Page 234 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

For Reggie was sobbing his heart out, and Drosselmeir was patting his back and murmuring kind words to the brokenhearted son of the Mouse Queen. Drosselmeir was saying things like, “You’ll always have your memories.” And all Reggie could think of was the time she sent him up the Krakatuk tree, and he was so scared. Or Drosselmeir would say, “You know she loved you.” And all Reggie could remember was her booting him down the dark Clock tunnel, to do her dirty work.
In fact, the more Drosselmeir tried to remind Reggie that he would always have his mother in his memory, the less Reggie felt like crying. So, in the end, Reggie did stop crying, and Drosselmeir thought he had helped the young mouse through a difficult time.
So Drosselmeir quit patting Reggie on the back, murmured something about having to get back to the others – and was Reggie sure he was all right, and did he mind being left alone?
At that moment, Reggie noticed that the curse had been lifted from the Land of Sweets and that new gumdrops were growing on bushes and that he was the only mouse left. Reggie smiled a little at Drosselmeir and nodded that he was okay, and as Drosselmeir left, Reggie smiled a little more. Yes, I am okay, he thought. More than okay, he knew, because not only was he the only mouse left in the Land of Sweets – he was bigger than any mouse alive!
And he wasn’t about to ask, “Why?”
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