One warm December day, mouse-baby Pipsqueak opened his eyes to
a surprise. The night before, he had fallen asleep in his warm bed, but when he
awoke the next morning, he was not in his warm bed anymore. No, Pipsqueak was
on a city sidewalk, cars and people rushing past him. Pipsqueak had a lot of
questions: where was he, how did he get here, how will he get home? Putting on
a brave face, Pipsqueak folded his mouse blanked into his mouse backpack and
started following the crowd.
He
decided to follow a tall woman in a business suit. She was carrying a briefcase
and talking on her phone to someone named Ronald, so Pipsqueak figured she knew
where she was going and might be able to help him get home. After quickly
walking for about 15 minutes, Pipsqueak looked up and saw that they were
standing right outside the Duke Energy building. “Wow” thought Pipsqueak, “That
is the biggest building I’ve ever seen! Hopefully someone in there knows how I
can get home.” The woman started going into the revolving doors and Pipsqueak
scurried behind her into the building. Still talking on the phone, she went
straight into the elevators. Pipsqueak’s little legs couldn’t go as fast as she
was walking, but luckily a man was rushing to get into the elevator and the
woman held the door for him. The man and Pipsqueak made it into the elevator in
time. “What floor?” asked the woman. “21st, please” replied the man.
“Alright!” she said, pressing the buttons for floors 21 and 48. “Wow!” thought
Pipsqueak, “48 floors? I’ve never been that high up before!”
After a
seemingly quick ride in the elevator, the doors opened and the woman stepped
out. Pipsqueak scurried behind her and was flabbergasted. Floor-to-ceiling windows
showed the entire city of Charlotte: Pipsqueak couldn’t believe where he was!
When he looked around again, the woman was gone! Pipsqueak was scared, but then
he saw her walking into a conference room in the corner. Running to catch up to
her, he made it into the room just before the doors shut. “Hello gentlemen,
sorry for my delay. Ronald here was talking my ear off and I guess I lost track
of time.” The room laughed and a man, it must have been Ronald, stood up to
speak.
“Good
morning everyone, I’d like to introduce our speaker today. A graduate of Wake
Forest University and the current head of production for Coca-Cola, here is
Sharon Stillman. Her professional focus is streamlining manufacturing in the factories
and facilities, and this morning she will be speaking about factory productions
and hygiene.”
“Thank
you, Ronald, for the lovely introduction. I’m very excited to have been invited
here this morning, so let’s get stated.”
As
Sharon presented, Pipsqueak staying in the back of the room listening. She
started talking about cleanliness in the factories and on the screen up popped
a picture of a mouse! Upon further inspection, Pipsqueak saw that it was his
brother, Whiskers! Pipsqueak was shocked! He didn’t know what to do, so when he
saw that Sharon started walking around the rom, he ran to the podium and inside
Sharon’s briefcase. In he dark and warm space, Pipsqueak quickly fell asleep.
After what felt like a few seconds but must have been 30 minutes, Pipsqueak woke
up to being shaken and tumbling around. The meeting was over, and Sharon was
carrying her briefcase out of the room, back into the elevator, down the building
and out onto the street.
15 minutes back and the shaking
finally stopped. Sharon had reached her car and began to drive back to her own
office. Now Pipsqueak really didn’t’ know where he was, but he hoped that
Sharon would be able to help him get back home.
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