A Plush Wish

The butcher's shop was decorated with strings of flags and colourful flowers. 'We're celebrating fifteen years since this shopping street was set up.' the butcher said when he handed Mouse the sausages and her receipt. 'We're holding a raffle once a week this month with a variety of prizes. Just hand over your receipt with your name on it at the stall in front of the supermarket, and if you're lucky you'll win something at the draw at the end of the day.'

Mouse felt a little excited at the thought of winning a prize for Petro. Maybe that would be the thing to make him really happy. She thanked the butcher and hurried towards the stall.

Several people were gathered aroumd it while music played from a couple of speakers and a woman took the receipts and handed out numbered tickets. Behind her stood the prizes on display.

Mouse looked them over and most were household gadgets, coupons for several stores, a box full of groceries, and her eye fell on a combi oven. Petro had mentioned once while making dinner he wanted one, but a large and really good one, which was a little too expensive for him while he tried to save up for getting his certificates. Mouse knew she had to win that one to make Petro happy.

She doubted she was lucky enough though but remembered she had a lucky item. Cheerfully she hurried home to get it and returned a little later with her receipt in her hands.

The woman at the stall looked at her in surprise, but after confirming she hadn't been drinking or eaten something expired, she took Mouse's receipt and gave her a ticket. 'Don't forget, the draw is at the end of the day.'

Mouse glanced at the oven and nodded. 'I won't.' she said, tucked the ticket safely away and smiled as she walked further down the street, sure she'd win now.

***

Another surprise awaited Petro at the office. 'Where's my stuff!?' he said looking at an empty desk. Rick cleared his throat behind him and Petro turned to see him pointing at the end of the row of cubicles. 'There!?' Petro said and moved briskly. 'Why am I suddenly moved to the end!?'

He stared into the empty cubicle on the right, the empty one on the left, and turned to Rick. 'Not funny.'

Rick gestured with a nod behind Petro. 'Look there.'

Petro turned around and looked through the open door of the office in front of him. His belongings lay on the desk. 'What's this?'

Rick held up a page. 'According to this minty fresh memo, you're now in charge of measuring performance, identifying areas of improvement and implementing them on all systems in use at the company.'

Petro's jaw dropped. 'What!?'

Petro stared at his screens after hooking up his computer and reading his new assignment in his email. He couldn't believe the position he now held. He was confident he could do the job, he just didn't think it would happen. At least not for several years. He leaned back in the comfortable leather chair. This thing he could certainly get used to,

He leaned forward. 'Right. No use wasting this opportunity. I've got work to do.'

***

Mouse sat down on a bench to snack on one of the sausages and think about her wish again. She chewed and watched people going about their business for a while when she noticed an old woman shuffle a short distance with her bag, put it down for a minute, and then shuffle another short distance before putting it down again.

Mouse looked around but no one else seemed to take notice of the old woman. She chowed down the remains of her sausage and walked over. 'Excuse me, can I help you with that?'

The old woman smiled gently at her. 'That would be very kind of you. Usually Melissa, my granddaughter, goes to the store for me, but she's gone on an educational trip now for a week and won't be back for another. She bought me enough to last these weeks, but there's still a few things that I wanted.' She sighed. 'I guess I'm really getting old now.' She squinted at Mouse. 'You're new here, aren't you?'

Mouse nodded. 'Sort of anyway. I'm Mouse, and I live with Petro now.' She thought of the cover. 'I'm his cousin from out of the city.'

'Ah. I see.' said the old woman and Mouse picked up her bag. 'Call me Granny. Everyone around here does. Even the ones almost as old as me.' she added with a chuckle.

Mouse offered her arm for support and Granny led the way to her apartment.

There she showed Mouse the kitchen and offered to make her tea. 'I might have trouble with some things, but I can still do that.'

Mouse put down the bag and saw a big pile of bowls, plastic containers, dishes, and cups in the sink. 'Shall I was these while we wait then?'

Granny held up her hand. 'You don't have to. Melissa said she would take care of it when she's back.'

'It's no problem. It'll make some room and she'll have a little less work by then. And I have no plans for today anyway.' Mouse said and reached for the faucet.

'Careful! That one has a-' Granny said but Mouse had already turned the knob and she yelped when a powerful stream of water shot out directly into a cup in the sink and splashed back against her.

Granny clasped her mouth. 'Oh dear!' she said while Mouse looked at her like a wet puppy, dripping droopy ears and big sad eyes. 'Wait here, I'll get a towel and something dry to wear from Mellissa's clothing.'

Granny returned and Mouse muttered 'Sorry.' while she dried her face.

Granny chuckled. 'It's all right, you didn't know that would happen. Give me your dress, I'll let it hang out to dry.'

Mouse changed clothes and with a careful second try got the water running and did the dishes while Granny made tea. Granny told a little about herself and how the neighbourhood began and changed in her lifetime while they drank tea and nibbled cookies.

Mouse saw crumbles everywhere and asked where she could find the vacuum cleaner. 'Is it also dangerous?' she asked before turning it on.

Granny giggled. 'It's safe as long as you don't use it on yourself.'

Mouse chuckled and turned it on, vacuuming the whole living room while she was at it. She rounded the table when the vacuum cleaner got stuck on the thick carpet, then shot forward again against the table and the shock toppled a fruitbasket enough to lose an orange. It rolled from the table and underneath the couch before Mouse could catch it.

She frowned and laid down the hose. 'Darned round things.' she said, peered under the couch and reached for the orange. She groaned a little as she stretched her arm as far as she could, touching the orange with her fingertips. She yelped at the sudden hard pull on her tail and a sound going "Foomp".

The vacuum cleaner whined high while she scrambled to turn it off and free her tail from the hose.

'Oh my.' said Granny as Mouse stroked her tail. 'Are you all right?'

Mouse looked at her with flattened ears. 'Luckily it's just my pride.'

A firm brush job later her tail looked just as fluffy as it was before. Mouse saw the time and told Granny she had to go to the prize drawing.

Her dress had dried in the meantime and after changing Granny waved her goodbye as she went down the stairs. 'Thanks for your help, and good luck at the drawing! And visit again if you like to.'

Mouse waved back. 'Thanks, and I will!'

She hurried towards the stall and arrived just in time for the beginning of the draw. She fished her ticket out of her pocket and held it firm while numbers rolled out of a rotating dispenser and the woman who handed out the tickets located the matching receipt under the watchful eyes of three members from the shopping street alliance.

Mouse watched as the smaller prizes were given away with cheers from the audience while glancing often at the combi oven. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other faster each time another prize went. "Please let me win the oven for Petro. Please let me win the oven for Petro." went through her mind while she rubbed her ticket between her thumbs and fingers.

The woman gave away the last prize before the oven and Mouse shut her eyes tight. "Please! I'm wearing it so it has to work!"

The dispenser turned, a numbered ball rolled out with light ticks, the woman took it, rustled throught the collection of receipts, turned to the microphone, Mouse tensed all over as she heard the inhale of breath before the words came out, and the name called out was 'Maurits von Pears.'.

Mouse gazed with sad eyes and drooped ears at her ticket while the crowd in front of her cheered for the winner. She sighed. "Maybe next time." she thought and smiled ruefully at the stall where the woman drew another number. Mouse turned and walked away slowly. "Maybe it didn't work at all." she thought. "I did have some bad luck at Granny's."

'And the trip to the beach goes to Mouse from Petro!'

Mouse froze.

The crowd cheered and looked around for a sign of the winner coming forward. 'Where's our Mouse from Petro?' the woman asked.

Mouse turned around slowly. 'I won?'

The people in front of her heard her, stepped aside and cheered for her.

'I won something?' she said again and the people waved their hands for her to go up to the stall.

She moved forward holding her ticket to her chest while her heart raced in a confused mix of happiness and nervousness. The woman took her hand and helped her up on the low podium. Mouse handed over her ticket with trembling fingers and the woman confirmed it.

'The full paid week vacation to the beach for two is yours!' said the woman and Mouse received more cheers while she thought of how happy Petro might be.

After arranging all the formalties Mouse went home and crashed exhausted on the couch. She didn't have to wait long before Petro came home and pounced him the moment he was inside.

'Wow, what's this cheerful greeting?' he chuckled as he watched her paw him and wag her tail hard while she sat on top of him.

'It's so wonderful I was just going around this morning and then I went to get some of those dried sausages for a snack at the butcher because I know you like them too and he said I could put my name on the receipt and take it to a stall for a chance at winning a prize because they're celebrating so many years and then I saw one of those combi ovens that you wanted so then I hurried back home to change because they said it was lucky and then I went back and got a ticket for the draw at the end of the day and after that I saw an old woman who said I could call her Granny because everyone does it struggling with a bag too heavy for her and I carried it home for her and she offered tea but when I wanted to do the dishes for her because her granddaughter Melissa was gone for another week the water came out hard and splahed all over me so then I got to wear a shirt from Melissa while my dress dried and we drank tea and talked but the cookies crumbled so much I vacuumed but then the cleaner hit the table and I had to grab the orange that rolled underneath the couch and then my tail got sucked into the hose and I had to brush it to get it back in shape but then I had to hurry back because the drawing started and I wished so hard for the oven but then someone else won it and I felt so sad I wanted to leave and then they said I won the week long trip to the beach!' Mouse breathed in deep. 'All thanks to this!'

Petro gasped as she pulled her dress over her head and revealed white V shaped panties with lace waistbands and a laced white bra covering only the bottom of her breasts with lace straps rounding the outside and going around the back of her neck. They might have used half a handkerchief's worth of cloth to make these.

The front door which stood ajar opened. 'Petro, I've got this weird message' Janice said, then stared at the two on the floor in front of her. 'on my laptop.'

'That's not why they call it lucky underwear,' Janice said to Mouse while Petro ripped a piece of malware from the operating system, installed thanks to a game that lured players with cute characters.

After the initial shock at the door Petro said it wasn't what it looked like, even if everybody said that line in cases where it was obviously what it looked like, and Mouse had to tell the whole story again to convince Janice. This time he could follow what she was talking about.

Mouse, who had put on her dress again, slumped a little. She had hoped she could use it more often. 'Then why?'

Janice blushed and glanced at Petro who pretended not to listen and instead focus on slaughtering digits. 'It's.. It's something you'll learn later, when the time is right.' She cleared her throat. 'So, about this trip?'

Mouse smiled wide and her ears trembled with joy. 'Isn't it wonderful? Everything's arranged and the beach where we're going is a little out of the way so it's not as busy. Perfect to relax.'

Janice hummed. 'But can you even go now with your new task at hand, Petro?'

Petro sat up having eradicated the naughty bits. 'We can go next week. The systems need to log at least a week before I can look at performance numbers.' He handed the laptop to Janice. 'From now on don't install anything that has dancing bunnies.'

Janice left Petro's apartment after warning him not to get any funny ideas with his cousin and bit her nails while racking her brain for an idea to get closer to him. Her phone rang just as she had an inkling of an idea and she picked it up. 'Kyle, my dear brother, you're calling just at the right moment.'

Petro couldn't fall asleep while Mouse's imagine in her underwear kept coming back. It didn't matter that she wasn't equiped like normal girls, that sort of underwear made her even more sexy.

***

The next day Mouse took a stroll through the other side of the neighbourhood and passed a school. Kids were sitting outside and she recognised some of them as the kids she had met before. They were quietly looking down.

She came closer and leaned on the low wall going around the school. 'Hey, what's wrong?'

'We have to do a school play tomorrow.' said one of the boys.

'And that's not fun?'

'Not when we have to do Red Riding Hood and the old costume for the wolf is bad.' another boy said.

'It's full of holes but we can't get another before tomorrow.' said one of the girls. 'And Peter who is supposed to play the wolf got sick.'

Mouse remembered the story from when her old owner, the girl, read it. She didn't like the violence. 'I see.' she said.

'And all our parents are coming to watch.' said the first boy. 'We need a new wolf.'

The other kids agreed and Mouse pondered. 'I wish I could help.'

One girl pointed at her. 'You can play the wolf!'

Mouse backed off a step while the others kids agreed and turned lively. 'Wait, I don't know if I can. Or even if I'm allowed.'

The girl ran away to the building calling out 'I'll go ask!' while the rest tried to convince Mouse to do it.

'But I don't want to eat grandma! Or anyone else! And I don't want to get killed, even if it's all pretend!'

'Then we'll change it!' said one boy. 'We'll make something up!'

The girl who went to ask came back running. 'They said it's okay if we ask nicely and you have the time!' she said and panted. 'Will you help us? Please?'

Mouse nearly drowned in the pleading from the kids and held up her hands. 'All right! All right! I'll help.'

The kids cheered and pulled her along to the school building the moment she came in through the gate.

***

Petro chuckled when he disconnected the call.

Janice put her head through the doorway of his office. 'Funny call?'

Petro grinned a little. 'Mouse just called to say she's been dragged into a schoolplay version of Red Riding Hood as the wolf and asked if I could come see it when they perform tomorrow evening.'

Janice tapped a pen against her lips. 'But don't you have an installation planned for tomorrow evening?'

He looked at his to-do list. 'I can make it if all goes well.' He smiled at the image of Mouse in grandma nightgown and speaking the famous lines, then frowned. He stared at Janice. 'Hang on. Why are you here!? And how do you know my plans!?'

She smirked and stepped into his office. 'Dad thought you could use some help and I the work experience, so I'm here to keep an eye on you and assist when needed.' She fluttered a little with her eyelashes, wiggled her hips a little in the dark blue skirt suite she wore, and pressed her arms a little against the sides of her breasts. 'Doesn't this outfit look good on me?'

Petro was a little afraid one of the buttons of her tight blouse might shoot loose at the pressure of her chest behind it and poke one of his eyes out. He leaned back a little and cleared his throat. 'It, does. You look like serious business.'

She beamed a little. 'Thanks! I'll go and get status reports from the other teams now.'

Petro watched her step lightly along the row of cubicles. Rick's head appeared out of his cubicle to watch her, then turned towards Petro sporting a wide grin and giving him a thumbs up. Petro groaned and turned to his screens.

***

In the evening Mouse told Petro a little more about the play. She sat on her knees on the couch looking at him with her big eyes. 'You'll really come see me?'

Petro chuckled. 'I will.'

She tackled him and snuggled against him. 'I feel so nervous when I think about all those people watching me. But I'll feel better when you're there.'

Petro smiled softly and stroked her head. 'Don't worry. I don't want to miss seeing you perform either.'

***

While Mouse spent the day at school working on the play, Petro prepared for the job he had to do that evening and went over all the lists again to make sure everything was up to date and in working order.

He called Mouse at the end of the day at school to see how she got along.

Mouse smiled softly. 'Rehearsals went well, and we're having pizza here at school for dinner. The kids are having great fun.'

Petro smiled. 'That's good.'

'How is it on your end?'

'Good to go. Just waiting for the last person to log out of the system, then I can make backups and do what I need to do.'

Mouse watched as kids came into the classroom with flat boxes spreading a delicious scent. 'Okay. Good luck. Pizza has arrived so I've got to go.'

'Enjoy then, And see you later.' Petro said and hung up with some reluctance.

Janice came into his office carrying a pizza box. 'Are you sure you don't want to eat first?'

The smell coming from the box was tempting. 'Yes, otherwise I won't be on time to see the play.'

Janice huffed a little but sat down at the corner table in his office and started on a slice.

Petro had installed specific updates and packages on all the servers but one when he looked at the time. 'Nice, I'm ahead of schedule.'

Janice suppressed a yawn while she played a game on her phone. She rather wanted to be home but she also wanted to make a good impression on him. 'That's nice.'

He typed in a few commands and waited for the output. 'Fuck!'

Janice almost dropped her phone. 'What!?'

Petro glared at his screen. 'One of the servers went down!'

She blinked. 'What does that mean?'

He stood up. 'It means I either find out what's wrong and fix it, or I'll have to restore the backup but then I can't try this again before the end of the week. And that means I'd have to cancel the trip with Mouse.'

Janice shrugged. 'Then go later.'

He frowned at her. 'I can't do that. She's looking forward to it and by the time I get another opportunity it may be too late in the season to go.' He hurried out of his office and went to the server room.

***

The play was about to start and Mouse still hadn't seen a sign from Petro. She checked the audience sitting in the school hall often and grew more nervous with every guest that arrived.

The girl named Sally and playing Red Riding Hood came up to her and looked at the people too. 'Isn't he here yet?'