Wendy gave Justin another short
glance before sitting down on one of the two wooden chairs, deliberately
picking the one closest to Nicodemus and she gave the tall rat a rather
self-satisfied smile. Justin had no choice but to step over and take the second
seat, just out of Nicodemus' line of sight. He didn't mind taking this seat at
all, besides, this private meeting was all about Wendy. He would have offered
her the best chair anyway, she also knew that, but for some reason she had to
work off her anger towards him. He knew she was Jenner's target of ridicule for
some sick reason. He wondered if her lousy job had something to do with it. He
decided he would run his thoughts for a possible new job for the young rat.

Wendy took a deep breath and said:
‘I don't really know where to begin.' 

‘Just begin where you think where
the beginning is, my child', Nicodemus said with a soft voice, and the same
feeling of comfort and understanding she felt the first time she had seen
Nicodemus, after she was brought to him at the Market Place, filled her heart.
But she could feel his hesitation as he knew this wasn't going to be easy for
her. Opening herself up to others was always painful and difficult for her,
even though she was among rats she'd known for so long.

‘To be honest... I can't even
explain why I should go to the place I both love and hate, but I feel this
great urge, something so deep... I just really have to now who I am....' her voice
fell off for a moment. Then with the obvious effort, she continued as though
she'd not interrupted herself. ‘My parents are probably already dead. They
weren't lucky enough to get those injections at NIMH you know. Just because you
and I may not age anymore, that's not true for everyone.' The young, pretty
female rat replied with a lump in her throat. The memories of NIMH, the
National Institute of Mental Health, had brought back painful memories and made
her even more sad.

NIMH was a terrible place where
humans in long white coats and rubber hand gloves tested all kinds of medicines
and other painful things on rats, mice, dogs and monkeys. The rats managed to
escape after being in captivity for years, although they couldn't have done
that without the help of Mr. Ages, the medicine-mouse and Jonathan Brisby. Yes,
they are both mice, and the only two survivors of their frightful escape from
NIMH. The rats and mice were given injections that didn't only lengthened their
lives, it also gave them the ability to read. That was a huge mistake of the
scientists; the rats were able to read the opening-instructions of the cages.
Ever since their escape, the rats had been on the run, but after a while they
found a new home, in the rosebush of the garden of Farmer Fitzgibbon. They
already live there for five years and they have all the luxury that humans
have, like running water and electricity. Although life was good in the
rosebush, and the group had tripled the size, there were only a few rats Wendy
liked. Among them was Nanny, Wendy's closest friend.

‘Go on, my child.' Nicodemus said
to break the silence that grew between the three of them.

‘Alright'... Wendy took a deep
breath and said: ‘Obviously my parents didn't want anything to do with me,
otherwise they wouldn't have taken me to that orphanage, and...'

Justin cleared his throat. ‘Sorry
to interrupt Wendy, but why did you say that? I cannot believe your parents
would have...'

‘JUSTIN, you wanted to hear
the story, didn't you?!' Wendy snapped.

‘Well, yes but...'

‘Well then, please shut up
and listen for a change, or do us both a favor and leave the office!'

‘Wendy, Justin, please, don't
argue.' Nicodemus pleaded. ‘There's absolutely no reason to!' He leaned forward
in his big chair and said: ‘Justin, let's just listen to her story and let her
finish in her own words, and Wendy', Nicodemus turned to her and gave her a
smile, ‘please my dear, don't give Justin such a hard time, he doesn't deserve
that.'

Wendy looked down to her hands and
said: ‘yes, I know, I'm sorry.'

‘Apologies accepted', Justin said
and a smile appeared on his face.

Wendy even tried to give him a
small smile back. She hated to admit it, but she really was fond of him. Well,
not all the time maybe, but sometimes.

He had the most childish sense of
humor she'd ever seen, with a love for practical jokes that just confused her
sometimes. She hated it when he would sneak up behind her and try to scare her,
but even that lightened her day from time to time. At first she thought he was
singling her out, but quickly she found out that he did that to everyone.
Everyone... that brought her to the second thing that irritated her about Justin.

The worst thing about Justin was,
well is.. his popularity. All the young and single females of the colony were
madly in love with him, and stood there with pathetic adoring eyes as he walked
by. ‘You could have mopped the floor with the drool', she thought to herself,
angry at letting such thoughts get to her. Wendy Elisabeth was older than
Justin, not that much older, but older. She knew she'd never have a chance... and
never really tried... so if she couldn't have him, then at least she could pester
the living daylights out of him... tough sometimes she wondered what it would be
like if...

‘Wendy?' Nicodemus sounded very
distant. She immediately knew she had been daydreaming. She shook those
thoughts away from her mind and apologized again. ‘That must have looked real
stupid', she thought, and looked at Justin who was smiling at her. That only
seemed to irritate her more. ‘There I go again, looking like a total idiot in
front of him... and why does that bother me so much, anyway?'

Her voice carried a touch of
frustration and embarrassment as she spoke after the telltale hesitation.
‘Alright, I'll continue.'

‘Well, like I said, they put me
there, and left me with nothing but this handkerchief. I've been carrying it
with me all my life.'

‘Handkerchief my child?' Nicodemus
smiled as he looked into her hazel brown eyes, his head tilting in a ‘please
explain' gesture.

Wendy nodded to him, then without
really knowing why she reached into her skirt pocket and gave the handkerchief
to Nicodemus.

It was a white handkerchief,
carefully well kept by the young female rat, for it was the only connection she
had with her parents. There was a small yellow crown stitched in one of the corners.
‘Did somebody tell you anything about the meaning of the crown, Wendy?'
Nicodemus asked.

‘Well I was always told that it
was the crown of Great Britain. I guess my parents were followers of the
British Queen Elisabeth. Hence my name...'

‘Yes, it might be, it might be....'
Nicodemus' thoughts drove off a bit as he passed the small handkerchief to the
young Captain of the Guard who looked at the handkerchief thoroughly. He
enjoyed the warmth of it, as it just came out of her skirt pocket. Nicodemus
must have noticed his action as he gave a short cough followed by a raising
eyebrow towards him.

With a blush he tried to laugh and
held the handkerchief out to Wendy. As she reached for it he gently touched her
fingers.

As she took the handkerchief back,
and felt his fingers touch hers, Wendy felt a strange, warm sensation in her
stomach, but gave Justin a sharp glance, sharper than indented, and quickly
said: ‘Thank you.'

Then she turned to Nicodemus. She
felt extremely guilty about the way she turned Justin's gentle gesture down,
for Justin was now sadly looking down and inspecting his tail.

‘How was life like in this...
orphanage?' Nicodemus asked.

Wendy hesitated, memories seeping
back into her mind that she had tried to forget. ‘It was like NIMH... darkness,
fear, confusion... it was horrible', she said in a soft, haunted voice. She
looked up, with a pain in her eyes that she had always tried to hide. : ‘It was
terrible, and I still don't understand why she treated me differently than the
others....'

‘Who treated you differently?'
Justin tried to ask as careful as he could, clearly not wanting to invite
another sharp remark.

‘Oh, sorry... she was Mrs.
Jones. The lady who owned the place.

Now Justin was a bit puzzled, but
he tried to keep his mind on the story.

She paused, took a quick look on
the watch and continued. ‘She and her husband actually. But he was always busy
finding food for the children and for her. That women ate more than any three
rats would have been able to hold. She was... a horrible creature. She could have
been Jenner's sister, or at least his role model. Her husband on the other hand
was indeed a very nice man. He was born in a school so he learned how to read
as well! He kept files on each child that was brought in. Those files might
still be there! There must be more information there, if she hasn't burned it.'
She looked sad again. ‘She kind of hated me.'

‘She used to lock me up when the
‘parents' came. Those were rats who wanted to adopt a child, out of pity most
of the time. Mrs. Jones would lock me up in a very dark and small place, and
there was always a leak. A constant drip... 
Sometimes I can still hear it in my dreams and I'll wake up screaming
and all covered in sweat... that room probably made me claustrophobic.'

‘Oh, that's why you never
take the elevator!' Justin spoke with a soft voice, suddenly discovering
something he'd not known before, and finding a small key to what had made Wendy
who she was.

Wendy looked at Justin and nodded
briefly. ‘She did that because she didn't want the new parents to pick me. I
still don't understand, I did nothing wrong, did I?' She looked to the old rat
with a plea in her eyes for the first time since coming to the Rosebush.

‘No, no, no Wendy you didn't do
anything wrong! Did you have to stay there until you left the orphanage?'
Nicodemus asked.

‘No I was allowed to get out of
that dark thing when I got older, because by then I was too old to be adopted.
The new parents only want young, small and cute children.' Her voice was
bitter, almost biting as she spoke, and her eyes started to become a bit
watery.

Wendy quickly turned her head to
the other side of the office, but Nicodemus had already seen the tears in her
beautiful, always alert looking eyes. She immediately wiped them away,
pretending there was a piece of her fur in it.

‘Mrs. Jones was the one who ought
to be looking after the children, but she was more out than in. I had to take
the responsibility for 18 small children. I was too young myself, so sometimes
I made a mistake. Mrs. Jones had been out drinking tea with her lady-friends
and one child managed to run away. As Mrs. Jones came back I had searched the
entire neighborhood. I was desperate. I was so scared something had happened to
the poor girl. We spent the entire night looking for her, and around midnight
we found her. She was okay, thank goodness, but everything got out of control
after that.'

‘What happened? What did she do to
you?.' Justin wasn't at all sure he wanted to hear that part of the story.
Wendy had gone through such rough times already. Somehow he felt he had to
protect her, although she would never let him. He always had a weak part in his
heart for her, but now that feeling only grew stronger. He felt pride for
knowing her, he'd be honored if she'd only consider him as a friend, or perhaps
even more than just a friend. He'd be the most happy rat on the planet if... if
she'd be his, but he knew that was never going to happen. She was the only
female rat who was not chasing after him. He didn't care about the others: She
was all he actually wanted.

Wendy paused and looked at him
with a smile. She saw the concern in his eyes. ‘It was not as bad you think,
Justin. She didn't slap me, and she gave me my own room.'

‘Where? In the dark thing?' Justin
looked at her with large eyes.

‘No... no, thank heavens not. I was
sent to the attic. All the way above the house. It was always cold in there in
winter, and horribly hot in summer. And when it would rain... everything turned
wet. But it was one hundred times better than the dark thing.'

She paused, clearing her throat
and looking a bit more optimistic. ‘I found something there, something which
changed a lot. It was an old radio, like the one you have, Nicodemus.'

The three rats turned into the
direction of the old radio the farmer once wanted to throw away, when it was
broken. What a waste! Arthur, the chief engineer, was able to get it back
working again.

‘Anyway, it still worked. Not very
well, but it least it was something. I used to listen to it every night,
softly, when everybody was asleep. The radio was able to pick just one weak
signal. I later learned that it was an Irish signal.'

‘That's what it was....' Nicodemus
suddenly said. ‘The crown, the crown on your handkerchief, it was not the
British crown, it's the Irish crown!'