When Chester took off into the streets, I stared up at the giant human's area of the pub. It said The Olde Ship. Pub and Restaurant. The windows were dusty, and barely transparent to see through. Though it was hard to see inside, there was enough light coming out of the pub to see inside. A glow of the lights inside showed a bunch of men talking, and smoking. A group would laugh in a corner, as the enjoyed their pints. Some looked totally depressed. In the back, I saw a woman filling up a glass with ice and water. If they served water then no doubt they served it in the mouse dining room. The streets were getting incredibly dark, and I knew that if I were to stay safe for the night, then getting inside somewhere would be a good idea. Finally I got down from the large window, and made my way to the mouse's area. A small lantern overhead lit the mouse's entrance. Two windows were on both sides of the door. When I looked inside, everyone had clothes on. Women wore very suggestive evening clothes. While they dressed in an inappropriate manner, others wore casual dress. Men wore trousers, and evening relaxation shirts, that seemed much more like casual wear for a good time. Be it in a rspectable, or entirely unapealing manner, everybody was wearing some type of garments, while I had nothing.

To get through the city, I needed threads. And the bandana around my tail just wouldn't do it. I needed some clothes to get into this place. I didn't necesarrily want to get in for a drink, but just to have something to eat. It was well known that in pubs, and bars, and stuff like that food isn't really that amazing, but it beat stealing food from a human, and risk getting killed. That was not my game anymore. I saw a few mice and rats eating some foods. Some ate pork rinds, while others ate pieces of chips. When I finally figured it out, everyone had a bit of food. It wasn't until I noticed all the food type, that I realized. This wasn't an American pub. It was a British pub! Well, maybe they wouldn't notice I was American. After all I didn't really stand out all that much I was the runt of the litter, making me ecceptionally small. Even smaller than most of my younger brothers. I knew they would think I was under the age of sixteen, but when I spoke, they figured out I was a runt mouse.

Suddenly I heard a subtle voice. You couldn't call it a whisper, but you couldn't call it an audible voice either. It was someplace between the two. "Hey, kid." I looked around, wondering where the voice was coming from. "Over here, kid." I looked behind myself, and saw a rather tall yet skinny mouse. He wore a trench coat, and hunched over, to keep his face out of sight. He wore a large newsboy cap over his head, and was looking around with a sneaky suspicious eye. "Come here." I was the only one around, so I could only assume he was talking to me. I scurried over, and he walked inot a alley way. "You look like you could use some threads, kid."

It was like he read my mind. "Well, yes. I could use something to cover myself." I said shrugging lightly. "I could probably use something to help me fit in."

He reached into his trench coat, and pulled out a small black box. "Then fit into this." He said. When he opened the box, he revealed a thin fabricated black cloak. It reminded me of the types of cloaks that the elves wore in Lord of the Rings. Dejuhnay was a big Lord of the Rings fan. The cloak was velvet fabric. Enough to not make you the center of attention. It didn't look very heavy either. "It's a black velvet cloak. Very normally worn in England. I noticed you were eyeing the inside of the pub, and this will help you seem like you belong there."

"Wow!" I said looking at it. "This is perfect." I tried grabbing it. Without gving me a chance to even feel it, he snatched it away, restricting it to his hands only. "Well, what do you want for it?" I asked him sincerely.

He looked behind himself, quickly, noticing there was nobody around to hear him. "What you got to trade with me?"

"Well, I got this blanket. A rich lady gave it to me." He looked at it, and held it up. He unfolded it, and checked it out. "I suppose you would be able to make a new cloak out of that or something, I guess." He studied the material, and smiled. Apparently he decided it was a deal.

He shoved it into his briefcase. "Yeah, okay, great, thanks. Got anything more? I mean this is a very expensive cloak, made from fine material. A blanket just don't add up to it." Well, I thought that there was really nothing else to trade for it. All I had left was my paper clip, my thumb tack, my map, and the sheet it was wrapped in.

I thought there was nothing left, but suddenly I remembered the sixty gold coins I had, well now it was fifty nine. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out five from it, and held it up. "This is all I have left that I can give." I lied. No way was he going to find out that I had fifty four gold coins left, or he would want the rest of them too. He smiled at the five glistening pieces in my hand. He reached for them, and as soon as he got close, I pulled back. "Three gold pieces. Nothing more." I said, my hand clenching the gold. I knew that even a cloak as fine as this, I would need to be tight fisted. I was far from home, and I didn't know when I would find a job around here.

He looked at me, squinting his eyes. Looking around, he saw a pair of elderly mice walking past the ally way. Apparently he was getting a bit frightened off. I knew that it was either the blanket or nothing, and he knew as well. Closing his eyes, he sighed. "Alright kid. Normally I don't make deals with the stakes being this low, but for you, kid, I'll make an exception." Swiftly we had to make the trade before we got into any trouble. He handed me the box, and I handed him the blanket. As he disappeared into the night, I opened the box, and put the cloak on. It looked better than I ever imagined it to look. The hood was so large around my head, that the sides of it draped over me shoulders, but other than that, it looked great.

As soon as I got it all laced up, and nice looking, I decided to head into the bar. The lantern overhead flickered, and made my shadow dance upon the ground. Honestly I had never been in abar before. When I was small, alot of mice in my colony would go down below the basement of the house. Underneath the boarding house's basement wooden planks, was where my father financed the bars, pubs, and saloons. had I ever gone to a pub, or bar, I figured it would be within my own colony. This was the real world now, though. There were no walls here. This was a real city, with real pubs. The door had a ship style window. Hoping that I wouldn't stand out too much, I took a deep breath. Clutching the door handle, the door opened with the loudest creak you could think of. Inside there was a big long counter for people to sit at, if you didn't want a table. It was faced at the door, and was positioned on the opposite wall, so it was the first thing you saw when you came in. Behind the counter stood two mice. One was a man, that wore a server's outfit. The other was a lady that was quite curved, and had the body I wish I had. She was simply dazzling. Her hair was curly, and light brown. Beautiful evening makeup was on her face, and she had a little beauty mark on the left side of her face. She wore a blue sleeveless dress, with an apron on, probably for serving food. Her ears were adorned with a flower on each side.

On the far right was a piano that was played by a mouse that was dressed in a saloon worker outfit. He played a song that sounded like it was from the lower class part of England. I quickly recognized it as the song Maple leaf rag. Walking in, I walked slowly trying not to be noticed. A few of the mice looked at the doorway when I had opened. Most of them paid no heed to my entrance. A few kept their gaze when I walked in. Some of them looked at me as if I was from another planet. I understand why. It was true that there were no mice quite like me there. Most of the mice were focusing on their games of cards, or talking amung themselves. Alot of laughter was heard in the center parts of the bar. Few of them were really looking at me, but there were still some that didn't take their eyes off of me. It might have been very few people, but one felt like a hundred sets of eyes. Some men glared at me, as if to signal to me that they didn't want anything to do with me, like I would cause trouble.

I saw one table in particular that had a few men, and a woman there. The men looked like they had never had contact with a bar of soap in their entire life. All of them were about twice my size. The largest one was probably triple my size. The woman was not too flattering to the average gentleman. She looked like a woman of suspicious intentions. Her skirt was considerable short, and her shoes were high heels. The way to top it all off was the off the shoulder blouse. She would not wear such clothes in church. Her hieght, though made her look tall and exotic. Suddenly I noticed that they were each looking at me. The shortest one of them all whispered in the tall woman's ear, and when he pulled back, they all started laughing and pointing at me. Hrmph! So much for thinking that all English people were well-mannered. I felt embarrased, and as I walked past their table, I pulled my hood of my cloak down further over my face. They didn't need to see my face had they thought I was this peculiar.

Finally I reached the other side of the pub, and had a seat at the counter, keeping my face down. When I took a seat, a menu was sent sliding up to me. It stopped, when it hit my fore arm. I looked up, and saw the sweet waitress, I saw when I came in. "Well, hello litle miss." She said to me as I opened up the menu smiling. She had been dry a glass with a wash rag."What's your pleasure?" Knowing she wasn't the type to judge, I knew it was safe to pull my hood back, and let my face be revealed. She took a glance at me, and made a surprised face. When it gotten as surprised as it could, it slowly turned to a grin. "Well, how do you like that? We don't get many a your kind round here." I raised an eyebrow. "What I mean is deer mice. Not many are really the drinkin type. I've only seen a handful of em." She said raising an eyebrow. Now that I thought about it, she was right. Ever since I had gotten out, I had not seen a single deer mouse. "Never before though, have I seen a deer mouse the same color as you though." I nodded. My fur color was of very few deer mice. I was the only one of my brothers with this color fur. The whole colony was different now that I thought about it.

"True. Not many deer mice have my fur color." I smiled up to her.

She looked at me once again, amazed. "Oh, dear. Well, I have to say. You have surprised me, twice. Didn't know you were a yank." I knew I would get somebody pointing that one out. At her statement, alot more people started staring. "Hmm, well assumin that you never been 'ere before, I'll get ya a nice plate of British crumpets for ya honey." Thinking that would taste great, I closed the menu, and handed it to her. I looked around at the people that were staring at me. When I met their gaze, they averted their eyes, quickly trying to appear as though they weren't looking at me. Jerks. She poured some water for me, and I drank it down fast, wanting more.

When I put the glass down, I wiped my mouth, happy that I got what I wanted. I was thirsty for longer than I thought. No wonder, though. I had gone all day without a drink. When the food was put infront of me, I was happy, and starved. While munching down the crumpets, I looked at my map, circling the spots that would be best to use to cut across fields and roads. My destination was Los Angeles, and then straight on north to Bakersfield. It was such a long way. Humans would have an easy route there no problem, but a mouse? I got the shiveries just thinking about it. Yipes! What a journey!

As everybody enjoyed their beers, and wine, and different types of drinks, I noticed a field mouse looking at me in the corner of the room. He saw me glance his way, and grinned in my direction. He started approaching me, coming closer. I looked away, as not to seem like I was staring. Sitting down next to me, I still paid attention to my food, trying to control my eating as to not seem like I was starving which of course was hard. We were not so slow as human were when it came to eat. Us wild mice were never certain where the next meal would come from.

When I saw him still staring at me, I smied up to him. "Well, I have to say. We don't get much of you in here." He said in a British accent.

"I beg your pardon?" I said raising an eyebrow. "Not so sure what you mean, Mr. English mouse." I said smirkingly. He knew a good joke when he heard.

He grinned wider knowing what that was, and expected a joke to come right back at me. "Well, little yankee girl. Not many people come here looking for a meal. We get more yanks, than we do dry customers. I was more surprised you didn't get a drink." Well, not many teenage mice were drinkers. We at age sicteen were allowed to drink, but my father was who he was. My older brothers had drank before, but not to where they would completely trashed. So what was the harm of having one? He snickered, and ordered a pint. "Thanks Sharon. I need a pint. Oh, would you like to have one kid?" He said smiling my way. Shrugging, I thought one might not hurt. I nodded ready for a bit of an adventure. "Sharon we need another one for the girl over here."

This woman, who's name was apparently Sharon smiled and filled me up a copper colored logger of drink. I looked at the big tower of drink. The beautiful creation was full to the brim. The foam was sitting right at the top, ready to collapse any moment, but so far not yet. My father had warned me all the time that a young mouse at my age, and size should never drink. 'A runt of the litter drinking always leads to nothing but disaster!' Even when he wasn't around, I could hear him in my head. Oh bah! What did he know? "Bottoms up." I smiled to the man, and we tapped our glasses together, and drank them down. At first the taste was not too appealing. To be honest, it tasted like Mincy sweat, or what I thought it would tast like. But then after a while the taste was gone, and I could manage it down without getting sick. "Wow!" I said putting the half full glass down. "That was . . . interesting." As I quickly learned, it was more of an aquired taste. Soon the first glass was completely empty. At the end, I thought it was just so great. Nothing quite like it.

He looked at me raising an eyebrow. "So, how was your first full glass of alcohol? All you expected it to be?" He asked smiling as if he was hoping I would have a good time.

Grinning at him in a way I normally wouldn't, (which was in a way of relaxation, which, by the way isn't how I act with strangers) and nodded lazily. "You bet. It was all I thought it would be, and more. This morning, I was crying over ditching my boyfriends place, but I'll tell you, Mr. . . . uh . . . "

"Buster's the name." He said half closing his eyelids. I grinned to him.

I leaned close to him. "Well, Buster. I will tell you that the drink I just had hit the spot. The beer had me feeling better already."

He smiled to me knowing that I was happy. "You want some more beers? I work here, and get free ones during the weekend." He smiled to me. I looked at him like he was kidding. I smiled, and nodded letting him know that I was up for it. "Okay, kid. Oh, Sharon, let's get another round over here."

Well, when Sharon put another glass up to me, I thought that as long as I didn't get carried away, I would be fine. Soon enough, one beer became two . . . then three, then four." Pretty soon I was a little drunk. I was little and I was a drunk. Ha ha! But seriously. The whole time I was spending some time with buster. He was trying to make sure that I didn't go crazy balistic. We spent the night talking, and I told him a bit about where I was from. I told him alot about Gabrielle and what went on before I left. "I-I-I don-don't know what the-my problem is." I said not quite knowing how to put my words in order. "I mean, I mean I look good, I think. I gots a-a-a family, well I-I-I did." He was listening the whole time. " I just wish that Mincy would just disappear. I don't know what's wrong with me." Right at that moment Sharon walked by grinning as if she had a joke. I figured I would ask her. "Do you know what's wrong with me, Sharon?" She shook her head, grinning at me.

Buster pulled me back onto my seat when I leaned halfway over the bar. He sat me back down. "Well, at the moment, I think it is large quantities of alcohol." He chuckled. I made raspberry noise, and waved my hand.

"Oh, come on. I'm fine." That's when I said something that I wouldn't normally say to a stranger. "You know. You are a really nice guy. Ususally you meet horrible people in the world, but I like you. If there was a nice guy competition, you would win . . . . or give first place to the last place person . . . whichever one's nicer." I snickered. When I looked around the bar, a few mice were looking in my direction snickering lightly. Then I leaned up against Buster cause I felt like leaning on somebody. "Oh, I don't know. No matter what i do, I just seem to drive other mice away. Maybe I just try too hard. First it was Chris, a member from my escape squad, that helped get trapped mice out of traps, then Robert but he turned out to marry my friend, and Sterling who was only in me for the leadership role, and don't forget the jerk Casey, who was too mean to me. I guess Gabrielle was the only one I ever loved." I shrugged.

When all the other mice were leaving the pub, I tried, but my feet just weren't agreeing with me. While I wanted to go, they wanted to stay. The last people there were Buster and Sharon. They watched with a dissappointed loook on their face, as I tried to leave. At that point, I finally undertood why my father had warned me about trying to drink. Buster and Sharon had walked me into the backroom. Back there was a nice bed, built just for mice. They let me sleep there for the night.