Mouse and Bat

As the winter’s grip gently releases the spring warmth, black silhouette of winged flying mice begin to appear in the evening skies as they swoon, swoop and soar for tiny flying morsels. A long hibernation has come to an end.

On the ground, covered in a dense canopy of chickweed and grass, a mouse trumbles about, weary from the long cold winter of scurrying about and scrimping for crumbs in the short days of the winter.

From above our bat sees the grass move like a ball being pushed under a carpet.

From below our mouse sees a furry black bird flapping like crazy to stay aloft.

“I’m going to see that ball under the grass and find out what it is.” said our bat. As it landed and tumbled shortly in front of the ball of grass, the ball of grass halted abruptly.

“What are you and what do you want?” the grass ball pronounced.

“I am a bat and I wanted to see what was under this ball of grass scurrying about on the ground.” The bat had pushed herself up by her wings, which made her looked much bigger and formidable and was standing on her tiny legs. “And my name is Elizzabat, but you can call me Liz”

Not knowing exactly what a bat was or what to do our mouse did what any scarred mouse might do in this situation, he lied. “Well Liz you do not want to see me come out from under this grass because all you are seeing now is the top of my head poking up into the grass.” His whole body began to shake, and she could see this.

“Well, you don’t have to get angry with me and shake your head so much, I only came down to see who was under the knob of grass that was moving around.” She shrugged her wings up and let them collapse against her small mouse-sized body revealing how tiny and slender she actually was.

Having seen her slink down in size our mouse stopped shaking so much and paused in the lump of grass, staring at her from between the thick green blades.

“Do you have a name to go with your big head?” Liz asked.

“Well, yes. Yes, I do.” And our mouse stood up as straight as a mouse could, breaking through his canopy of grass, exposing the true size of his head and body “It’s Clover, “and with a bit of boisterous hesitation and bravado “the warrior”

As blank an expression as a bat could have, and since bats are not known to smile it was pretty blank, Liz replied in a flat monotone single syllable “Clover” She had managed to mash the Clvr together without the “o” or the “e”.

Clover looked down with a very small “yes” and followed with “the warrior” and looked away as he ducked under the grass and began to look for seeds and fallen grains.

“Clover.” she said again, this time pronouncing both vowels and syllables with a very pronounced Clo and Ver. “I like it and I will remember it since it is the same as the mouse-eared chickweed, I met you in.” She let the warrior part go since she could not see and measurable signs of a war going on.

“Yes, you’re right. That’s why my parents named me Clover, to remind them of where I was born and grew up.” He had stood up again and was facing Liz. “How long have you been living here?” he now asked.

“We just woke up a couple of days ago. When it gets cold, we cuddle together in an attic or under the eves of a house and sleep till it gets warm again, which I guess is now.” She wrapped herself in her wings and shuddered like she was freezing and then opened them back up full spread like she was in flight.

Clover just stared at her. When she wrapped herself in her wings, she became tiny, cute and adorable and when she spread her wings, he lost his breath because she had shown how beautiful she was. Her wings were slightly translucent so light showed through where there was no bone, and her soft fir was matted against her tiny body and was black and shiny.

Clover stood just a little taller on his back legs. “We don’t sleep, but we do snuggle a lot when it gets cold. We still have to go out and look for food though, that’s almost every day.”

They stared at each other. Each with their beady black eyes, short pointy snout noses and their big round ears. They seemed so familiar to each other.

“Clover, I have to go now, but I would like to visit again” Liz was standing on her wings now and was beginning to take flight.

Stammering for words Clover replied “Yah, yah I would like that too” and with that Liz took flight with a crazy flurry of bat wings flapping and fluttering.

As she flew away at breakneck speed Clover repeated to himself “all you could say was “yah, yah””

He turned towards the undergrowth of grass and took one more look back up into the air and his flying friend and said to himself “It was great meeting you too. You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, when can I see you again?”

We only get one first impression and when we least expect it, we tend to make, maybe not a bad impression, but clearly not the best first impression. Take your shot and be prepared. Clover was lost in his mesmerization and lost focus of meeting Liz and let her fly away without being true to himself.