A Missing Mouse

The Mouse was missing. The animals had put up signs, held lookouts, checked the last place the Mouse had been seen, and even checked the last place you’d think the Mouse might be. But all to no avail. The mouse was missing and that’s how it was.

The Mouse of course was wherever the mouse was. He was only missing to the people that missed him. That’s the curious thing about being missing, you’re right where you are and yet you’re nowhere to be found.

The folks who missed the Mouse were getting worried. It was very unlike the Mouse to go missing like this for such a length of time. They wouldn’t allow themselves to think anything bad had happened to the mouse but it was tough to keep those thoughts at bay.

“Well, has anyone tried to text the mouse?” The head of the search party, Brook, an Owl, opened the meeting of assembled searchers.

The searchers all looked at each other in silence. It became clear this simple step seems to have been overlooked.

“Well…” Brook said, slightly embarrassed at this simple oversight under her watch, “Let’s all do that now.”

The searchers took out their phones and sent out a text to the Mouse.

“Is everyone just saying, ‘where are you?’” asked one Squirrel with anxiety.

“I’m saying ‘where are you, are you okay?’” a Possum answered.

Now the anxious Squirrel was worried that everyone would think she wasn’t worried about if the Mouse was okay or not.

“Yeah right, of course, duh, I was definitely going to ask if he was okay” the Squirrel added quickly.

“Wow, the last time I texted the Mouse was months before he went missing,” A Bird chirped.

Many, in fact, all of the searchers realized the last text exchange they had with the Mouse had been several months before he went missing. A tinge of guilt filtered through the whole room

“Well whatever message we send the important thing is that we hear back from Bert as soon as possible so let’s send them now,” Brook said, refocusing the purpose of the meeting.

“Wait, but would it look weird to Bert if we all texted him at once asking where he was and if he was okay?” Liam, a Badger and search party member asked.

“Well, he’s missing. So…” Brook hesitated, “I mean… Yes, it would look weird but… Just…”

“He might think it’s a prank is all I’m saying,” Liam clarified.

“He won’t think it’s a prank,” Brook said, unconvinced.

Brook finally picked up her phone and just hit send. The search party would be here all night if they kept up like this. The other animals followed her lead and the text messages were sent.

“Okay now what…” Brook continue—

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding Ding*

*DingDingDingDingDingDingDing*

*Ding*

*Ding*

All the heads in the room turned. The sound of a barrage of text message notifications was coming from the doorway.

“Damn I am popular today!” Came a voice, that sounded like Bert’s, “Wait, everyone is texting me saying the same thing… Is this a prank?”

Liam turned to the group, fighting the burning urge to say “I told you so.”

“Bert? Is that you?” Brook asked from her seat at the head of the room.

Bert, wearing a Bahamas shirt and shorts combo looked at the assembled group.

“It sure is! How are all my friends doing? Why are you all hanging out without me? What’s with the texts” Bert wondered.

“We were looking for you! You went missing! Didn’t you see the signs all over town?” the anxious Squirrel shot back.

“Well yeah I saw them like a month ago,” Bert answered, “I figured they meant like I was missing ‘spiritually’ like maybe I wasn’t myself and needed to go off and be alone for a while, regroup.”

The group was silent.

“I figured that may be why I wasn’t getting any text messages from any of you recently,” Bert continued, “So when I saw the signs I booked a trip to a resort in the Bahamas, and as you can tell from my new outfit,” Here Bert twirled showing off his bright floral pattern on his new Bahamas shirt, “I am a changed mouse.”

The group had lucked into an open and shut case of a missing mouse. Yet for some reason they did not feel satisfied.

“And look, it clearly worked, as soon as I got back from finding myself I got all these text messages and all my friends are hanging out!” Bert went on, “Except Lillian, I don’t see Lillian.”

“She sends her best,” Brook

“Cool, so what do you guys wanna do?”

The search party looked at each other. They were a search party but that’s not really a party kind of party. And they had just spent so much time trying to find Bert, that they were kind of exhausted. But now Bert was found so, now what?

“Well, we’re all pretty tired. So we’ll probably go home and go to bed. But we can do something some other time.” The party collectively mumbled over each other.

“Cool, yeah! Hit me up whenever. Now that I’m back I’m free whenever. Anytime really. My calendar is open” Bert said, enthusiastically.

“Yeah, we’ll definitely get together soon!”

“Yeah for sure, we need to hang out.”

“We’ll hit you up Bert.”

"Busy over the next week but I'll hit you up after!"

The search party all left, mission accomplished.

As of this story’s publication, Bert's calendar remains open. However, his new Bahamas attitude thinks that's just fine.