Cherry Bomb

Once upon a time it was the year 1866. A cherry bomb firecracker exploded. A scared Samantha scooted away from its direction. She bustled through large bushes of a backyard not wanting to be seen. After all a mouse seen, would be a mouse eaten. Food was scarce amongst the outlying villagers.

Fast forward, a firecracker exploding on July 1st, 1867, the first Dominion Day was a sight more unseen. And a cherry bomb at that. Alice looked around at the chaos of commotion. A cherry had landed on top of her head. And Jeremiah wanted to pluck it off. He hungrily sniffed its sweet rouge flesh.

As Alice caught its whiff, she recalled scurrying along the bushes on that exact date last year on July 1st, 1866. Back then, she was a mouse. Alice had haphazardly swallowed a rare cherry bomb cherry transforming her into a red-headed human beauty.

She felt alone in this human world, lost without her sister Samantha, and her beloved Harold. Alice recalled how she and Samantha had heard a bang, And then a second pop. Firecrackers busted adding variants of gold, orange and yellow colour into the black sky.

A fiery red cherry firecracker lit up over head, popping mini cherries out from a falling sky. Luscious edible cherries. One accidentally fell into Alice’s open mouth as she looked up gasping in amazement while calling out Samantha’s name.

In that instant, Alice grew, and grew, and grew into the size of a human female. Her mousy red-brown fur turned into a luscious auburn mane, and her furry coat into a frilly rouge dress.

That July 1st, 1866 evening, Jeremiah, a human, had tripped in his family’s backyard. As Alice magically grew they bumped heads.

His brown eyes gazed into Alice’s beautiful hazels. While kneeling on one leg, he asked for her hand in friendship. Shocked at her transformation, Alice was unable to utter a sound. Unknowingly she tilted her head to look above at the sky which had showered her current fate, and then towards the ground from which she came from. Jeremiah took that as a nod, and grasped her human hand in his. Abruptly placing a band, a reddish-brown ring, comprised of a cherry stem twirled and knotted into a circle with a glowing cherry shaped red gem.

It was meant to be, it seemed. But a scarlet tear drew down Alice's face in a round cherry shape. A fire cracker popped again, and then again. But another cherry bomb was not in sight.

Jeremiah wiped away her tear with a lace white hanky. Her tear stained it cherry red. He took that as a sign of joy, of love, and sat adjoining her on a bench in his family’s backyard. He asked nothing of her except her name.

“Alice,” she wrote with her elongated human finger into the evening air.

Jeremiah kissed the palm of her hands. Her long finger nails almost scratched as he nervously grasped to peck her cheek. His first kiss.

What world had she entered? And where was Samantha?

A year passed slowly. Alice and Jeremiah lived on the edge of this backyard in a tiny house, in two separate rooms. Jeremiah’s parents owned the house with it’s backyard, the town mill, and a cherry farm. The workers made the firecrackers, including the elusive cherry bomb that blew up, the first of its kind that night Alice had opened her mouth as she gaped at the sky.

What kind of black magic had made her into this unhappy human?

She missed her family. And her love, Harold. On that fateful eve, she was supposed to marry her Harold, the mouse king on July 1st, 1866. Memories of her previous life danced as if a dream. And another scarlet tear rolled down her face. Once again she picked up the lace hanky on a table. A red cherry-shaped smudge appeared as she lay it back down again.

Jeremiah, a handsome lanky man had given her everything, except his love. He kept his heart locked in a cherry-shaped vault at the farm waiting for his parent's permission.

That night, July 1st, 1867 in Jeremiah’s family backyard, both watched a cherry bomb firecracker light up the darkened sky.

Jeremiah snatched that cherry off her head, intending to pop it into his mouth. Instead Alice grabbed his arm, pushed it towards her face. And then squeezed his hand till that cherry fell into her mouth. Alice closed her eyes until she fell back into an unconscious state. In an instant, she lay on the earth as Samantha neared. A clear cherry filled tear stained Alice’s furry cheek. She was back home again into the land of mice. She stood at the edge of Jeremiah’s polished black shoe. He looked astonished as his eyes lay upon Alice as a mouse.

Jeremiah bent down, and stroked Alice's furry cheek.

“I knew you were special. I’m sorry I did not give you my heart immediately. Please eat this cherry bomb, and come back into my life to be my wife.”

Alice darted into the depths of the bushes as Jeremiah’s hand madly scuffled into the dash of green bush. Samantha called Alice over as they burrowed deeper into the ground. Harold had been mourning his lost love, Alice's disappearance for that period of one year. Samantha beckoned the mouse priest to marry Harold and Alice.

On Dominion Day in 1867, the kingdom cried out:

"Long live King Harold and Queen Alice!”

And all lived happily ever after.

THE END!