Page 97 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

A Twitch Is All It Took
As Clara stood at the top of the stairs, Reggie froze in the dark corner between the wall and the clock. Fortunately for him, mice, if they remain still, are usually invisible to humans. It’s only when they move that we catch them from the corner of our eye and scream, “There’s a mouse in the house!”
Reggie didn’t move. In fact, he hardly breathed. Even when the feathers from Mother Stahlbaum’s headdress tickled his nose and made his eyes tear, he strangled the sneeze and kept quiet. For every mouse knows (even an almost four- foot tall mouse) that BAD THINGS happen when they are spotted by a human. And Reggie had years of experience of becoming invisible when his own dear momma threw a royal fit. So he could disappear in shadow and never move an eyelash.
But he watched and listened and what he heard turned his heart to ice. For he heard the fat woman call the skinny girl, “Marie! Marie!” and then, with obvious impatience, the woman shouted, “Clara!” Now Reggie couldn’t remember WHY the name Clara was so scary. All he knew was that
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