Harry

"Henry...Henry! You had better hurry up! We are gonna be late again." shouted Maria. "I hate being late. We can't ever get good seats when we're late." Henry knew this to be true. In the past month, they had been late four times and had to sit at the very back. He had promised Mary they would be early this time so they could get the good seats right upfront. It was important for him to keep his promise to Mary. Time was running short.

Henry finished getting dressed and now it was his turn to yell at Mary. "Mary where are you? I'm ready to go! Are you ready? If we don't leave right now, we won't make it on time." There was beating Mary. She had been ready. Henry found her outside waiting on him. Henry turned and locked their front door and off they scurried down the road. Henry was lucky. There was almost no traffic on the road and what traffic there was, seemed to all be headed in the same direction as he and Mary. They arrived at their destination with minutes to spare and hurriedly ran to the doors just as Wally the beaver was closing both barn doors.

I may have neglected to mention that Henry and Mary are field mice. The barn was crowded. There were geese and ducks present as well as the crows and pigeons. The horses, pigs, and cows were also present. The energy was very high and you could tell everyone was excited about tonight's event. Mary left Henry to mingle with the pigs while she scurried over to where the pigeons were roosting. Mary said to the prettiest pigeon, "Donna, have you seen Mortimer yet?" Donna replied, "Not yet, Mary, but I heard that he's got some exciting news for everyone tonight."

A shadow swept across the barn and everyone looked upward towards the rafters. High up on the highest of all the rafters there was a movement. Then a loud screech caused everyone in the room to quiet down. Slowly, Mortimer edged his way over on the rafter into the open barn window. The full moon was shining ever so bright and it's light made Mortimer look that much larger and frightful. The room was dreadfully quiet now. Mortimer cleared his throat once more and began to speak.

"My fellow citizens, as many of you have heard, I have an announcement to make." Mortimer paused to clear his throat once again, then he resumed, "It appears we have a problem." A low murmur rose from the gathering and soon it was so loud that Mortimer had to shriek once more. This time his shriek was louder and more shrill and longer. It was enough to wake the dead. Everyone immediately went dumb again out of fear of talking over Mortimer.

He began again. "It appears we have a problem." This time you could hear a pin drop, the barn was so quiet. "Tomorrow morning, before the sun rises, two humans will enter the barn. They will climb up here to where I make my home and will forcibly take me." Another rumbling rose from the crowd. "This is outrageous!" said the cow. "How can they do such a horrible thing?" asked the duck. Mortimer continued, "I'm assured everything will be okay."

"They plan to take me to a place called the veterinarian to get something done about my eyesight which we all know to be terribly poor." Mortimer continued, "While I'm away, I plan to leave Henry in charge." As was predicted, the very next morning, two men came and whisked Mortimer away in the still of the night. Henry was there to see. He wanted to get there early to wish Mortimer well, but as usual, Henry was a tad late in leaving his home. Henry watched as the two men climbed a contraption they called a ladder and then made their way across the rafter to where Mortimer was still sleeping. Didn't these men know there were easier ways of climbing thought Henry to himself? When the men neared Mortimer, they tossed a blanket over him, picked him and the blanket up, and left the way they came. Poor old Mortimer must have been scared out of his wits to be awakened in such a barbaric manner. The entire episode took only a few minutes and then the barn was eerily quiet once more. Henry was now in charge.

Soon, the sun would rise and Henry wanted to make Mortimer proud of him so he would be there and ready to be in charge. "In charge? In charge of what exactly? Mortimer never actually told anyone what he did. What does being in charge mean?" thought Henry. "Oh my! What am I to do? I don't know what I'm to do!" Henry began running from stall to stall and waking up all the animals. As he did so, he was shouting, "What does being in charge mean? What did Mortimer do all day?"

Soon, all of the animals had stirred and gathered in the barn and were chatting amongst themselves. Henry climbed way up on high to where Mortimer usually sat and shouting at the top of his voice said, "Mortimer left me in charge, but he never said in charge of what. Does anyone know exactly what Mortimer did every day?" There was more murmuring and soon, one of the horses emerged from the crowd and looking up at Henry said, "I believe we have reached a consensus. It is based on our personal knowledge and experience in dealing with Mortimer day in and day out for most of the past several years." Henry replied, "Go on. Please do tell me. What did Mortimer do when he was in charge?" The horse continued, "We are most positive that Mortimer slept all day while he was in charge."

Henry thought to himself for a few moments and believing he might have misunderstood asked for the horse to kindly repeat himself. "Did you say Mortimer SLEPT all day?" The horse replied, "Yes Henry, Mortimer would sleep the day away." You could see the wheels in Henry's mind spinning. This meant that he could stay here all day and nap and eat and rest. Then go home to Maria and languish about a hard day at the barn and eat some more before going off to bed. Oh, what luck Henry had received. Just as Henry was about to dismiss everyone so he could be "in charge", the barn door swung open and the same two men that took Mortimer returned and placed an odd-looking metal contraption on the floor. Then one of the men reached over and opened a door on the contraption.

A few seconds later, a barn owl stepped out. It looked like Mortimer, but this barn owl had weird round metal and glass things where Mortimer's eyes would normally be. The men quickly left and closed the door and the barn owl just stood there for a few minutes before suddenly lifting his wings and flying upward to where Henry was perched. As soon as the owl landed, he looked down at Henry and said, "Who are you?" Henry replied, "I am Henry. Mortimer left me in charge." The owl looked at Henry again and smiled real big and nudged Henry closer to him. The owl said, "Hi Henry, I'm Mortimer. Do you like my new eyes? I can finally see again." /end