The Man Who Became a Mouse: Part Eight

Almost as soon as he had this revelation, Gracie blacked out, and then woke up again.

But this time, however, he wasn't in a hole-in-the-wall mice tavern. He was in a small white room, in a small white bed...and there were people standing around him. Humans.

He yelped in surprise when he realized all of this--it was all very overwhelming.

"Welcome back," said a doctor, peering at him from behind his spectacles. "Seems you had a nasty fall. But lucky for you, you weren't all that high up, and someone else broke your fall."

Gracie blinked. "Someone else?" he asked rather stupidly.

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, someone else. A man named Harry Hawkins, I believe."

Gracie's eyes widened. Hawkins? Really? he thought.

"Unfortunately, this man you landed on wasn't as lucky as you were, my boy," continued the doctor. "He's dead."

"Mouse," corrected Gracie.

"Pardon?"

"He was a mouse," insisted Gracie. "A much beloved mouse, and a hero to all mousekind. And I killed him by accident."

"I think that fall must have addled your brain a little," said the doctor. "Don't worry, though, you'll be back to normal soon, and by then you'll have learned the difference between a man and a mouse."

"I think I already have," Gracie replied.

~fin~