When Lorenzo awoke, he realized that he had miscalculated the world to which he had traveled. He found himself in a little girl’s room. She had long dark curls and was snoring gently in her little pink bed.
He climbed up the covers that hung down around her and studied her carefully. His whiskers tickled her face and she woke with a start.
Jane was amazed to see a little grey mouse staring into her eyes.
“Aah!” she shrieked.
“Shush!” squeaked Lorenzo.
Jane was surprised to discover that this little creature seemed to understand.
“Go away!” she exclaimed “You’re ever so sweet but I can’t keep pets. My Mother is allergic to everything furry.”
“I don’t want you to keep me. I need your help to find my way back home.”
With a creak, the door to Jane’s bedroom slowly swung open. Her mother stood there, sneezing a little, sleepily rubbing her eyes, her hair disheveled.
“Are you having a bad dream, sweetie?” she asked kindly. “I heard you talking in your sleep.”
“I just woke up, Mommy. I’m okay.”
Her mom tucked Jane in and kissed her before she went back to her own room.
“Sleep tight!” she called.
“And don’t let the goblins bite!” replied Jane.
“What goblins?” asked Lorenzo warily, venturing out from under the bed.
“Oh, it’s just something I say when Mommy tucks me in.”
The door swung open again.
Lorenzo looked around for a place to hide and just had time to jump into a fluffy slipper under her bed.
“Jane go to sleep! You can’t talk to your toys now. It’s three in the morning.” Mom complained as she looked around the room and tidied up some toys that lay on the bed.
Jane’s mother walked out of the room again and closed the door.
Jane hung upside down and looked under the bed. She wondered where this intelligent little mouse could have gone. Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and put her toes into her furry panda bear slippers.
“Eek!” the mouse and the girl both screeched in unison.
Shaking her head tiredly, Jane’s mother listened for a moment and then lay down and went back to sleep.
Lorenzo crept from the slipper and Jane let him climb onto her hand.
She found her flashlight and was able to form a tent under her covers so that any sound they made was muffled.
Lorenzo explained that he had fallen asleep and somehow woken up in Jane’s world instead of his own in Glissen’s Ice Palace.
“Wouldn’t you like to stay here?” she asked gently. “It must be very cold and scary there.”
“That is where I belong.” explained Lorenzo. “My family and friends are all there. What would I do in this world? Anyhow, your Mom was sneezing because she is allergic to me.”
“I wish I could have a pet. We had a little white fluffy dog we called Ralphy but Mom sneezed so much that we had to give him away. I loved him so. He used to follow me everywhere. He was my best friend.”
Lorenzo told Jane all about his family and where they lived. He talked all about Black the cat and Glissen and how all the little creatures that lived in the Ice palace always had lots to eat because there were always crumbs around the floor of the kitchen. Life was never dull.
Lorenzo loved his home and wanted to return.
“Do you think if I go back to sleep I’ll manage to find a way back to the Ice Palace?”
“You should try. Go to sleep then!”
So Lorenzo lay down on Jane’s pink pillow under the tent made by the sheets and tried to sleep. He tossed and turned but sleep would not come.
“How about if I read to you?” whispered Jane.
She found a story about a girl who had to spin straw into gold so that she could marry a king. Jane had always wondered why she would want to marry this king because he was so demanding. A little green wrinkled man came each evening and helped the girl make gold. The picture of the king’s castle in the storybook was very much like the Ice Palace that Jane had dreamed about quite often. It was so beautiful, all white and blue and sparkly in the frosty air.
Jane and Lorenzo fell into a deep sleep and together they dreamed.
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