Mommy Mouse (sequel to City Mouse)

Chapter 26: Brave as a Lion

Leo was so scared. His mommy and daddy wouldn't say anything to him, no matter how much he asked. They each held one of his hands, and they were walking down a corridor, a scary movie corridor, dingy, with flickering lights. His mommy and daddy were talking to each other, over his head, but they were ignoring him, or worse, they just couldn't hear him. Leo was wearing his Winnie the Pooh pajamas, which he thought was weird, because Mommy and Daddy were wearing their regular clothes.

Everyone around them was speaking some other language, and Leo didn't know what they were saying. It looked like a hospital, sort of, but also like a huge airport. He could see into some of the rooms they were passing, and they were filled with children. Not happy, playing children, either. All of them were wearing hospital gowns, and they were sitting in chairs, solemn and silent.

Leo tugged on his parents' hands, trying to get their attention, but nothing was working. They just kept leading him down the scary corridor, until they finally came to a huge room, filled with children, all of whom had signs with numbers on them. They were behind a glass partition, like at the zoo. As soon as Leo and his mommy and daddy walked in, all of the kids frantically began holding their signs up, waving them in the air, calling desperately, trying to get their attention. Some of the kids started to cry, sobbing while they sat in their chairs.

Leo just stood at the front of the huge room, holding his parents' hands, looking at the sad, weeping children, wanting to leave, just leave, so badly. He couldn't understand what any of the wailing children were saying, either, just that they wanted Leo's parents to notice them, for some reason.

Over his head, he heard Mommy say, "What about that one?" as she pointed.

"Where?" Daddy questioned, looking out into the room.

"Right there, with the long hair," Mommy replied.

"Number 237?" Daddy asked. "The girl with the braids?"

"Yes," Mommy answered, and Leo could see her nodding energetically out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't look away from the sea of crying children. Some of them had left their plastic chairs and were shuffling toward the glass, walking slowly, like they were zombies or something.

"Okay," his daddy agreed.

At his word, a woman in a white lab coat entered the room and approached them, holding a clipboard.

"Have we decided?" she asked. She, too, looked and spoke only to Leo's parents. It was like he wasn't even there. She had an accent, like the man at the deli.

"Yes, number 237," his mommy told her.

"Excellent choice," the woman said, smiling.

Then, to Leo's horror, his mommy and daddy released his hands, and the woman in the lab coat grasped one of them and led him away, toward a door in the partition.

Was he going to have to go into that scary room, with the crying zombie kids and their signs?

He turned to look at his parents, but again, they weren't even looking at him. They had their arms around each other and were smiling and waving to the girl with the braids.

The lab coat lady opened the door, and Leo was hit with a horrible smell, a smell like when he walked by the dumpsters at his school. She shooed the crying kids away, and made them go back to their chairs, except for the girl with the braids, who was holding the sign with "237" on it.

The girl looked at Leo with huge eyes, her gown hanging off her gaunt frame.

Leo wanted to scream, but he couldn't.