A MARY’S FAIRYLAND FAIRY TALE
The Mouse Made of Shadow
Part 18 of 31. Turn an unused root room into a place for borrowing, making and learning, discovering that useful things include time, questions and friendship.
Read the complete story
The Mouse Made of Shadow
A small mouse appears on the wall of the useful room. Nori jumps, then notices that it has a very familiar twig-shaped nose. Bruno turns a bent offcut in the window light. The mouse becomes a bird, then a rather surprised lump. Fina laughs so softly that Nori has to stop moving to hear it.
The offcut is one of the pieces nobody could assign a sensible job. Now it is making a little shadow story. Mira watches Nori reach for a second piece and reminds him to leave the window and doorway clear. They do not need to fill the room with a whole new collection to enjoy this one.
Two ways forward
Fina offers the first line of the story herself. Bruno moves the shadow. Nori adds a question instead of rushing straight to the ending. For a few moments the worktable becomes a place where something can be imagined, not repaired. The room has gained another kind of usefulness. Their friends’ shadows fill the house with a quite unnecessary game. Which invitation should remain when the funny mouse disappears from the wall?
Save the odd piece with its story clue
Nori makes the shadow hop. Bruno makes it sit very still. Fina cannot decide which is funnier: the impossible animal or Nori’s serious concentration. Mira leaves the useful work waiting for one comfortable, unnecessary minute. Fina draws two of the shadow shapes beside the offcut’s place. Bruno puts it down where a visitor can recognise it. Nori writes a beginning without an ending, leaving the next storyteller room to make the mouse do something different.
A good place to stop
The shadow grows still when the friends finish playing. Bruno leaves a little room for that unnecessary delight. A useful house can have an afternoon that is useful mainly because it was lovely.
Created with AI and automatically checked. Reading together is encouraged.
