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Once upon a time, there was a little brown
mouse named Benji. Benji had a younger brother named Petey. The Mouse Brothers
looked almost exactly alike.
| If it hadn’t been for the little patch of white fur on top of Petey’s head, you might even have taken them for twins, although, in truth, Benji was a bit taller than Petey. |  |
The MouseBrothers made their home in a wee little mousehouse at the edge of a field, not too terribly far from here.
Their little house was pale yellow, (some might say that it was the same color as Swiss Cheese) and a rainbow of tiny flowers grew next to their front door. |
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Benji was a good little mouse. His brother Petey was good most of the time, but Petey had a bit of a mischievous side too.
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As a very young mouse, Benji had learned to take naps so that he wasn't tired all of the time. His brother Petey hated naps! Petey thought naps were for babies, so he tried to avoid them as much as possible. |
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One day, Benji and Petey were playing at the neighborhood
mouse-playground.
| It was a wonderful playground, with a tiny swing set, a ball field and a little mouse exercise wheel that everyone loved to run around in. |  |
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On this particular day all of the little mice were very excited. Their favorite mouse "Superhero" movie was going to be on TV that night and they had all wanted to see it for a very long time. It was the talk of the playground. |
All the little mice had taken a nap that afternoon so they
would be able to stay up late and watch the whole movie! All but Petey, that
is. "I can't believe you guys! Naps are for babies! I’m a big
boy. I'm not going to fall asleep during my favorite movie!" Petey bragged.
"Petey, everybody takes naps, not just babies." said Benji.
"As a matter of fact, Moms and Dads and Grandmas and Grandpas take naps too."
Petey just sniffed. "I didn't take a nap and I’m going to
watch to WHOLE movie!" said Petey. "You guys are just a bunch of babies."
The other mice just shrugged. It was no use arguing with Petey.
Honest-to-goodness, they thought, sometimes that little mouse could be such
a know-it-all it just wasn't worth the aggravation to try to explain anything
to him. So they didn’t. Later that night, after dinner, Benji and Petey got
all ready to watch the movie.
| They put their matching mouse PJ's on, made some Swiss cheese flavored popcorn, and settled down with their pillows on the comfortable little blue couch. |  |
"Benji, I'm so excited I can hardly wait to see the movie! said Petey excitedly.
"I’ve been waiting for this show for the longest time!"
"Me too," replied Benji, "but I sure am I glad I took a nap, because this is a long movie and I don’t want to miss any of it!"
"SSSSHHHH, the movie is about to start!" Petey scolded his brother, and with that he tucked his feet up under him and settled himself against the comfortable pillow.
| Well, wouldn’t you know it, no more than ten minutes after the movie started, Petey's eyelids started to feel heavy. |  |
| First he tried changing positions on the couch, then he got up and moved to the other side of the couch to try to wake up a bit. |  |
| It was no good. He felt himself falling asleep again. "Oh no! I just can't fall asleep!" he thought to himself. He even tried shaking his head back and forth to try to wake himself up. |  |
| "What on EARTH are you DOING?" yelled Benji "You’re making me crazy, Petey! I really want to see this! Will you please just sit still and watch the movie!" |  |
"Sorry!" yawned Petey.
| Sure enough, halfway through their favorite movie, Petey had fallen sound asleep. | |
Benji reached over and shook his brother. "Wake up Petey!"
said Benji, "You’re missing the movie!"
"Mmmmphh", said Petey, "Go’way."
"Petey, wake UP!" said Benji, "You’re missing EVERYTHING!".
It was no use. Benji tried and tried to wake his brother up, but Petey simply
would not move a muscle.
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In fact, he even started to snore!! |
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"Oh for crying out loud Petey wake UP!" wailed a frustrated Benji. In the end, Petey was snoring so loudly he finally had to be carried up to bed just so that Benji could finish watching the movie in peace and quiet!
The next morning, at the breakfast table, Benji told Petey about all of the great parts of the movie he had missed.
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"So…Petey," he teased, "Maybe I wasn't such a baby to take a nap after all?" Petey felt like crying. He didn't say a single word because he knew Benji was right. And he knew all of their friends would be talking about the movie today at the playground. Petey really wished he hadn’t fallen asleep right in the middle of it!!!
Later that afternoon, after Benji had taken his nap, the Mouse
Brothers rode their bikes to the neighborhood playground. All the mice were
gathered around the exercise wheel, talking about what an awesome movie they
had seen the night before.
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"That was probably the best movie I have ever seen in my entire life!" exclaimed one of the little mice. Everybody agreed with him. Petey couldn't stand it! He felt bad enough already and didn't need to be reminded about all the fun he had missed by falling asleep.
"Hey Benji," suggested Petey, "Why don’t we go over to the other side of the playground and play ball?"
"Petey!" exclaimed Benji, "Not NOW… We’re busy talking about the movie!"
Petey sighed and kicked at a little pile of playground dirt. He slowly turned and walked away, heading toward the other side of the playground where another group of mice were playing catch.
"Can I play?" Petey called to them. "Sure! Yeah! Come on!"
they shouted.
| After a while, even though Petey had been doing a pretty
good job of playing catch, he began to get so tired he could hardly keep
his eyes open. He knew that if he didn’t stop playing, he was likely to doze right off and get bopped on the head by a flying ball. |
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Petey waved to the other mice as he headed off the field. He went over and sat down on a little bench to wait for Benji. The next thing he knew, somebody was poking him in the ribs.
"Wake up, Petey, it's time to go home now," Benji was saying. Benji was sitting next to his brother. He was talking rather quietly and nudging Petey in the ribs with his little elbow. Petey had fallen asleep right in the middle of the playground!
He was so embarrassed. What if the other mice had seen him sleeping? He would never hear the end of it.
"Did anyone see me sleeping?" Petey asked Benji as he looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. "Nope, the other mice have all gone home," his brother assured him. "Come on Petey, lets go home," suggested Benji. Benji helped Petey up and the two of them were on their way.
"You know, Petey, if you would just take a nap once in a while you wouldn't get so tired. For sure you wouldn’t miss out on so much", said Benji to his little brother as he peddled his way across the field towards the bike path.
Benji nodded sheepishly. "I'm starting to think maybe a nap isn't such a bad idea," agreed Petey
The next day, when Benji went in for his nap, Petey decided
to take a nap too. After all, he told himself, his brother Benji and all their
mouse friends took naps and they weren't babies.
| So Petey climbed up the little ladder on his bunk bed and tumbled onto the mattress. In a flash he fell sound asleep! |  |
By the time he woke up, Petey felt wonderful.
"Wow Benji, I feel great! I have so much energy! Hey---Let's go play ball!" Petey chattered excitedly.
Benji yawned. "Okay, okay, but give me a minute to wake up"
insisted Benji, who was still just a wee bit groggy.
| Petey was tossing a ball in the air and skipping around
the room, he felt so good. As soon as Benji finished waking up, the Mouse Brothers went to the playground where they played ball all afternoon. Benji was right! Petey didn't even get tired! |
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Petey felt so wide awake and full of energy that he decided from then on, he would try to take a nap every single day.
And do you know what? It worked. He never missed out on another
mouse hero movie ever again!
About the Illustrator: Native Texan, Peyton Darrow, is a Juilliard trained actress who, for as long as she can remember, has also wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. She and her husband, Dempsey, started thistlemouse company http://www.thistlemouse.com in 1997, when special requests for Peyton’s custom children’s illustrations began to increase. When Peyton is not at her drawing board, or involved in a production of some sort, she can be found goofing around with her husband, her two daughters, Katherine ("Kitty") and Jacqueline ("Tiger"), Berry the cat and Alex the dog. Contact Peyton at peyton@thistlemouse.com
A former resident of Cleveland, Ohio, Valerie Busic now resides
in Florida with her husband and children. Valerie and her husband have been
foster parenting children of all races for several years. In addition to her
writing, which initially began as a hobby, Valerie is a Realtor, and she homeschools
her two eldest children. Valerie has additional tales published at Bedtime-Story.
Send email to Valerie Busic
Valerie Busic has other tales featured at Bedtime-Story, and her particularly
touching tale, Billy's New Home, For Foster Children
Everywhere, has been published both online and in paperback form, by
Bedtime-Story Books. Check the Author/Illustrator
Directory for other tales.
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