There's A Mouse On The Loose!

 Grandma Lu tried unsuccessfully to stop the tears as she drove out of her beloved small town. Here she had made so many friends; both young and old. Marleewood was her dream place. How she loved to tell her stories to the youngsters, but today she was leaving to head to Texas. She had to deal with the legacy of the Dude Ranch which without her intervention would be made into a strip  mining disaster. She was leaving with a red face of embarrassment. She hated the fact that folks now knew about the stepbrother that was in prison for swindling folks out of their hard earned money. "That pretty much ruins my reputation as a good person. My mother always said that you were known by the company that you keep. Well, so much for that. Folks will get over it I suppose." As she rounded the last curve headed out of town she let out a scream of terror! "No! no! no! Get out of here! You are going to cause me to go in the ditch! No you don't. Mercy, mercy! Where can I stop and get you out of here? There's the little old church at the cemetery. I'll stop there and force you out of the car, mister or whatever you are."

Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was going to have a heart attack. He was running up and down on the dash. Then he just sat there staring at her and let out a little squeak. "I just know that you will run up my leg. Eek, where are you now? I know what I'll do. I'll fix you." She got in the back seat and grabbed two of her old sweaters. "There that should fix you!" as she stuffed the last sweater as tight as she could against the windshield. She got back in the car and thought. "This will never do. There is no one at the church but somebody's cow. He didn't seem to care that she was screaming her head off. "It's just plain silly to be scared of a little mouse. I don't care! I have had a really bad day!" She started running around the car and opening the doors trying to get that mouse out of the car.

A little girl said, "Mom, what is wrong with Grandma Lu? She's running around her car and hopping and jumping all around. Is she okay? Should we stop?"

Her mom slowed down, but said, "I think she's alright. Remember we have to get to the dentist's office in just a few minutes. I'll call her when we get you checked in to make sure she's alright, okay?" 

Across the road from the cemetery Kia and Sage were watching the show. "Kia said, "You know, Sage, I thought this trip visiting the grandparents and all was really going to be boring, but this is quite a show! I wonder who will win, the mouse or that old lady."

"I know that lady. She's a good person. We really should go over there and chase that thing out of her car. I don't think she can do it by herself." 

"No, we can't go across the road. The humans get all upset when we do that. We can just keep an eye on her and get help if we think she needs it." So they sat and watched instead of playing ball.

After the dentist's appointment and a wonderful cavity free checkup, their mom treated her little girl and her brother to an ice cream along with a promise to keep up the good work with brushing and flossing. There was another family there too discussing Grandma Lu. "Did you see her drive out of town? She was driving like a crazy woman? Is she sick? What in the world is going on with her? First the new sheriff arrested that man by her house and then she left and didn't even go to her own party. I just don't understand her. Maybe we should pay our bill and go check on her. I wonder where she was going and why she was driving like that."

Two men were sitting down at the end of the counter chuckling when they over heard the conversation about Grandma Lu's driving. "She actually drove down to our shop on the highway and offered us twenty dollars to get it out of the car for her. Of course, we did it for nothing, but she was really upset."

"Get what out of the car for her? asked Grandma Lu's husband. She just left a few minutes ago. What's going on?"

After he understood the situation and laughed, "She does not like mice, that's for sure." Then everyone laughed and shook their heads and some agreed that they would have paid someone to take a mouse out of their car too. Some said, "I would have walked back to town and some said, "You just gotta love her." 

Soon everyone in Grandma Lu's small town knew about the mouse that was on the loose. Where did that mouse go? Two curious people wondered that knew Grandma Lu very well. They were sure there would be a story someday to go along with this latest adventure.