@¶¶&$††~.. ..~††$&¶¶@
¶¶¶&$††~.. ..~††$&¶¶¶
##¶&$††~.. ..~††$&¶##
#@¶&$††~.. ..~††$&¶@#
##@¶$††~.. ..~††$¶@##
@@¶&$††~.. †††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† ..~††$&¶@@
&&†~...... ......~†&&
#@¶&$††~.. MOUSE GIRL LIKES SHOES ..~††$&¶@#
#@¶&$††~.. ..~††$&¶@#
¶&$$†~.... † † † † ....~†$$&¶
##@¶&$††.. ..††$&¶@##
&&&$†††~.. IN THIS DREAM I WAS A GIRL OF MAYBE ..~†††$&&&
&$†....... SIXTEEN YEARS, TOGETHER WITH MY DAD IN .......†$&
##@&$††~.. A HUGE BATH HOUSE / SPA / HOTEL / ..~††$&@##
¶$††††~... SHOPPING CENTRE. DAD WAS CONSTATLY ...~††††$¶
@@¶&$††~.. POINTING OUT HOT GIRLS TO ME. "YOU SEE ..~††$&¶@@
@@¶&$††~.. THAT BLACK-HAIRED THING DISSAPEARING ..~††$&¶@@
¶$†††~~... BEHIND THE CLOTHES RACK? OOF!" HE'D ...~~†††$¶
¶&††~..... 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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