Page 179 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

When the Queen Discovers No Head
Hold onto your hats because we’re back in the clock – this time with the Ratties who’d turned tail and run from Clara, leaving Reggie to head off her wrath, and her shoe, alone. And with the whack she’d given him, the meaning of “head off” became quite clear, for the running Ratties were whacked from behind by little Reggie’s body – sans head – sliding through the clock door and slamming into the back of their legs.
(Sans is French for something “without” – like “without a head.” How scary is that?)
Untangling themselves from each other’s tails and smells – for a tight space like the inside of a clock, certainly was telling as to who had washed recently or had cabbage for dinner – the Ratties shoved Reggie around like a pin-ball, until first one – then the next and then all – noticed he was missing his head. Then, their pin-ball action went into a hyper-hot-potato-pass action, as each Rattie pushed away little Reggie (smaller by a head than his earlier short-stuff) from mouse to mouse, as they all lost their heads – figuratively, not literally. Although factually, their
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