The tiny mouse spent a fretful night, roaming the cluttered basement in an unsuccessful quest for food. Nathan and his family only rarely came into the basement, so they didn't leave behind crumbs that, in retrospect, would have been rather important once the seventeen-year-old transformed himself into a tiny, white mouse.
After midnight, although his mouse brain had no concept of the time, Nathan the mouse scampered onto the stairs leading out of the basement. At the door that permitted entry into the rest of the huge house, the scent of the cat lingered. Terrifying images of the last encounter with the huge, fearsome predator made the little mammal's heart beat faster. Scampering back down into the depths of the basement, its mind calmed with more distance from the scent of the cat.
What Nathan didn't know was that, as soon as his parents returned home in time for family Christmas celebrations, they had evicted the cat to the backyard, leaving the house free of the feline menace. Ignoring pangs of hunger, the tiny mouse found a tight space and squeezed into it to sleep.
The next morning, while he still slept, his mother came to the basement armed with a box of traps. She placed them in strategic locations throughout the basement. She'd had trouble sleeping, just knowing that she was sharing her home with a mouse. As she placed each trap, she carefully baited them with a bit of peanut butter. She hoped that the lone mouse she had spotted on the shelf was a solitary invader and not the vanguard of a home invasion.
Once the traps were readied, she stamped her shoes on the stairs as she left the basement to kick off the family's traditional Christmas morning celebrations. She was still worried about any lack of communications from her son. As soon as she could get to her phone, she dialed his number once again only to meet with another lack of response.
It wasn't the first time he had failed to notify his parents of his whereabouts. She decided he had probably accepted an invitation with a friend to spend the holiday, being unsure if his parents might be home for the occasion.
Whiskers twitched as the white mouse waked. A delectable scent from clumps of peanut butter baits greeted the olfactory senses of the tiny rodent. More ravenous than ever, the mouse sought out the closest source of the scent. It didn't take long for the mouse to reach a trap left on one of the lower shelves.