.^~††¤§### ###§¤††~^.
..^~††¤§## ##§¤††~^..
...^~††¤§# #§¤††~^...
....^~††¤§ §¤††~^....
.....^~††¤ ¤††~^.....
......^~†† †††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† ††~^......
.......^~† †~^.......
........^~ 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) ¤††~^.....
....^~††¤§ §¤††~^....
...^~††¤§# †††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† #§¤††~^...
..^~††¤§## ##§¤††~^..
.^~††¤§### ###§¤††~^.
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...^~††¤§# #§¤††~^...
....^~††¤§ §¤††~^....