Page 141 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Reggie, however, soon discovered WHY he was feeling sweaty and dizzy and sick. He was turning back into a mouse. The first clue was when his crown slipped with a rather hard bounce onto his nose. As he pushed it back up, Reggie was happy to feel that the small little ears of his human form had been replaced by the much more functional ears of a mouse! He had suffered all evening, not being able to hear very well. No wonder humans never noticed mouses in their houses – they were stone deaf! And when he felt hair growing thick and warm on his back, Reggie was absolutely delighted. Not only did he find the bare skin of humans as repulsive as a naked litter of baby mice, but also he had discovered just how drafty and cold a winter could be, when you don’t have a layer of fur covering every inch of your body.
The entire night had been a struggle to stay warm and keep his teeth from chattering, non-stop. How did these humans survive? But best of all, yes, best of all, was the return of his snout! Ah, yes – his pointer, his compass, and the one thing in life that gave him perspective! Without the tip of his long, whiskery snout to help him judge distance, and smell how close things were – and when something or someone was approaching – he’d spent the entire evening bumping into chairs and tables, and being scared out of his wits every time someone approached, whom he had neither heard nor smelled! It felt good to be a mouse again.
Until Reggie realized that Aunt Hildegard was staring at him in fright. Fortunately for him, she blamed the champagne and set down her flute on the table – hard. The old lady flattened her lips in disapproval, straightened her already straight back, drew on her gloves and left the party.
Which is exactly what Reggie did – he hightailed it up the backstairs – literally – for he could feel his tail splitting his
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