Justin
looked at Wendy as she warmed her hands around the tea glass and carefully took
a sip of the hot liquid. He shook his head, wondering how she was able to do
that without burning her fingers, or raising a blister on her tongue. He wasn't
even able to hold his glass for more than a few seconds, let alone drink it! He
balanced it carefully on the arm of the wooden chair, being careful not to
spill it onto his lap and cause even more damage than just burned lips.

He
watched her as she finally set her now half-empty glass down, holding it
carefully between her hands. Then she glanced back to him and noticed him
stare.

‘Well,
shall I continue or would you prefer to just sit and gawk at me?'

Before
Justin could reply Nicodemus interrupted gently. ‘Yes, my child, tell us what
happened when you saw where you were. It sounds like a terrifying experience.'

‘Terrifying
doesn't even start to describe it. To be honest, I kind of panicked. I... well, I
started to try and dig my way into the bag but I realized that they would also
open this one, because they opened all
the bags.'  She took a breath. ‘Then I
knew I had to do something to survive. I came this far; there was no way I was
going to die there without having experienced the taste of freedom! I looked
around in the bag and found a film, one you'd put inside a camera. I thought it
might distract the humans. Well, when a man in a blue suit picked up the bag I
was hiding in, I threw the film out of the bag, and it worked!'

She
paused a minute. ‘The film rolled between his legs on the ground. Suddenly the
man dropped the bag, and ran after the film! He shouted something to the other
humans and they all stopped with what they were doing and looked at him running
after the little film. While they were doing that I took my chance and run out
of the bag. I hid under a desk. Then, when he finally caught the little film,
he laughed and acted like he had won a huge prize or something!'

She
looked over to Nicodemus for a moment, pausing her story. ‘I don't understand
how they can consider themselves the ‘dominate species'. If they weren't so
dangerous they'd be silly.' Then she continued her story.

‘Anyway,
I didn't want to risk going out into the open again, there were too many humans
and the floor didn't really have a place to hide. Then another human threw a
big brown bag onto the floor at the other end of the table and I could see it
split open on one end. I...I took a chance and ran out to it and ripped it open a
little bit more with my teeth and squeezed inside it. No one saw me and the
next thing I remember is that I was picked up and thrown into a big car.
Everything got all bouncy and someone tossed the bag onto another of those long
moving tunnel things. I didn't know what they were then but later I found out
that they were called conveyer belts. Then another human picked the bag and me
up and took us outside and got into a strange looking bus. When the bus stopped
I escaped out of the bag and jumped out, without anybody noticing me.'

Wendy
paused for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts for a while. It had been
such a long time, and in the time between then and now so many things had
happened. The events that took place between her getting off the bus and waking
up at the market place were very blurry. She had passed out. Nicodemus had
later told her what happened with her during that time.

‘So,
when did you find out you weren't in Ireland?' Justin wondered, knowing she must
had found out sometime.

‘I
found out after Nicodemus had found me, I've asked you haven't I?' Wendy looked
in the direction of the older rat. ‘Yes, you did... after you had regained your
strengths again.'  He smiled at her and
gave her a wink.

Justin
didn't know what happened at the market place before he met Wendy at NIMH. So
he asked: ‘You had to regain your strengths because you didn't eat anything for
a while, is that it?'

‘No,
not really... some street rats found me sooner than I found a safe shelter! They
were huge and vicious and they were out to kill me! I tried to run away, but
they chased me into an alley, and there was no way I could get out! They caught
me a couple of times but I managed to run away, anyway. It wasn't easy but they
were so arrogant they got careless, and started concentrating more on
themselves than me, their prey.'

‘Oh no!
You got injured?' Justin's voice was shocked.

‘Let's
see... I was bleeding, limping, I could barely stand and I passed out, but...' She
looked at Justin's expression and thought it would be better not to fill him in
with the horrible details. She softened and continued. ‘It wasn't that bad,
Justin, just some cuts and scratches, nothing serious.'

The
look in Nicodemus' eyes said otherwise for she was seriously injured when he
found her, and no one expected her to live, but he remained silent for a moment
before speaking. ‘And what happened next, my child.'

‘Then I
guess you found me! And you and your family took me in.' She smiled at
Nicodemus again with gratefulness in her eyes. But a dark thought surfaced and
brought back even more painful memories as her smile disappeared. ‘And then...' A
small tear formed at the edge of her brown eyes and Justin, seeing that, set
the glass of tea on to the floor and stood up. He gently placed his hand on her
left shoulder. ‘You don't need to say any more, Wendy, the rest of the story we
know. That much of your life, we've shared.' He gave her a warm smile. ‘That's
when your story, my story and Nicodemus' story became our story.' He looked over at Nicodemus who nodded his head.

Wendy
didn't want to look at Justin, because she knew that if she would, she'd start
crying. She wasn't going to allow herself to cry. She had been strong all day,
and NIMH also brought positive things along, like the ability to read and not
growing older...

Justin
stood there; looking at the older rat who had suddenly began looking a lot
older than he had before reliving Wendy's terrible story. ‘Nicodemus, are you
ready to make a decision, or would you like to take some time and think things
over?'

The old
rat nodded. ‘Justin, Wendy, I think we all need some rest now. Let's wait for a
little while before we conclude this. That is, if you don't mind, Wendy.'

Wendy
shook her head. The lump in her throat made it impossible to speak. Telling her
story brought back many painful memories. Her life had been anything BUT
pleasant so to think of it and that made her very, very sad. For some reason a
little rest would be more than a welcome. She felt exhausted.

Justin
also agreed with that decision. He wanted to think the entire situation over.
Besides, he had another problem nibbling on his mind as well. It was a
recurring problem, one that seemed to grow with every passing day. This problem
started with the letter ‘J' and always ended with something which sounded like
‘enner.' Though once thought of as a friend and loyal supporter of Nicodemus,
the large, black rat had changed since the move to the Rosebush, growing
arrogant and demanding, and was now anything but a friend. Especially recently, just after mentioning the words
‘moving' and ‘Thorn Valley' and don't you dare saying ‘Plan.' Those words were
enough to set off an angry tirade and threatening gestures toward anyone near
him.

Moving
was the only solution they had to be
able to build a new life, a life without stealing, a life without cat and
farmer worries, and as far away from NIMH as they could be. But Jenner opposed.
He wanted to stay in the Rosebush; he loved the luxury and was convinced of the
fact that the rats were able to rule the humans. Kill the humans. The rats of
NIMH weren't rats anymore. They are artificial creatures, created by some
laboratory people. The medicines changed them, not only by identity, for they
are able to read, write and don't age anymore, but also from the way they look.
They aren't able to socialize with other rats because they were feared, not
even with the rats in the Farmer's barn. Mostly because of their size. The rats
of NIMH are twice as big as normal rats. The Plan was the solution, it could
help them to become what they COULD be, not what they are.

Wendy
hadn't looked at Justin and didn't see the conflicting emotions flash across
his face. ‘I'd better be going,' she said. The lump had finally been swallowed,
more or less, and she felt the urge to get out of Nicodemus's office as quickly
as she could.

‘Alright
my child, rest as much as you need and take the rest of the day off.' With
these final words the old rat closed his eyes and, placing his fingers together
before him, fell silent as though lost in thought or meditation.