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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 - ¨,~††††&§£
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##£§&††~,¨ † † † † ¨,~††&§£##
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##£§&††~,¨ (HERE I AM AWAKENED BY THE MORNING CREW) ¨,~††&§£##
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