Mac snuck outside just as the sun was coming up. It was a Saturday so he knew Suzie and Aunt Maddy would be sleeping in. The old door creaked as he pushed into the crowded, musty garage. Most of the stuff from his mom was stacked neatly all around him, surrounding him with boxes of memories and sadness. He managed to get his bike out and took it to the driveway.
“Okay, Mac,” he told himself, “you’re ten years old. You can do this. Just get on and ride!”
He peddled slowly, then a little faster, faster until….
He hit a rock, the front wheel turned, and he crashed hard into a tree. The bike was bent and Mac was furious.
“Dad!” he whispered. “You promised!”
When he was putting his bike back he heard his aunt screaming. Running inside he knew what he was going to find.
Aunt Maddy stood far away from the open refrigerator spattering and spittering words that he couldn’t understand.
He walked up to the refrigerator and met the angry stares of five shrews.
“What’s up with you? I thought you was gonna tells your family last night!” The shortest, fattest shrew tapped his foot.
“Okay, okay.” He turned to Aunt Maddy who was now sitting on the floor babbling.
“Talking, talking mice.”
“They’re shrew’s, actually, Aunt Maddy.”
“Shrews. In my refrigerator, on the pickles, the pepperoni pizza, the pecan pie!…Talking shrews!”
He sat next to her and explained it while Suzie joined them and met the shrews. Soon the tiny soldiers were twirling with her around the kitchen. In no time there were dozens of shrews laughing and dancing with Suzie, one on her head, two on her shoulders, and three hanging tightly on her toes. Suzie acted as if she danced every morning with the shrew army. But then that was Suzie.
Mac, seeing William smiling at the window, just shrugged. And almost smiled.
An hour later a crabby woman did show up with a sign for their front yard, just as William had predicted. She walked through the house and made Maddy feel bad that things weren’t super clean or repaired.
When she was gone Suzie, Aunt Maddy, and Mac began cleaning and painting. By the end of the day things looked better but they were super tired.
They never noticed the pigeons flying in from all directions to William’s back porch.
The pigeons were quiet, that is, for pigeons. William stepped out his back French doors and greeted them.
“My friends. Thank you for coming. Major Dragoon, I assume you have informed your troops as to the danger of this mission?”
With this the pigeons fell into line and took a military stance. One had an eye patch, several had scars, all evidence of former battles.
“Danger? We do not know the meaning of danger. We don’t see danger, smell danger, hear danger, taste danger…do we, men?”
“Sir, no sir.” They all said.
“It will take you a great distance, we are searching for a man, the father of a very dear friend of mine. The father is lost, but doesn’t know he is. Yet.”
“Humans!” scoffed the Major. “Patagonia. Yes, we have mapped it.”
One of the pigeons in the back pulled out a huge map with writing all over it.
The Major put a headpiece on which amplified his voice. “We fly to Toledo, pick up a ride we have arranged with a trucker named Mr. Finley Finkel, arriving Malibu, California where we will avail ourselves of a vessel docked there waiting for us. We will be, uhhmmm, borrowing it, shall we say. We then travel past the Gulf of California, past Mexico, crossing the equator, past Peru, finally working our way along the Chile border, and finally, Patagonia. Six thousand, two hundred and ninety one miles.”
William sighed. “A long journey, my dear friend. Rough waters. Many challenges.”
They were silent.
Finally William said to the pigeons. “I have a rescue team on the ground, but your help in locating the human will be critical to our success. I cannot ask you to risk your lives. If any of you would like to decline this mission it would be completely understandable. Please, just leave and no one will think the worse of you.”
They stomped their feet one time and stood tall.
The Major smiled and turned to William. “We leave immediately.”
William had tears in his eyes as he saluted them, watching them waddle bravely down the street, the Major lifting easily into the air, followed by two more, then four more, then eight…
They disappeared into the thick, darkening clouds.