Page 19 - My FlipBook

even think of them. No no no. AAAAAaaa!" She screamed as the
mouse raced passed the bottom of the dining table

"I don't understand. How can you be so scared of mice, but
not snakes or ghosts?" Rajiv asked, confused. "Mice are
relatively harmless. They are not unknown like ghosts or
dangerous like some poisonous snakes."

"It is like Tania said. My brain knows not to be scared, but
my body and feelings just won't respond to it. I have
musophobia as derived from the Greek word for mouse or
suriphobia as derived from the French word for mouse.

"So what do we do now?" Tania asked.

Tanisha called out from the other room where she was hiding.
"Please somebody get rid of it. I won't be able to sleep
knowing it is in the house. What if it nibbles my toes?"

"What if it licks my face? " Nikhil added.

"No please. Don't say such things. " Nisha pleaded.

Just then the mouse showed up again, and this time it dashed
across the room running over Nikhil's feet. Nikhil started
jumping up and down and screaming hysterically. Nisha and
Tanisha started screaming too. The rest of the kids wondered
what to do. Then there was a knock on the door.

All the screaming had attracted the attention of Anushka,
the lady next door, who had helped them get a message to
Tania's mother. "Is something wrong?" Anushka asked,
concerned.

Tania, Vivek, Rajiv , Karishma and Sonali all explained the
situation to Anushka. She smiled and said, "I have a cat at
home. I can bring her here and see if she can catch the
mouse." The kids were relieved to see a calm and composed

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