Change

by: Dennis R. Humphreys

(the Dream Writer)

Don't try to change the things that you love or they can become something you don't (an allegory)

Once there were two mice. They had known each other for a very long time, maybe two weeks. They decided it was time to settle down and be committed to each other. Eventually they would want to begin a family, maybe in a few weeks but Rhoda decided it was time to begin planning.

“Gerber, what do you think about getting married in two weeks,” Rhoda asked him.

“Honey that's in the middle of my hunting season. I'll be at camp,” he informed her. Gerber was a serious hunter and had been ever since he was young.

He looked forward to going there a few times each year with his friends. It was a nice hunting cabin in the mountains, nestled in the woods. The human hunters that owned it would go there regularly to drink and hunt. They were sloppy as could be and left food out all the time so Gerber and his friends would go there and stuff themselves. They would spill beer on the table. Then Gerber and his hunting buddies would lick beer up to their heart's content and drink to excess. Nothing like a good hunting trip.

“I'm sorry Honey, I completely forgot. Maybe the week after that? Will you be going hunting then?” she asked but mumbled to herself, 'we'll see how much you go hunting after we're married... things are going to change. I don't need to rock the boat now so close to the wedding.'

“Thanks for being so understanding dear. The week after that is fine,” Gerber replied, thinking to himself 'what a great woman I found to be so understanding and not interfere with my one big passion.'

“Gerb, honey why don't you download something sensual for tonight for both of us. I'm feeling a little naughty,” Rhoda told him very slyly and sensually.

Gerber liked when she got like that it added so much to their passion when she suggested something sexy. He imagined them doing the same thing months from now and having an exciting private life in their later months.

'Do it now when you can,' she thought to herself, 'I know you like it but once we tie the knot I'm not going to be watching that stuff anymore,' she said to herself all the while smiling at her husband to be.

That night Gerber went off looking for food. The house he invaded left a large piece of Limburger cheese on the table. It was his favorite.

“Oh my! Limburger cheese. My favorite! It's rare to get it because so few people eat it anymore and it's hard too find. I'm carrying a much as I can home with me after I get my fill. Maybe Rhoda would like some too,” he thought.

So he ate his fill and then chewed off a large piece... as large as he could carry. He would

savor it and ration it to make it last. Maybe he could get more if he came back here.

'Whoaa, your breath stinks from that horrible cheese, Rhoda thought. And then he brings some home too. The place reeks. I won't be having any more of that around after we're married!' she said to herself.

Gerber and his friends enjoyed their hunting trip. It was a week of eating and drinking to excess but he brought a lot of food back to Rhoda.

'Whew, you stink,” she told him. “You haven't washed all week. Go take a bath. You aren't climbing into the nest with me tonight until you do!'

Later that week... the night before the wedding, Gerber's friends threw him a bachelor party. Rhoda was a little put out by the archaic ritual and warned him.

'So help me, if I find you had some naked stripper mice there, you won't get anything for a day!' she warned. Rhoda though went out with her friends that night and danced on stage with some big naked black rats warning everyone not to say anything.

The wedding was very nice. All their mouse friends came and threw bread crumbs on the bride and groom.

'Rhoda! I found my Limburger cheese in the trash,' Gerber complained when he came home a few days later.

'I'm not having that stinky cheese in the house. Keep it out of here,” she warned him.

'It didn't bother you before when I brought it home. It's my favorite food,' she replied.

“I don't care. Keep it out of the house,' she told him.

Gerber sulked some but thought he would just eat it to his fill when he found it foraging. Maybe he could hide some somewhere when he found it. He watched as Rhoda worked around the nest. He got pretty excited watching her bend over the nest cleaning things up a bit.

'I think I'll download some naughty videos for tonight. Maybe we can have some fun,” he suggested.

“I don't want to see that stuff. We're a married couple now. We don't need to look at trash like that anymore. You don't need it either,' she told him, completely cooling him off to any thoughts of fun. Instead that night they crawled into the nest and he fell asleep. Rhoda just looked at him disgustedly and went to sleep herself.

Later after going out with his buddies looking for food and finding more Limburger cheese at the house that had it, he went home. They talked about a spring hunting trip in a few weeks and planned on going again.

'It's nice you have a wife that let's you go hunting with us when you want. Not all wives do.” his friends exclaimed.

“She's one of a kind,” Gerber retorted.

When he got home he went to kiss his missus hello.

'Oh dear... get away from me. You stink from that crappy cheese. I don't want you eating it anymore. I do not like the smell of it. You're not to bring it into the house nor are you allowed to bring it in on your breath,' she complained.

He let her calm down for awhile. He wanted to talk about the hunting trip but not while she was upset. However, she was fine with his hunting so he didn't see any problem.

'Honey the guys and I are planning our spring hunting trip to the cabin in a few weeks, just to let you know,' he told her.

'Oh no... there's goo much around here to do without you going off and getting drunk with those idiot friends of yours. Those childish days are gone. You're all grown up and married now. You don't need that stuff. Besides I don't like you friends. I think they're a bad influence. You need some new friends,' she suggested.

Gerber didn't say anything to her but his friends were angry when he told them he wasn't going.

“I guess the honeymoon's over,” his one friend Daryl told him.

“Yeah, now that her claws are into you we won't be seeing you much” added Montaigne, one of his other friends. “She'll probably want you to get a whole new set of friends... ones she approves of.”

And they didn't see him. Gerber settled in with Rhoda and made changes to his life. After all he was married now.

“Gerber... all you do is sit around the nest anymore and mope,” Rhoda complained to Gerber a couple of weeks later. “Why don't you get up and do something? You're becoming such a bore!”