Perez the Mouse

Once upon a time, in Spain, there lived a little king named Bubi. He had become king when he was only six years old, so his mother, the queen, wise and gentle, helped him to rule. And Bubi was brave. The whole palace knew it.

One day at dinner he was slurping his soup when suddenly, wiggle-wiggle, a tooth went loose in his mouth.

The royal doctors came running in their long black gowns. One said to wait, another said to rinse with herbs, a third said to call three more doctors. They argued so hard that their wigs bounced up and down.

"There is no need to argue," said Bubi. "Tie a thread to it, and that is that. I am not afraid."

They tied a red silk thread to the tooth. The oldest doctor gave a gentle tug, and snap! Bubi only winced a little, and the tooth was already lying in his palm, white and clean as a tiny pearl.

The ministers began to fuss at once.

"Let us set it in gold!" said one.

"Let us keep it in the royal treasury!" said another.

But the queen mother shook her head.

"No. We shall do what children all over the world do. Bubi will write a letter to Perez the Mouse and put it under his pillow, together with the tooth."

Writing the letter turned out to be hard work. By the time Bubi had drawn the last letter, there was ink on all ten of his fingers, on the tip of his nose, on his left ear and on his lace collar.

That evening the king went to bed earlier than ever and ordered that not a single candle be put out. He carefully tucked the letter and the tooth under his pillow, sat up in bed and got ready to wait until morning if he had to. He had even thought up a fine speech for his guest.

But Perez did not come. Bubi’s eyes began to close, his little head began to droop, until it came to rest on the pillow all by itself.

Suddenly something soft touched his forehead. Bubi jumped up and saw a mouse on his pillow. A tiny one, in a straw hat, golden spectacles and red shoes, with a little bag over his shoulder.

The mouse took off his hat, bowed low, as is proper at a royal court, and waited for the king to speak. But Bubi was so amazed that he forgot his speech completely. He thought and thought, and all he could say was:

"Good evening..."

"And good evening to you, Your Majesty," Perez answered, quite moved.

And that is how they became friends.

Perez told him how he travelled through the pipes and cellars of the whole city. Bubi listened with his mouth wide open and kept reaching out to catch him by the tail. But Perez politely flicked his tail to the other side, and that was that.

At last Perez cleared his throat.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I must go. Tonight I have to collect a tooth from another boy. His name is Gilito, and he is very poor. The road there is not an easy one, for a cat called Don Gaiferos lives next door."

"Take me with you!" Bubi jumped up. "Oh, please!"

Perez stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. Leading a king along such roads at night was no small matter.

"First I have to stop by my home to fetch a present for Gilito," he said.

"Then I shall be glad to visit you," answered Bubi.

Perez positively beamed: it is not every day that a king comes to visit!

Bubi hopped out of bed and reached for his nightshirt. But Perez leaped onto his shoulder and tickled his nose with the tip of his tail.

"A... a... achoo!"

Bubi sneezed so hard that the candlesticks rang. And he turned into a mouse! Not an ordinary one, either: his fur shone like gold and was soft as silk, and his little eyes glowed green, like two emeralds.

Perez took him by the paw, and whisk! down they went into a hole under the bed, hidden beneath the carpet.

They ran through dark pipes, damp and sticky. Here and there Perez stopped at a crossing and sniffed to see whether it was safe to go on. Bubi trembled from his nose to the tip of his tail. But he remembered what he had been taught: it is no shame to be afraid, and the brave one is he who overcomes his fear. And he ran on.

Only once, when something rumbled overhead as if ten heavy carriages were driving by, did he whisper:

"Is this where Don Gaiferos lives?"

Perez shook his tail: no.

At last they ran out into a warm cellar that smelled of cheese. It was the cellar of a grocer’s shop on Arenal Street. Behind a tall mountain of cheeses stood a big biscuit tin. That was where the Perez family lived.

"Our guest, a traveller from far away," Perez introduced the king, and nobody suspected a thing.

Mrs. Perez sat by a tiny fireplace, where raisin stalks crackled merrily, and embroidered a little cap for her husband. The daughters, Adelaida and Elvira, poured tea for the guest into cups made of bean pods and then sang: Adelaida softly and sadly, Elvira in a bright, lively voice. Bubi sat and listened and thought that surely no one in such a cosy home ever felt cold.

Meanwhile Perez came back with his bag filled to the brim.

"It is time, dear guest."

Mrs. Perez kissed Bubi on both cheeks to say goodbye, and the daughters waved their paws.

Now they were not alone on their way. A troop of mouse soldiers marched ahead, and instead of a bayonet each of them carried a thin needle. The needles glittered in the dark. Another troop pattered along behind.

"I cannot lead a king without a guard," Perez explained in a whisper.

Suddenly the soldiers in front vanished one by one into a crack from which a dim light shone. Perez poked out his nose, looked, drew back, poked it out again... and then he seized Bubi by the paw and whoosh! across the whole kitchen.

Bubi saw it all as if through the window of a carriage racing at full speed. By the warm stove slept Don Gaiferos, a huge grey tomcat. His whiskers rose and fell: in, out, in, out. And the mouse soldiers stood all around, not breathing, needles at the ready.

A moment more, and Bubi and Perez dived into a hole behind the stove. Don Gaiferos did not so much as twitch a whisker.

From there it was not far to the attic. The little mice squeezed through the cracks, and Bubi climbed up the leg of a chair, the only chair in the room, and a seatless one at that.

It was cold in there, ever so cold. An icy wind blew through the chinks, and icicles hung under the roof. The ceiling was so low that a grown-up could not have stood up straight. From a beam a bread basket hung on a rope, empty. And in the corner, on straw and old rags, a boy and his mother slept in each other’s arms. Gilito huddled close to her to get a little warmer, and his frozen little hands peeked out from under the rags.

Bubi looked and looked, and then he began to cry.

"I did not know..." he sobbed. "I did not know that children could be hungry and cold! I do not want warm blankets while even one child in my kingdom is cold!"

Perez secretly wiped away a tear with his paw. Then he tiptoed up to Gilito, took his tooth and slipped a gold coin, shiny as the sun, under the bundle that served the boy as a pillow.

By now it was getting light. Gilito’s mother woke up: she had to go to the river to wash other people’s laundry to earn their bread. She lifted her sleepy son and set him on his knees in front of a little icon on the wall, and Gilito folded his hands. Bubi and Perez knelt down too, and the soldiers knelt right there in the empty basket.

And Gilito whispered a prayer. The very same prayer that Bubi says every evening.

Bubi looked at Perez in surprise. Perez said nothing, only gazed at him carefully through his golden spectacles.

They went home in silence. In the royal bedroom Perez tickled Bubi with his tail again.

"Achoo!"

And Bubi woke up in his own bed, in his mother’s arms. Mama was kissing him, as she did every morning.

Perhaps it had been a dream? Bubi looked under his pillow. The letter was gone. In its place lay a little box with a medal that sparkled with diamonds. Bubi barely glanced at it and put it aside.

"Mama," he asked gravely, "why do poor children pray just the way I do?"

"Because God is their Father, just as He is yours," his mother answered.

"Then we are... brothers?"

"Yes, my son. They are your brothers."

Bubi’s eyes filled with tears.

"But why am I a king and have everything, while they have nothing?"

His mother held him close and kissed his forehead.

"Because you are the older brother, Bubi. Being a king means being an older brother. You have been given everything so that you may take care that your younger brothers lack for nothing."