(Fractured Fairy Tale)

Once upon a time, there were three little elephants who lived with their parents. When the elephants grew old enough, they went out into the world to live on their own. The first little elephant built a small wooden shack. One day, there was a knock at the door.

Big Bad Mouse: “Knock, knock.”

First Elephant: “Who’s there?”

Big Bad Mouse (in a tiny voice): “It’s the Big Bad Mouse. Open up at once!”

First Elephant (can’t hear the mouse): “Hello? Is anybody out there?”

Big Bad Mouse (in a tiny voice): “Let me in, let me in, let me in.”

First Elephant (mutters to self): “That’s strange. Someone knocked on my door. But whoever it was, they seem to have gone away.”

Big Bad Mouse was disappointed. So, he wrote a note and slipped it under the elephant’s door. It read: “Squeal, squeal, squeal. I’m a big bad mouse. I will destroy your house. I’m pulling your tail.” Later that day the elephant found the note.

First Elephant (reading the note): “A Big Bad Mouse! Oh, no. I`ve never seen a mouse. But it sounds very scary. I imagine that it must be a giant, much larger than an elephant. I must run away before it comes back to my house! I must run for my life!” The first elephant started running back and forth in the wooden hut. The frightened first elephant rushed out of the back door and dashed to the second elephant’s house.

The second elephant lived in a brick house. It was bigger than the wooden hut of the first elephant. There was also a doorbell that the first elephant rang. Call, call!

Second Elephant: “Hello? Who is there?”

First elephant: “It’s me. I’m so scared. There is a mouse on the loose. Can I stay at your house. Please, please, please!”

The second elephant: “Mouse! I have never seen a mouse. But it sounds very scary. I imagine the mouse to be huge, with a long tail and sharp claws. Quickly go inside and close the door behind me!” A few minutes passed. The two elephants sat scared and silent. Suddenly the doorbell rang. The two elephants looked at each other and their terror grew. The Big Bad Mouse rang the bell, but no one answered. Finally, he got frustrated and slipped a note under the door. It read: “I’m a big bad mouse. I will destroy your house. I’m pulling your tail.”

Second Elephant, while reading the note: “Oh, no! It’s terrible! Now the Big Bad Mouse came to my house. We must save our lives!” Two frightened elephants stumbled out of the house. They left through the back door of the house. They did not stop running until they came to the house of the third elephant.

The third elephant lived in a huge mansion. Two elephants rang the doorbell, and the butler Nikolay answered.

Third Elephant: “Slow down and tell me what you’re so afraid of.”

The first elephant and the second elephant: “A mouse!”

The third elephant: “Mouse?! Why didn’t you say so! I have never seen a mouse. But I think a mouse would be huge, bigger than this mansion.”

Three elephants came together in fear. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Nikolay went and opened the door. Those elephants were so frightened that their eyes were bulging, and their ears were sticking out of their heads. A tiny mouse.

Big Bad Mouse (in a low voice): “Could you deliver a message to the elephants? Please tell them: squeal, squeal, squeal. I’m a big bad mouse. I will destroy your house. I’m pulling your tail.”

Nikolay moved to the trembling elephants: “Come here. You must meet your enemy. I must say, he is not particularly scary.”

The three elephants walked very nervously toward the door. They stared at the doorway, but no one appeared to be there besides Nikolay. They looked to the left. They looked to the right. They looked up. Then they looked down. There, on the doorstep, stood a little, tiny mouse.

First Elephant: “But you are so small!”

Second Elephant: “We`ve never seen a mouse before.”

Third Elephant: “You are really not frightening at all.”

Big Bad Mouse (in a tiny voice): “You’re so huge. I did not know how you looked like. You are very, very frightening. And with that, the mouse scampered into the woods. At last, the elephants had seen that a mouse was very small. They were not frightened of mice again. At last, the mouse had learned that elephants are lofty and large. The mouse never threatened any elephants again. Everyone lived happily ever after.