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.......,~† †††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† †~,.......
......,~†† ††~,......
.....,~††£ MOUSE GIRL LIKES SHOES £††~,.....
....,~††£# #£††~,....
...,~††£#¶ † † † † ¶#£††~,...
..,~††£#¶@ @¶#£††~,..
.,~††£#¶@# IN THIS DREAM I WAS A GIRL OF MAYBE #@¶#£††~,.
..,~††£#¶@ SIXTEEN YEARS, TOGETHER WITH MY DAD IN @¶#£††~,..
...,~††£#¶ A HUGE BATH HOUSE / SPA / HOTEL / ¶#£††~,...
....,~††£# SHOPPING CENTRE. DAD WAS CONSTATLY #£††~,....
.....,~††£ POINTING OUT HOT GIRLS TO ME. "YOU SEE £††~,.....
......,~†† THAT BLACK-HAIRED THING DISSAPEARING ††~,......
.......,~† BEHIND THE CLOTHES RACK? OOF!" HE'D †~,.......
........,~ SAY. HE WAS ALWAYS VERY CREEPY ABOUT ~,........
........., THIS, GOING FOR GIRLS MY AGE. ,.........
.......... ..........
........., THIS NIGHT HE HAD JUST TRIED TO WOO A ,.........
........,~ GIRL HE CALLED A "MOUSE" BY BUYING HER ~,........
.......,~† SHOES, BUT SHE HAD ACCEPTED THEM ONLY †~,.......
......,~†† TO RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD. DAD ††~,......
.....,~††£ WAS A BIT BUMMED BUT DROPPED IT £††~,.....
....,~††£# QUICKLY. I SAID GOODNIGHT TO HIM AND #£††~,....
...,~††£#¶ WENT LOOKING FOR THE MOUSE. ¶#£††~,...
..,~††£#¶@ @¶#£††~,..
.,~††£#¶@# THE BUILDING WAS ENORMOUS AND MAZELIKE. #@¶#£††~,.
..,~††£#¶@ WALLS, FLOORS AND PILLARS WERE SET IN @¶#£††~,..
...,~††£#¶ GREEN MARBLE. THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE RAN ¶#£††~,...
....,~††£# A MAIN BOULEVARD, WIDE AS A STREET, #£††~,....
.....,~††£ FRAMED WITH CLAY VASES DARK AS OBSIDIAN £††~,.....
......,~†† AND TALLER THAN A PERSON. IN EACH VASE ††~,......
.......,~† WAS PLACED UPRIGHT A LEAF FROM A PALM †~,.......
........,~ TREE OR GIANT FERN. THE BOULEVARD WAS ~,........
........., DIMLY LIT, WHICH ALLOWED THE POOLS THAT ,.........
.......... WERE GENEROUSLY SPRINKLED THROUGHOUT ..........
........., EACH FLOOR WOULD REFLECT SUGGESTIVE ,.........
........,~ PATTERNS ON THE MARBLE. ~,........
.......,~† †~,.......
......,~†† † † † † ††~,......
.....,~††£ £††~,.....
....,~††£# FOLLOWING THE BOULEVARD, TWO FLOORS UP #£††~,....
...,~††£#¶ I FOUND HER CRYING BEHIND TWO FERN ¶#£††~,...
..,~††£#¶@ VASES. SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND AS I @¶#£††~,..
.,~††£#¶@# APPROACHED, SHE LOOKED UP AND SNIVELED. #@¶#£††~,.
..,~††£#¶@ IN THE NEAREST VASE SHE HAD STUFFED @¶#£††~,..
...,~††£#¶ BOTH THE SHOES. ¶#£††~,...
....,~††£# #£††~,....
.....,~††£ I TOLD HER TO FOLLOW, BUT SHE DIDN'T £††~,.....
......,~†† MOVE OR SPEAK. SO INSTEAD I SAID TO ††~,......
.......,~† STAY THERE, AND RAN TO GET HER A BETTER †~,.......
........,~ PAIR OF SHOES THAT SHE WOULD ACTUALLY ~,........
........., LIKE. WHEN I RETURNED, HAVING SPENT ,.........
.......... MORE THAN I COULD REALLY AFFORD, SHE ..........
........., WAS VISIBLY IMPRESSED. I TRIED TO SOUND ,.........
........,~ COOL, SAYING SOMETHING LIKE "WHAT DO ~,........
.......,~† YOU THINK, JUST BECAUSE A GIRL HAS A †~,.......
......,~†† FREAKY DAD, SHE DOESN'T HAVE TASTE?" ††~,......
.....,~††£ BUT MOUSE GIRL JUST LAUGHED AT ME. £††~,.....
....,~††£# #£††~,....
...,~††£#¶ SHE THEN TOOK ME BY THE HAND AND LED ME ¶#£††~,...
..,~††£#¶@ OUT A SIDE ROUTE TO A CLOSED-OFF @¶#£††~,..
.,~††£#¶@# ROOFTOP WALKING GARDEN, FULL OF JUNIPER #@¶#£††~,.
..,~††£#¶@ AND THUJA. IT WAS A LATE EVENING, AND @¶#£††~,..
...,~††£#¶ THE STARS WERE GLITTERING. BEING ¶#£††~,...
....,~††£# CLOSED, THE GARDEN HAD ITS LIGHT TURNED #£††~,....
.....,~††£ OFF, BUT WE COULD STILL SEE OUR WAY £††~,.....
......,~†† AROUND BY THE LIGHT SHINING DOWN FROM ††~,......
.......,~† THE WINDOWS OF THE HIGHER FLOORS. †~,.......
........,~ ~,........
........., SHE LAY DOWN IN A PATCH OF GRASS. I SAT ,.........
.......... DOWN ON MY KNEES, AND THEN CRAWLED ..........
........., CLOSER. SHE LAUGHED AT ME AGAIN, AND ,.........
........,~ SAID - ~,........
.......,~† †~,.......
......,~†† † † † † ††~,......
.....,~††£ £††~,.....
....,~††£# (HERE I AM AWAKENED BY THE MORNING CREW) #£††~,....
...,~††£#¶ ¶#£††~,...
..,~††£#¶@ †††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† @¶#£††~,..
.,~††£#¶@# #@¶#£††~,.
..,~††£#¶@ @¶#£††~,..
...,~††£#¶ ¶#£††~,...
....,~††£# #£††~,....
.....,~††£ £††~,.....