Build Us A Rocket Then

This was certainly more interesting, and everyone came and looked at it, and said Look At That Thing, and That Really is Something. They poked it, and said they had poked something, and that something was there. They said, “I can smell something,” but with more interest this time. Then they spilled Ribena on it, and something came out of the corner and ran about the house, and everyone wanted to know all about it, and why the Ribena was in Mouse’s room in the first place.

Something was interested in the attention, because it was true - it really was something. It was chased all around the house now. Everyone said, “it’s up to something.” But instead of sitting quietly, something wanted something to do.

So something followed Mouse, but at a distance, because Mouse was always tripping on something. And Mouse and Mama went out in the pushchair, and something followed them.

Mouse said, “I see something!” And Mama said, “what do you see?”

And Mouse said, “I see GEORGE.”

With that, George had to be George, and was a boy thing. He was puzzled by this, and sat in Mouse’s lap, and was pushed around in the pushchair. “What is a George?” George asked.

Mouse explained that a George was a bit like a monkey, with a tail, red, with a face, a lot of red fur, and small, and smelly. Smelly of sharks.

“I’m smelly of sharks?” George said, quite unexpectedly upset by this. “What do sharks smell like?”

(George had only just stopped being nothing, and didn’t know.)

Mouse explained how sharks (which astute grownups will remember are small BLÅHAJ stuffed toys that mice incidentally shoplifted from IKEA, across which we shall draw the veil of amnesty) smell of bedtime, and possibly Ribena.

“I don’t like that,” said George, and tried being George anyway. George went to the shop, and ran about on the floor for a bit, and everyone said, “what is THAT?” And it was George.

George said, “I want to go home,” so they went home, and went to bed with the shark.

But then George knew the end was coming, and so he said to Mouse, “this is too much. I want to go home.”

and George didn’t fit in his corner any more - because it was big enough for nothing.

So George went POP and turned back into nothing.

Mouse said, “yes,” and nodded. And Mouse talked to George anyway.

And then Mama came and said, “who are you talking to, Mouse?”