equally young uncle, Frank.  This shows their interaction leading up to the actual mission to save her nest from the cat.