Who Cares About Fish?
Mother insisted on visiting her great-grandfather to give him the news.
"Barrie is going to be in community theater!" she began.
I rolled my eyes.
"He's going to be in the performance, and he gets the part of Basil!"
My great-great-grandfather chuckled. "Basil?! You finally took an interest in him, Barrie?!" He tousled my hair. "Mum and Dad would have been proud!"
Allow me to explain. Great-great-grandfather is literally a hundred years old. His younger brothers and sisters are in their nineties. That's why I call them "the Ancients."
When they were young children, they knew Basil. I don't know how they met him or anything like that, but they talk about him almost all the time. It's enough to drive anyone crazy!
"Uncle Bartholomew would have liked to see you perform!" Great-great-grandfather continued. "He used to be able to do pretty good impressions of Basil."
"Did he ever do Basil impressions for you?" I asked.
"He died before I was born. He was killed in June, and I was born the following May."
"Then how do you know…?"
"My parents told me, and so did Aunt Fish." He chuckled. "Everyone thought Aunt Fish couldn't speak, but she sure had them fooled! She could be quite talkative when she wanted!"
"What kind of parents name their baby 'Fish'?!"
"Well, when I was just a baby, and I was saying my first words, I couldn't pronounce 'Felicia,' so I called her 'Fish,' and the name stuck. She was highly unusual for a cat, very patient and understanding, always affectionate, but when she got upset with us…!" He chuckled. "Aunt Fish would never have harmed any of us, but she had ways of making sure we behaved! But I guess she had to. If any of the humans had found out there were young mice around…"
I frowned. "Did you just say your aunt was a cat?"
"She was! Uncle Bartholomew always treated her like his younger sister, so that made her my aunt."
I have a strange family. According to the Ancients, this Bartholomew guy was a mouse. Felicia was apparently a cat whose best friend was a dog that the Ancients also claim as their "uncle." Furthermore, dogs and cats aren't supposed to talk in the presence of mice, but this "Toby" and "Felicia" apparently made an exception for Great-great-grandfather and his siblings.
Can another family adopt me? Please? All I want is to have a family of normal mice!
