Freddie the Mouse

Freddie: The Mouse
Once upon a time, there was a small mouse. This mouse lived in a little hole in the wall of a castle in the middle of a field, in the middle of the Lake District, the middle of the island known as England. This mouse’s name was Freddie. Freddie knew the castle better than anyone else, because he knew every hidden storage space, every ceiling time from the inside out, every crumb that had ever dropped to the floor. He did not live all alone in this castle, however. There was a great number of staff, and there was always a different group of people inhabiting the castle. Sometimes there were groups of “guests,” other times, “students” which dominated the castle most of the year… all he knew, was that they were humans… and that these humans severely limited his free reign of the castle. That, simply, was because those humans would make such a ruckus whenever they saw him! So, he stayed out of sight. He didn’t mind much because he still got to see everything that was going on.
Among all the things that he saw on a daily basis, one thing surpassed the rest in his mind. While the “students” were here, they would all run to the boxes under the giant stairs every day at exactly 10:42 in the morning. About two thirds of them would walk away like they had just been told they had no friends on the planet, while several would walk away bouncing, holding a small letter or package like they had springs in their shoes. The final group received something, but they got so much mail, that they weren’t as thrilled by it anymore. Naturally, the group that received nothing gave the regular mail recipients looks of piercing hatred, although they had no idea and walked on as if nothing had happened.
Freddie’s second favorite time of the day was lockup. This was either at 10:30pm or 11:30pm, depending on the day of the week. At this point, the “students” were shooed off to their rooms, the light bulbs were relieved of their duty, and a hush grew over the castle. A temporary hush, anyway. After about fifteen minutes, girls would creep down the great big stairs, usually in soft pajamas, holding blankets around them, and suppressing giggles. Freddie never really figured out if they were giggling because they were girls, or because they were doing something they weren’t supposed to do. He supposed it didn’t really matter. Loads of girls would creep down the stairs; some in search of food in the student kitchen, others meeting up with more of their giggling buds to watch a movie, which made them giggle even more, and some would simply sit there and giggle. The bottom line is that watching lockup happen was like watching a play. The actors were the students, and the people locking up were like the audience, who know no other story, because this is all they are allowed to see.
Freddie had been watching these things happen for many, many years. Every group had their own special traits, their own quirky characters, and their own favorite food… the crumbs of which, he consumed. And that is why he enjoyed observing them so much. He couldn’t wait to discover the class clown, the class flirt, the introverts, the pranks… it was captivating.