This photo reminded me of a memory from my past. My son was 3 yrs old and I was pregnant with my daughter. We had just found a house not too far out in the country, a fixer upper, located near a deserted sawmill. But the price was amazingly low. Almost too good to be true … if you know what I mean. So we rented it, the house was in Knoxville, Tennessee. This weeks short story is for Alastair’s Photo Fiction:
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He looked at her, “So whaddya think?”
“It’s perfect,” She replied. “I love it, not far from our friends. It has potential.”
He had a few concerns, but didn’t share them. Others could show up at any time. But he didn’t want to think about that. Besides, she was generally pretty good when it came to places to live. He could certainly see the numerous advantages for his growing family.
The house was remote. That was probably a good thing, convenient too. In fact, it could be a great hang out for his friends as well. he knew they’d be stopping by. Yes he thought, this is going to be just perfect!
He turned to look at his mate and the two mice scurried back across the field to the deserted sawmill. Deserted of humans but populated with many hundreds of other mice. Wait til they shared their latest find.
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As I mentioned, sadly this was a true story only the names of the mice were changed to protect the not so innocent. We were able to secure the house incredibly cheap because even if you had an exterminator come once a week, more mice living in the sawmill just kept on coming. After a few adventures, I don’t feel the need to share here, we moved out of the bargain house!
Hope you enjoyed. Do check out Alastair’s Photo Fiction. He provides a great opportunity for writers to practice their skills: A weekly photo prompt of one of his photographs. The challenge: write a short story, flash fiction, not to exceed 150 words! Sound like fun? pop over and give it a try!
Thanks for visiting,
~ Penny
The Why About This 
Lovely story!
Thanks Barb.
nicely penned my friend 😉
Thanks Roxi! 🙂
Mice and I are not friends. Great piece Penny. 🙂
🙂
since this is a real life tale and you’ve experienced a lot of trouble with it, it is sad..but the story is well written
Poor mice…
xx 🙂 🙂 xx
Usually I’d agree with you, but after one crawled into my bed one night … 🙂 xo
Not really…I have a couple of mice stories. One too gruesome to share. Another – I will post. I just have to dig up the picture from my archives.
Oh, Bravo to both you and Alastair. It reminds me of Ode to a Wee Mousie – by Robert Burns… the best laid plans of mice and men, donèt you know… wonderful.
AnElephantCant believe it
His admiration for Penny increases
A tale of two tails
And life’s early travails
But he still hates those meeces to pieces!
Gotta go along with the elephant on this one! 🙂
House guests – the unwelcomed variety.
Well, when the price is too good to be – must have created a bit of a disruption, all that moving.
Thank you for sharing Penny.
Cheers, Eric
Yes it was disruptive (good word to use)! Thank you for your visit and comment, have a great week Eric!
Hmmm, I wonder what the mice who are already live in the house will think of these interlopers. Nah, there’s plenty of room for everyone bloom and grow. Imaginative Penny, every imaginative 🙂
Thanks Lyn, the associated memories of that time (like stirring cake batter in a bowl on the kitchen counter and looking over a few feet to see a mouse casually sitting on edge of the counter watching me. (I kid you not!) a very unafraid little critter. Ugh! I do love all of mother natures creatures but some I would prefer not to live with! 🙂
LOL yup, know where you’re coming from. I was watching TV one night and looked down and there was one of those pesky critters sitting on my outstretched foot cleaning his whiskers 😉
P/S I just realised in my first post I wrote “every” when it should have been “very”. Why can’t spell check come up with a way to ask, “Hey, stoopid, are you sure you want to use that word 😀
Yes make that same type of typo all the time, very frustrating too! Sometimes funny though! 🙂
A very interesting fact of your past… do you regret moving.??
ha, ha! A few months later my beautiful daughter was born and the “mouse house” was mostly forgotten! 🙂
That was great. I might have to try the flash fiction some time. The picture was a great prompt!
Thanks Kira, please do, you’ll enjoy yourself. I agree Alastairs pictures do make excellent prompts! 🙂
That’s awesome Penny. 🙂 I would be interested to see what the other find was. As you say though, when something says it is too good to be true, it usually is. I do like these snippets into your life.
Thanks, those memories (re: the mouse house) are not to be remembered! 🙂
I think we all have memories we would rather not have. I know I have a few :shudder: lol
A great story though
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