Bobert and the Christmas Mice

The only thing Jackie Shann hated more than her brother was his pet Snake, Bobert.

Bobert was a hideous beast. A black, coiled thing with piss-yellow eyes that spent its days staring out of the glass cage that entrapped it.

Since Daniel brought the creature home, Jackie was only inclined to step into her brother's room when their mother forced her to collect clothes for laundry day. Each time, she kept the lights off and tiptoed closest to the walls, hoping to diminish the chances of the snake noticing her presence. No matter her precautions, she could always feel it, lingering and staring underneath its heat lamp.

The worst part about Bobert, the part that Jackie simply could not stomach, was the cruel box of mice, kept half-alive underneath the cage, for the snake's meals. Their little feet hoplessly scratching in desperation to escape broke Jackie's heart. She spent the year imagining herself setting them free, but the idea of stepping any closer to Bobert shattered her fantasy.

While eating breakfast, her brother came into the kitchen, overpoured his bowl of cereal, and dug in. His milk-slurping agitated her into action.

"How could you feed those poor creatures to that disgusting snake?" she asked her brother, for the thousandth time.

Daniel chewed his cornflakes methodically. Each crunch made Jackie's eye twitch. He looked over his shoulder at the presents their mother was readjusting under the Christmas tree. Then he turned back to her and gave her a you-talking-to-me? glare.

"I thought chicks hated mice," he said between bites.

Jackie rolled her eyes and stabbed her cereal into tiny pieces. Daniel tended to let milk dribble down his chin, so she waited until he finished his last bite before scooting her chair closer to him.

"Can't you do your sister a teeny-tiny favor for Christmas?"

"Hmm? Sure, I guess. As long as that means I don't have to spend my Diner money on you."

She sighed, but knew this was about as gentlemanly as he could get. "I want you to free the mice."

"I'm just going to get more. It's the only thing Bobert likes to eat."

"There's got to be some other...more humane food for Bobert."

He scratched at the stubble on his chin. He hadn't been able to grow a beard, but that didn't stop him from trying. "Yeah, I don't know. Those mice were hard to catch."

"You bought them at the pet store."

"And?"

Jackie had to cross her legs to block the urge to kick her brother in the shins. Daniel picked up his bowl and gulped down the rest of the milk. The sight of his bobbing adam's apple gave Jackie a terrible image of Bobert, sliding those poor mice down his endless throat. Daniel caught her staring and smirked.

"How about this, Jack-Attack. I'll get rid of the mice if you look Bobert straight in the eyes."

Jackie shifted, unable to hide her fear. The mice ran circles in her mind until she finally agreed to her brother's terms. Daniel sat up and cleaned his bowl. Once Jackie found the courage to move her legs, she decided to prepare some food for the mice.

When she finished the mini charcuterie, Daniel teased his sister with hissing sounds the entire way upstairs. Jackie swore if she survived this staring contest with the snake, she'd kill him.

Daniel didn't hate his sister as much as she hated him, but damn, was she annoying.

Jackie was two years younger, but tried to act more mature than him. It grated on his nerves when she reminded him to sit up straight or keep his elbows off the table. Jackie rarely asked him for favors, and he knew it was because she thought he was incompetent.

He had no problem finding other critters for Bobert to eat, but he'd never pass up the opportunity to make her pay for her goody-two-shoes act.

In perfect Jack-Attack fashion, she prepared a meal for the mice to rebuild their strength before releasing them outside. She held onto it so smugly that Daniel just had to hiss in her ear.

He was cooking up a wicked plan. He was going to ask her to lean in close to Bobert, and once she was close enough, he'd drop a mouse down right in front of her nose. She only said he needed to free the mice; she didn't say ALL the mice. He held back from chuckling as he thought of her running away, screaming to their mother.

They stepped into his room, but Jackie stayed close to the door.

"C'mon, you got to get way closer than that. I want you right here," he said, pointing to the cage.

"I can look him in the eyes perfectly fine from right here, thanks."

"No way. Next to his cage or no deal."

Jackie scowled, but tiptoed in closer once Daniel picked up the mice's box.

Jackie blinked and kept rolling her shoulders back, as if attempting to will some courage to come up. Daniel had to wait several minutes as his sister crept toward the glass cage.

"Bend down, and give him a cold, hard stare," he ordered. "Then these little guys are all yours."

Jackie swallowed and looked down sadly at the box. Through the punched holes, Daniel could see the gray mice running back and forth. Finally, Jackie took a deep breath and leaned down. Her shoulders rose to her ears, and her face went pale, but she kept decent eye contact with the snake.

"This your first time looking him in the eyes?" he chuckled, feeling pleased. He slowly lifted the lid of the mice's box. He'd pick the fattest one for Bobert.

"Yeah..."

His sister's sullen tone surprised him. He looked back up at her, forgetting his plan, and found her eyes tearing up.

"What? You going to tell me you feel bad for Bobert too, now?"

"Actually...yeah."

Daniel scoffed, but glanced over at Bobert. The snake was staring, as it always did. Bobert didn't move much. He never did. Only its breath indicated life.

"He just sits here? Doing nothing all day?" she asked.

"Well, what else is a snake supposed to do?"

The snake made no shift in response. It stared and stared. It never turned its sleek head away. At the pet shop, the clerk told him that snakes never have their backs to you. For the first time since he brought Bobert home, Daniel found himself thinking, Is Bobert happy here? Do snakes feel happiness?

He shook the sudden emotion off. He looked down at the mice. With the lid half open, they were pawing upward, attempting to run away. Daniel sighed and closed the lid. "Jack-Attack, let's hurry up and get these mice out of here."

Jackie peeled herself away from Bobert. She gave the snake an awkward wave goodbye.

Before stepping out of his room, Daniel looked back at Bobert, who stared back at him. The snake could not blink. It could not explore. It wasn't even allowed out of its cage, due to his mother's strict rules about not scaring his sister. The snake sat coiled, the way it had for the past six months, breathing and watching.

"Oh, alright," he muttered. He handed the box of mice to his sister and went back for Bobert.

"Ew, you're going to just pick him up like that?!" she gasped, stepping further away into the hall.

He didn't take Bobert out much, but the snake seemed to know how to coil around his wrist comfortably. Jackie made sure to keep a few paces ahead of her brother and his snake as they snuck out of the house.

They walked to the edge of town and let the mice out near the woods. They had eaten all the berries and crackers Jackie prepared and seemed to have a pep in their step. Jackie lowered them to the ground, and they ran off into the woods, skipping over little tufts of dry grass. Daniel imagined Bobert rushing off like that, and felt satisfied with his sudden decision. The snake flicked its tongue, smelling the fresh air.

"You know you can't release a pet snake into the wild, right?" Jackie said, spoiling his fantasy.

"Huh?"

"Yeah... It'll throw off the ecosystem or something."

"Oh shit, you hear that, Bobert? You're going to run the damn place!"

With that, he released his pet. Jackie shrieked. And Bobert slunk off to find a burrow to tuck himself into, until the warmth of next year's spring came to announce his first chance at life.