HOW THREE WHISKERS, THE MOUSE, MET SWIVELHEAD, THE OWL

Three Whiskers: Do you remember how we met?

Swivelhead: How could I forget? I was still a meat-eater, but yooou were not to be my                meal.

TW: Good for me.

S:     Yes. Good for us both. Let’s recite our little story. Why don’t yooou start?

TW: Okay. Ahem. Folks, here’s how featherhead and I got acquainted.

S:     I did not know yooou were ‘acquainted’ with such a fancy word, rodent.

TW: As this story shows, you don’t know a lot of things.

One evening a long time back, I took a wrong turn at the tree stump and found             myself in the middle of a very large field. “Uh oh, I better run for shelter,” I                      muttered. But it was too late. This old, gray owl, spied me. He swooped down from   the treetop and clamped my tail in his beak.

He looked like this, all wings and feathers and beak.

 

S:     I am gray. I am not old. And that’s not even  a             picture of an owl, let alone me!

TW: Whatever. It shows how flappy you can get.

S:     Hummph. Let me continue.

        I flew Three Whiskers up to the highest branch          of a nearby sycamore tree. He squealed and              wiggled the whole time.

Look how he shakes his legs in this picture.

TW: Well, yeah. I’m afraid of heights, that’s all.

S:    Sooo it seems.

Anyway, in my deepest voice, I said, “Not to worry, little one. Yooou won’t have to see         the faraway ground for very long. In fact, yooou won’t have to see anything except the         inside of my beak, for yooou will be my breakfast snack.”

TW: This news did not make me stop shaking. But, being a thoughtful mouse, I hit upon         a plan. “Is it true what they say?” I asked.

S:    “Is what true?”

TW: “You know, what they say.”

S:     “Whooo is they?  What dooo they say?”

TW: I leaned away from Swivelhead and did my best to look relaxed. “They say that owls          are the wisest creatures in all the forest. That they know everything about                      everything.”

S:    I chortled softly and smoothed my feathers. “I wouldn’t say we know everything,                 but we dooo know a great deal. What would yooou like to ask?”

TW: “Well . . . how high is this tree?”

S:     “That’s easy. It is twooo-and-a-half wing beats.”

TW: “And why is the moon round?”

S:     “The moon is the Eyeball of the Night, and all eyeballs are round, can’t yooou                        see? Anything else?”

TW: “Uh, yeah. Why do things always drop down and never up?”

S:     “What a ridiculous question!  If things dropped up, that would be down, and down                 would be up. There would be nooo difference to what we have now.”

TW: “Gee, I never thought of it that way before.”

S:    “If yooou think at all. Now, let’s have yooou. It’s time for me to eat.”

TW: Just as Swivelhead reached out to snatch my leg, I screeched “Wait!”

S:    “What now?”

TW: “There is so little that I know, and you have so much knowledge and wisdom. It’s                  not fair.”

S:    I smiled. “Yes, well, that is a shame, but there’s nothing I can dooo about it.”

TW: “There is! That’s the beauty of it. There’s something you can do.”

S:    “And, what might that be?”

TW: I took a deep breath, getting ready to say words so important you’d think my life              depended on it, which it did. “You can answer all my questions about what you                    know before you eat me.”

S:   “But I am very hungry.”

TW: “Pleeese,” I cried, kneeling as best I could, clasping my tiny paws together. “A               dying mouse’s last wish.” I leaned up toward Swivelhead’s gray-feathered face.              “Surely, part of being wise is being charitable.”

S:    I puffed himself up and stared at this mouse. Something this small cannot possibly         understand enough to ask very many questions, I thought, and a thirst for wisdom is        a noble cause. “All right, but don’t take tooo long about it.”

TW: “Okay. The instant I run out of questions, you can put me in your mouth. Until                then, you have to answer what I ask. That is, of course, if you know the answer.”

S:     I chortled with my huffing-puff laugh. “Me not knooow the answer?  Impossible!”

TW: “Then you agree?” I asked, hiding a smile behind my paw.

S:     “Agreed. Ask away.”

TW: “Why is the sky blue?”

S:    “Oh, silly rodent. The sky is blue because it’s not red or purple or green or any of           the other colors, that’s why.”

TW: “I never thought of it that way.”

S:     “That’s why I’m wise, and you’re my meal. Next.”

TW: “What’s the best time of day to take a bath?”

S:     I screwed up my eyes for a moment, and then popped them open. “When yooou’ve           got enough water and nooo one else is around.”

TW: “Exactly right. I never thought of it that way.”

S:    “It appears yooou never think of anything at all. Next question.”

TW: Oh, then I asked another question and another and still more others. Swivelhead           patiently answered them all. When it became completely dark, I started asking                     questions about the stars—what they were and why they were there. Of course                   Swivelhead didn’t know any of the answers.

S:     I couldn’t tell yooou that then, yooou silly little mouse. 

TW: This went on and on throughout the night, I asked questions and Swivelhead came           up with answers whether he knew them or not.

S:    Well, I’m not proud of it, but yooou had me in a bind.

Finally, as the sky in the east began to brighten, I became very tired and indulged in          a huge yawn. “Are yooou quite done? I want to eat; then I want to get some sleep.                All these questions are making me very tired.”

TW: “Just a few more, please. I have so much I need to learn from you.”

S:    “Twooo more,” I said, yawning again, and this time the yawn took several seconds.             I closed my eyes to enjoy it fully.  When I opened them, Three Whiskers was gone.          “Where did yooou go, yooou little rodent?”

TW: I was far below at the base of the tree and called out, “Thank you, Mr. Owl. I’ve              learned a lot tonight. I’ll never forget.” Then, rustling the leaves, I scampered away.

S:   “Blast!” I said, miserably. I was tooo tired to find something else to eat and tooo                   hungry to go to sleep.

TW: That’s it, folks. That’s how we first met.

S:      It is a good thing I’m a vegetarian now. Plants can’t run away.

TW: You pulled some other crazy stunts later.

S:     If I were tiny like yooou, and I am glad that I  am not, I wouldn’t use the word ‘stunt’.

TW: What’s that supposed to mean?

I think it means you are both done storytelling for now. You can share again another time.

 

© 2012 by Will Limón