Silversides was equally startled by Ragweed. Her head snapped up and she looked about to see who had called.
“I’m right here, dude,” Ragweed taunted, stealing a nervous glance over his shoulder to make sure his path to the train remained clear. “Remember me? The one who got away from you when I first came to town. The one who, like, popped Clutch’s deck into your mouth. Remember? Yah, yah, you can’t catch me!” he jeered.
Silversides suddenly seemed to understand who was calling her. Abandoning her pursuit of the white mouse, she started to move toward Ragweed.
“Hey, whitey,” Ragweed shouted to the mouse. “Now’s your chance! Run for it!”
Blinker, however, was too frightened to do anything other than blink and gape.
Not so Silversides. She leaped toward Ragweed.
Ragweed was ready. The instant he saw the cat coming, he spun around and dashed for the train. Even as he did, there was a sudden progression of loud bangs as mechanical couplings went taut. The train began to roll away.
Unnerved, Ragweed made a desperate leap in hopes he could grab hold of a dangling coupling hose. Not only did he fall short, but the train increased its speed so rapidly he was afraid to make a second attempt. He might be crushed by the steel wheels. He had missed the train.
Hearing a sound behind him, he whirled just in time to see Silversides barreling down at him, yellow eyes ablaze with wrath, sequined collar glittering, pink mouth and sharp white teeth fully exposed.
“Bummer!” Ragweed cried. “She’s got me!”
Silversides took a giant leap through the air.
As the cat plunged down, Ragweed dove beneath her. His size and speed enabled him to slip under the cat, but so close did they come that Ragweed felt the cat’s belly fur rub along his own back. No matter. By the time Silversides landed, Ragweed not only had passed her but was racing madly toward the white pile.
When Silversides landed, she was completely confused as to where the golden mouse had gone. She looked now this way, now that. She finally glanced behind her and caught sight of Ragweed racing away. With a yowl, she spun on the spot and tore after him.
Ragweed was aiming for the white mouse. Blinker, who had observed everything that had happened with little more than numb comprehension, saw Ragweed coming.
“Head for the junk pile, dude!” Ragweed screamed.
All that Blinker could manage was to open his eyes wide.
Ragweed reached him. Without ceremony, he grabbed one of Blinker’s paws and yanked, spinning the petrified mouse around. “If you want to live, mouse,” Ragweed yelled, “hit it!”
The mouse, shocked into motion, scrambled after Ragweed.
Coming right behind and gaining quickly was Silversides.
“Faster!” Ragweed cried. “Faster!” It took Ragweed seven running leaps to reach the pile. With no hesitation, he plunged into the stinking garbage, clawing desperately beneath the surface until he sank knee-deep into the trash. Turning, he saw he was safe, but the white mouse was struggling. Ragweed grabbed one of Blinker’s paws and dragged him to his side.
From outside the pile, they heard Silversides yowling with frustration.
“We’re safe,” Ragweed replied. “For a while.”
The white mouse was weak to the point of collapse. “Thank . . . you. You saved my life. I . . . had . . . no idea. Who . . . are you?” he asked.
“The name’s Ragweed, dude. Like, what’s yours?”
“Blinker.”
“Cool.”
Blinker looked around at the garbage. “Is . . . this your nest?” he asked.
“This dump? No way, dude. Actually, I don’t even live in this town. Like, I’m just passing through. Where are you from?”
“I . . . I live in the nest where . . . Silversides lives.”
Ragweed was taken aback. “Her nest?”
Blinker nodded mournfully.
“Are you friends?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Blinker assured Ragweed. “On the contrary.”
“Were you, like, running away from her?”
“It’s not that simple,” Blinker said with a sigh.
Ragweed gazed at Blinker. This was one odd mouse. “Stay here, and chill,” he said. “I’ll go see what’s happening with the cat. We don’t want to be surprised. Then you can tell me your story.”
“You won’t leave me, will you?” Blinker cried.
“Hey, trust me.”
Ragweed pushed his way up through the junk. He poked his head out of the top of the heap and surveyed the scene.
Silversides was sitting a few feet off, angry eyes fixed on the pile of garbage.
Ragweed returned to Blinker. “I think she’s going to try and wait us out. So we need to chill out for a while. You cool?”
“I’m all right.”
“Okay, go ahead,” Ragweed said. “You were about to tell me your story.”
“It’s not very interesting.”
Ragweed shrugged. “Just tell it like it is.”
Blinker told his entire history, from the time the girl brought him home from the pet store to his escape.
“I thought you were trying to get on the train,” Ragweed said when Blinker was done.
The white mouse shook his head sadly. “All I want to do is get back to my cage. I don’t think I’ll ever leave it again.”
“Why?”
“The world is too big for me. It’s wonderful but . . . very frightening. But what about you?” Blinker asked. “If you don’t live in this town, why are you here?”
“Dude,” Ragweed replied, “my life couldn’t be more different from yours.” He told Blinker how he came to be in Amperville.
“But the way you talk,” Blinker said. “It’s . . . different.”
Ragweed, delighted Blinker had noticed, grinned. “That’s the way city mice talk, dude,” he said proudly.
Blinker sighed. “You and I have led such dissimilar lives,” he said. “For example, you have a family. I have no memory of my parents or brothers or sisters. The girl in my nest told me I was bred in a mouse factory. Your nest by that Brook sounds so beautiful, so serene.”
“It’s okay, but way dullsville, if you know what I’m saying. Nothing ever happens there. Compared to all this, anyway.”
“Oh,” Blinker cried from the heart, “if I had a home like that, I believe I should never leave it. And yet,” he added sadly, “though we have led such different lives, here we are, in the same predicament. Do
