Week 2 Storytelling: The Magical Mouse

There once was a mouse named Timothy. Timothy was not the biggest mouse, nor was he the strongest mouse; he was just an average-sized grey mouse, with large round ears, thin whiskers, a pink nose, and a nice long tail. But he was not just a regular mouse; he was a magical mouse. While he appeared to be a regular, plain mouse, he was actually filled with magic. He was the greatest mouse ever to have been seen.

A Brave Mouse

Timothy was on a grand magical journey. He had been traveling the woodlands, amongst all the grass and trees, for many weeks in the heat of the summer with his six buddies – other creatures called them his bros – when Timothy decided that they were dwindling under the scorching heat. So he turned to his bros and said, “Come with me and rest a while.” So the seven mice scurried away to an unoccupied shaded area just outside of the crowded fields and towns.

Now many of the forest creatures saw these mice heading toward the secluded shade and recognized them, for Timothy and his bros had been going from town to town, in which forest creatures would reside, revealing Timothy’s magical gift - by healing the sick, turning mud into drinkable water, and other such magical talents - all across the woodland territory for many to see and hear about. The forest creatures began to run and scurry from all the towns in that region to the unfrequented covering the seven mice were gradually walking towards, arriving there before them. It was a shaded, grassy area that was green and cool and covered by large tree branches and leaves, deserted and away from civilization. 

 As he approached them, Timothy looked around realizing that the mass of bodies consisting of chipmunks, snake, bugs, squirrels, bunnies, birds, and more, all hot, tired, and hungry, had come to see him, and he had empathy for them because he knew that their spirits were wounded from within, all wishing to somehow be healed by his magical abilities. They needed a hero, someone to look up to, someone to give them hope, and that someone was Timothy. So he began to tell them of his journey, of his abilities and those he had lent aid to, and he demonstrated his compassion for all of them.

When it grew late, Timothy’s bros come to him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is growing late. Send the creatures away to the surrounding fields and towns to find themselves something to eat.” 

But Timothy answered, “You give them something to eat.” His bros replied, “Do you want us to go and scavenge enough bread to feed all of these creatures?” And he said to them, “How many loaves of bread do we have? Go and count.” 

Once they counted, his bros returned to him and said, “Five, and two blackberries.” 

Then Timothy instructed all of the animals to sit down in groups on the grassy area underneath the shade, so the forest creatures did so and sat down with whatever creatures were next to them, like and different, in groups of hundreds and fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two blackberries Timothy used his magical powers and broke the loaves and gave them to his bros to set down before the forest creatures. And Timothy separated the two blackberries and divided them among all the animals, and they all ate and were content. Then the bros picked up twelve large sacks still full of broken pieces of bread and of blackberries. And they realized that those who ate the loaves of bread were five thousand animals.

 

Black Butte Berry

Authors Note. The Gospel of Mark from the Bible is made up of a series of stories accounting the life of Jesus. It was difficult to choose just one story since Mark, as a whole, is so powerful. I decided to choose Mark 6:30-44 – the miracle of the loaves and the fish - one of Jesus’ more famous miracles where he fed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. It demonstrates that anything is possible through Christ if you believe. I chose to represent Jesus through a tiny mouse because Jesus was not especially big or powerful-looking, but he was certainly an extremely powerful being. By representing Jesus through a mouse, we are able to see that he came from humble beginnings. Jesus could have been born to a king, he could have been born in a bed/hospital, he could have been born to a married couple, but no. Jesus was born in a barn to a couple who were not of great status or wealth but were carpenters, and they had to travel not by horse but by donkey before they had him. It was his humble beginnings that make Jesus so powerful, and that is why I chose a simple mouse that would not have been especially exceptional by birth but was exceptional by the grace of God. The blackberries I substituted for the fish in the original story. Blackberries, like fish, are difficult to separate to feed so many people, but blackberries seemed to fit a woodlands setting better than fish. I was able to mesh the original Bible story with my retelling by keeping the loaves of bread but altering fish to blackberries. The location I had them gather would be very much like a secluded area off in the distance that is generally deserted. It was a place I would imagine someone would go to be alone to meditate or pray, somewhere cool and calming and green.

 The original story was in the third-person style and it is only fitting that it should be written this way even when the story is converted into somewhat of a child’s story. I really enjoyed this writing style because it gives the reader a lot of information without confusing him or her with an excess of details and continuously long sentences. However, I feel as though the flow came more naturally with this Biblical style than with others. I did use verbal echoes from the Bible in this retelling; the majority of it was in the last two sentences of the retelling. I felt as though using echoes allowed the reader to recognize that it was from the Bible.  Being able to tell one of the stories of Jesus, without making it overtly Christian, was the idea that I was going for. A type of blend between an animal fable and the Bible, so to speak.  

Bibliography: King James Bible (1611), Mark 6:30-44