Andrew pulled his car to the curb, grabbed his mother's expensive Waterford crystal vase, and stepped out of his car.
He heard increasingly shrill squeaks from the little mouse that sounded sort of like "Squeak. Squeak! SQUEAK!" If he had understood mouse, he would have heard "Please, don't. It's me! Help!"
Unfortunately, he didn't understand mouse, nor did he care to learn. He gazed through the crystal vase as the little mouse scampered in tight circles. "Merry Christmas, you little pest," he said, upending the vase on the other side of a waist-high chain-link fence surrounding the lot.
"SQUEAK!" Nathan squeaked again, as he fell onto the parched, hard ground. Translated, his cry of surprise would have been rendered "Oh shit!" in English.
Before he could get his bearings, he heard the engine of Andrew's car as the vehicle pulled away from the curb and disappeared down the street.
"Oh my god!" Nathan realized. His brother had just dumped him on a vacant lot. He wasn't that far from home, but for a creature as tiny as his new form, the distance was staggering.
Meanwhile, Andrew returned home. He saw a black van parked in the driveway, so he complained about having to park on the street.
When he walked into the house, he saw his sister and a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit and an expensive-looking pair of sunglasses.
Cicily looked at her brother. "Drew, where's that mouse?"
"Are you kidding me?" Drew responded. "Where do you think it is?"
The man extended his hand. "Allow me to introduce myself," he said in an oily tone. "I represent the makers of the Chronivac."
"The Choni-what?" Drew asked.
"Drew, it's horrible," Cicily shrieked. "That mouse was Nathan!"