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Mimi The Dormouse Who Had Never Heard Of Christmas
Reader Star Rating: 
Bill Johnson
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SYNOPSIS
A small dormouse who had never heard of Christmas finds herself on an adventure to discover the meaning of Christmas. Dodging hungry foxes, cold and ice, before meeting the Christmas fairies and Father Christmas.
Mimi was a dormouse; she lived on the edge of a huge corn field in a burrow under the ground with her mother and father, brothers and sisters. Also living there were aunts, uncles, cousins, nephew and nieces.
The burrow was quiet big and roomy with lots of little passage ways and offshoots leading to rooms where the other members of the extended family lived.
Mimi had, had a wonderful summer; it had been long, hot and dry.
She and all of the other young dormice had played in the corn fields all day long, making dens, playing hide and seek, tag and all kinds of different games.
But now the summer was over, the corn had been cut and the nights and the cold were starting to draw in.
Winter was on its way.
The young dormice could not play out in the field without lots of supervision and they could not go far from the burrow entrance without the protection of the long stemmed corn; predators could easily spot them and whisk them away for their dinner.
It came to the time of year when all of the dormice were getting very tired, it was almost hibernation time.
This is when the dormice had fed themselves with lots of food throughout the summer and had all got a bit fat so they could settle down, cuddle into each other to keep nice and cosy and sleep through the cold, cold winter months.
Before they all settled down for their sleep, the adults spoke to the younger members warning them that if they woke up, that they were not to leave the burrow as it was really dangerous. Snow would be on the ground and all of the foxes, owls and other predators would be looking for food especially plump little dormice.
Everyone settled down and very quickly were all asleep apart from 'guess who' MIMI.
She could not get the words of her parents out of her head about the predators, what if they got into the burrows , what would happen, how would they know, where would they go.
Mimi decided that someone should stay awake throughout the winter and keep an eye out to protect everyone else and that person was her.
It had to be her as everyone else was sound asleep with the sound of snoring and wheezing going around all of the tunnels and off shoot rooms.
Mimi had never heard about Christmas or Father Christmas, or stories about the reindeer or elves or anything else relating to Christmas because they all slept through it and didn't know anything about it, so she did not know what she was missing.
As Mimi lay amongst all of her brothers and sisters and her parents who were all fast asleep, she started to get a little bored and wondered what it was like outside at this time of year.
Even though she was under strict instructions not to go anywhere near the entrance, she was feeling a little bit bored and thought, 'Well, if I just go toward the entrance no one will know and anyway I have to see if it is secure.'
She carefully disentangled herself from the middle of her sleeping family and started to move towards the entrance of the burrow.
As she got closer and closer to the entrance she could feel the air getting colder and colder till she could see her breath as she exhaled. 'This is new' she thought.
As she arrived at the entrance she could see that it had been mainly blocked off by the elders to deter any intruders while they slept. However there was a small gap and she could see daylight outside through the gap.
She inched nearer to it and peered through, what she saw took her breath away, everything was white, the ground was white, the trees were white. The sky was blue and the sun was shining but it was freezing cold.
As she looked through the gap she could see human children in the field, they were picking up the white stuff that was on the ground making it into balls and throwing it at each other, they were laughing and running and appeared to be having a great time. Mimi thought I wished I could do that.
She watched as the children then started to roll the white stuff into a large ball and then a second ball, not as large as the first. They then lifted the second ball onto the first and then put stones into the ball to make it look like a face. They put twigs to the side where arms should be, they then put a hat and scarf around it.
It had the appearance of a human person.
Mimi heard louder voices that sounded older from a distance, the human children then ran off towards that voice.
It was then still and quiet with not a sound, just the strange white thing which the children had made standing in the field alone.
Mimi thought what harm will it do if I go out just for a minute just to see what it's like, I can then come straight back and block the entrance again.
So Mimi scraped away soil from the entrance to the burrow, just enough so she could squeeze through.
She popped out into the bright sunlight and stood in the white soft cotton like stuff.
It felt cold and wet, and when she touched it, it turned into water.
'How strange' she thought.
She did not realise, but as she was transfixed with the snow she was wandering further and further way from the entrance to the burrow.
Suddenly a big shadow fell over her, she heard, before she felt it, the heavy breathing of a large animal.
She felt hot breath on her and she could see saliva from its mouth dripping into the snow, making holes in the soft snow as it landed.
Before the fox could snap her up Mimi ducked low and ran under the snow pushing the snow aside as she ran making a little tunnel as she went. She could hear the noise of the fox digging behind her trying to catch her.
She continued to tunnel under the snow, when suddenly she came to an open space, she looked up and saw that she was in a bubble like space with clear glass above. Mimi did not know that this was ice.
The fox stood above Mimi looking at her through the ice and Mimi looked back terrified.
The fox banged on the ice trying to break through but it was too thick and tough, it tried for what seemed ages before giving up and wandering away.
Mimi thought to herself 'What am I going to do.' She curled up into a ball to try and keep warm and hoped that some help would come from somewhere.
Mimi must have dozed off, as she was woken by the sound of music and laughter.
It was dark, but there were little lights all around the ice above her and small figures appeared to be sliding around on the ice with thin metal blades on their feet.
One of these little figures slipped and fell directly above Mimi; and they looked at each other directly in the eyes.
Mimi did not know who these little figures were but they looked friendly and she shouted "Please help me".
The figure above her suddenly stood and had hold of a long stick with a star on the end.
She waved it about said some words and a sprinkling of brightly coloured dust sprinkled down onto the ice. Suddenly Mimi was standing on the ice in front of the little figure, who was dressed in a little dress and had wings.
"Hi" the little figure said "I'm Jojo, who are you".
"I'm Mimi the dormouse" Mimi said.
"A dormouse, what are you doing here, you should be hibernating for all of the winter months." said Jojo.
"I was but couldn't sleep and wanted to see what was outside, then I got chased by a fox and then I got caught under that glass and the fox couldn't get me, who are you?" Mimi rambled quickly.
"I'm a Christmas fairy" said Jojo.
There were lots of other fairies who had gathered around to see the little dormouse that should be sleeping.
"What's a Christmas fairy" said Mimi.
"We are all Christmas fairies" said Jojo as she waved her hand around the others who had gathered.
"We are Santa's helpers, we help him make toys for all the children and help to deliver it for Christmas day.
We are the little fairies, there are medium size fairies and big sized fairies, there are also elves who help Santa, little elves like us and medium and big elves too. We all help Santa for the big day."
"I've never heard of Santa or Christmas or fairies and elves, or toys on Christmas day."
Jojo put her hands to her mouth aghast "You have never heard of Santa, Father Christmas or Christmas day.
Where have you been, how have you not heard, did you not do a list for what you want for Christmas day?"
"No" said Mimi, "We sleep from November until the end of March, I don't think anyone knows about it."
"Well" said Jojo, "we will have to change that."
She took out her stick with a star on the end, which Mimi learned was a wand, and waved it around so all of the brightly covered dust floated around above Mimi.
Suddenly Mimi was in a huge room, all brightly lit with a big log fire, lots of tables with all kinds of toys on them.
Big tables, medium tables and little tables.
There were big fairies, little fairies and medium sized fairies all working at the tables and others in green hats coats and pants who Mimi found were the elves.
There were sugar canes, sweets candy floss, and all kinds of things to eat.
Sitting in a big chair next to the fire was a man dressed in red, he had a big white beard, long white hair and rosy red cheeks, and he was smiling.
He cried out "Ho ho ho, what have we here, a dormouse that should be asleep."
Jojo said "This is Mimi, and neither she nor any of her family has ever heard of Santa or Christmas day or Christmas lists".
"How can this be," said Santa "We will have to resolve this."
Santa waved his hand in a circle and there before them was an image of Mimi's burrow with all of her family fast asleep snoring and wheezing.
"I see what's gone wrong," said Santa, "after so many years of sleeping through all of the winter, all of the stories and tales of Christmas have been forgotten and not passed on to others in the family to pass on and on.
Even if you sleep through the winter, Christmas presents would be delivered on Christmas day ready for you waking up in March, if you had all put your list in."
Mimi waved her arm around the room and said "You make all of these toys and sweets and give them out on a day called Christmas Day."
"Yes, the 25th Of December." said Jojo.
"How can that be?" Mimi asked.
"It's magic." Santa said.
"So what we will do, you can make a list of toys that you would like and also make lists of what you think your brothers and sister would like. We will make them and deliver them ready for everyone to wake up. You can tell them all about the Christmas story and make sure that it is told every year so that all of the children can send in their lists."
Suddenly, in front of Mimi, a desk appeared with paper and pens, there was also a bowl of Mimi's favourite nuts and berries for her to nibble on.
She thought 'This will take forever; I have so many brothers, sisters and cousins.'
But she started writing, and in what seemed like an instant she had a big pile of lists on the desk in front of her. "Finished." she cried.
Santa and Jojo took Mimi for a walk around the work shop and explained all about Christmas, the elves and fairies, the reindeer and sled that took Santa around the world on Christmas Eve when all of the children were asleep.
How Santa delivered the presents, even into small little burrows like Mimi's.
Mimi was mesmerised with everything that was happening.
She thought 'How can this be; it's so exciting, I can't wait to tell everyone.'
Then she thought 'But how will I get back?"
Santa must have read her mind
"We will take you back." he said "We will set the sleigh up and let the reindeer have a little run out to get them in the mood for Christmas day, come on follow me."
They went to a warm stable attached to the house, and Mimi saw reindeer in stalls and a big giant sleigh.
"We will not be taking you in that big one," said Santa, "we will let Jojo take you in the little sleigh with the little reindeer.
Mimi got into the little sleigh with Jojo and before she could hardly say goodbye to Santa they were flying through the air.
They had not travelled far when the sleigh landed next to the opening of Mimi's burrow.
Jojo said "Goodbye little dormouse and sleep well, don't forget to tell the story and put your list in next year."
Mimi was about to say thank you and she would remember, when the sleigh suddenly disappeared.
She was stood inside her burrow.
Mimi made sure that the entrance was sealed up again and then when to her room.
She gently nudged her way in to the centre of her brothers and sister and cuddled into the warm little bodies around her. She did not even have time to reflect on what had happened before she fell asleep.
Mimi awoke to the sound of laughter and joys from her brothers, sisters and cousins.
They were pulling wrapping paper apart and looking at presents, wondering where they had come from.
Mimi, even though she knew she would get a scolding from her parents for going outside, told the whole story of her adventure to everyone.
The End
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