Bastard Mouse


Sunlight streamed in through the blinds, Saturday morning was officially here for Marnie, and boy did she know it!

 Stretching away the tiredness as she lay in her comfy bed with not a care in the world. She may as well have been a multi-millionaire, lounging on her yacht ahead of a day of scuba diving and barbeques on the beach – she certainly felt like a million dollars, even if she didn’t really have it!  

The scar on her index finger caught her eye as she reached for her phone on the bedside table. It made her smile, the kind of smile that cannot be repressed or ignored.

 Lifting her head slightly Marnie looked toward her desk where she had started writing an account – an autobiography even, who knew, the world was hers. All of a sudden last night, she had grabbed her pen and started writing, only getting as far as “life is a bumpy ride, but worth it with all the surprises it can bring. My interesting story involves a time capsule we opened from 1975 which contained items from 2025!”

Marnie let her head sink back into the pillow. Her arms relaxed by her side as she exhaled, slipping back in time as her eyes gently closed. Back to where it all began all those months ago....

SIX MONTHS EARLIER

Marnie Thompson’s slender frame trembled as she wept silently on her bed, the strain of stifling her sobs causing the veins to bulge slightly in her neck. She surveyed her bloody nails on her hand, her fingers now visibly swollen. This was the latest torment inflicted upon her by Jade, her one-time friend, now turned bully. 

Marnie’s mind replayed on loop the incident that had occurred just as the school day had ended. As usual, she’d gone to retrieve her things from her locker. Curiously, the locker door was already open, it was obvious to her as to who the culprit was most likely to be. By now though, bitter experience had taught her better than to make a scene. Just as she reached inside her locker, one of Jade’s friends distracted her by shouting across the corridor “Oi, bastard mouse!” 

Jade and her three accomplices, Ruby, Tori and Chloe all sniggered as they started to sing. Marnie knew what was coming next. 

“Dibi, Dibi Dibiii” the gang of girls sang in unison, fist bumping each other as they did, creasing up with laughter.

Ironically, Rasta Mouse had once upon a time been a source of joy and comfort. It had given Marnie such joy as she watched with her younger brother, Jacob. That very song now filled her with dread as it was the latest in a line of insults all aimed at her. It was obviously a malicious dig at her apparent larger than average macrotia. To add insult to injury the word Rasta was replaced with Bastard. Just as Marnie was looking at the gang of girls with a clearly distressed expression, there was a sickening snap inside the locker. She bit her lip when the sharp pain hit her only to be met with cackles from her onlookers, which now included the general school populace. As she quickly withdrew her hand everyone saw the mousetrap that had snapped shut on her fingers. The large, powerful coiled springs giving it that bit of extra power. Marnie yanked it off her hand, disgusted and humiliated, quickly grabbed the contents of her locker before making a sharp exit. Those few steps towards the door at the end of the corridor seemed to be the most challenging, despite the large strides with her head down. The chortling onlookers provided the soundtrack to another sickening day of taunts and insults.

Marnie’s moment of silent grief was interrupted by her mother’s voice from downstairs, “Marnie, Jacob, come down please, your dad’s found something in the loft”. 

This was one of those rare times that their father was home, he was normally at the surgery. Being a GP, he worked long hours, often working at the out of hours clinic. Marnie had always admired her father, she felt he was in the correct job as he cared so much about others. How she wished he knew about her living hell, he would know what to say and do – he always did!

Quite often Marnie would think about how relaxed her father was and how he made everything fun. He was so unassuming too, insisting on being called Mr Thompson or simply Michael, as opposed to Dr Thompson. There had been a number of occasions that both Jacob and Marnie had friends from school whose parents would take free medical advice from Michael. He never declined any of them, he just advised them to see their own GP as he could not prescribe anything.

Not wanting to rouse suspicion, Marnie rushed into the bathroom and rinsed her hand under the cold tap before drying it off on the towel. She instantly regretted this as there were now blood stains which really stood out on the white towel. Once again, as she looked at her fingernails, bloody and throbbing, she fought back the urge to burst out crying. Taking two plasters out of the bathroom cabinet, she taped up her fingers hoping that no one would really notice, or even if they did, they would not ask. Hopefully, whatever dad had to show them would distract them – little did Marnie realise just how right she was. 

No sooner had Marnie and Jacob entered the family room, had dad hit them with a question, barely able to contain his excitement “what’s the date today?”

Both brother and sister looked at each other, puzzled.

“Oh come on guys, it really isn’t a trick question, what is today’s date?” dad was clearly bursting to tell them something. 

“Er…first of May” said Marnie, looking even more puzzled than before.

“Yes”, said dad, making coaxing gestures with his hands, almost as if they were playing charades “and the year?”

Jacob lost his patience at this point, rolling his eyes and tutting “it is twenty twenty-five, soon to be twenty twenty-seven if we don’t get to the point!”

Dad pretended not to register the sarcasm “yes, that is right, first of May twenty twenty-five, exactly when your grandad wanted us to open this….”

With that, he pulled a cover from a square object on the coffee table, it was no larger than a cat carrier. It was wrapped in what appeared to be musty old newspapers. Upon closer inspection, Marnie saw that it was newspapers from 1975.

Slowly and carefully all four of them began to unwrap this mysterious object. 

“This has been in the loft since 1975, when your grandad owned this house and I was a toddler. When I was about ten years old he told me about it and not to open it until this year, when it had been exactly fifty years ” said Mr Thompson with a hint of nostalgia in his eye.

Marnie looked at the page she had just taken off the parcel; it was the front page of the Daily Mirror, one of the headlines read “May Day 1975 FINAL VICTORY FOR THE VIETCONG”.

Another page from the same newspaper had an advert for a Ford Cortina.

“No way!” Jacob said in awe “Five pence for the Daily Mirror!”

“Yeah, about forty pence that would be in today’s money” Mr Thompson replied with a wistful smile.

Jacob could barely contain his excitement when he saw that a Marvel comic had also been used as wrapping paper. “Wow! Spiderman, Doc Ock lives…..and it was only Eight pence!”

Marnie thought to herself that if simply removing the wrapping was this exciting and interesting, how good was whatever it was in the box?

As the covers came off, they saw a metal box, much like a toolbox with a padlock. Mr Thompson looked at everyone in turn before he put the key into the lock and gently turned it. Click – the padlock popped open, Mrs Thompson smiled excitedly, squeezing Marnie and Jacob in closer to herslef. Mr Thompson reached inside and took out a package, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. He carefully opened it, he carefully reached inside and pulled out the first item. A small envelope with the name Angela written on it. It seemed strange that the envelope seemed like it was brand new unlike the wrapping they’d just removed. Michael handed the envelope to Angela.

“Ooh, I almost don’t want to open this, I am enjoying the excitement of now knowing….Ooh I can’t!”

Both Marnie and Jacob spoke in unison “mum!”

With that, Angela opened the envelope “two tickets to see Olly Murs performing live at the Ovo Arena in Wembley on the 18th of May, 2025”.

Mother was overjoyed.

“See what else is in there dad!” Jacob was impatient.

Another envelope marked for Michael.

“Go on dad, your turn” Jacob leaned in to see what it might be.

“Tickets to see Duran Duran live on the fifth of July 2025” the doctor announced with a large grin. 

Jacob’s envelope contained cinema tickets to see Karate Kid: Legends on the release date of thirtieth of May. He had religiously watched Cobra Kai and was even thinking of learning a martial art himself.

Finally, it was her turn, Marnie also had an envelope “You can open mine dad”.

Michael looked up at her as he opened it up, Jacob and Angela also silently looking on expectantly. Dad paused for a while.

“Go on love” Angela urged him on “what is it? Tickets for Ed Sheeran no doubt!”

“No….its not” John looked very puzzled as he pulled out a Swiss army knife and handed it over to Marnie, who looked quite puzzled and a little deflated “There’s something else too”.

Marnie’s face lit up “yes!”

Dad handed her the second item – a biro pen.

Marnie stared at them for a while before looking up, feigning happiness, she said the first thing that came to mind “always…..always wanted one of these knives….they’re cool”.

Her forced smile fooled no one, though both parents tried hard to not make her feel any worse “awwww….that’s good”, Angela felt a tinge of guilt as everyone else had something they liked. They would all be getting to have memorable experiences, all except Marnie.

Jacob broke the awkward silence by asking what everyone was thinking “dad, is this your idea of a prank?”

John shook his head “no, no son, you yourselves unwrapped the box, it’s been up there since 1975, there’s no way that wrapping could’ve been removed without tearing it even slightly”.

“This is unbelievable, did grandad have a time machine, like in that film you made us watch last year….you know, Back To the….”

John interjected “Future? Your grandad loved tinkering and conducting experiments in his shed – who knows, he could’ve found something – God only knows what he may have stumbled across”.

“Wow! We should tell someone, the TV channels or the…the…the papers, the newspapers, yes!” Jacob’s brain was working faster than his mouth.

“Perhaps if we had known, and had not opened it, maybe then yes. Who would believe us now?” said dad solemnly.

They all stood in silence as the realisation sank in that this first in human history would forever stay between the four of them. What an amazing thing, used in films and books, the world’s first – and they could tell no one about it.

“Anyway, your grandad wasn’t one for the limelight, that wasn’t him, knowing him he did it with some kind hearted idea to help someone” Michael said in a bid to offer at least some consolation.

With that the Thompson family dispersed to their own individual space where they could hit social media, excited about their upcoming events. All except Marnie, who went back to her room feeling worse than before. She lay on her bed wondering why she had the weirdest, most uninteresting things in what might possibly have been the Thompson family’s most interesting find, ever. More than ever, Marnie felt unappreciated and unloved – how did grandad know what everyone else likes and she gets lumbered with some random nonsense?

She remembered him playing with both herself and Jacob, the fun they had building dens, reading and being picked up by grandpa. So why then did he not know what Marnie liked?

It figured.

Checking her phone did her no favours, a video of her with the mousetrap on her hand had already been uploaded with a caption that read “maybe she’s more rat than mouse!”

The clip took her back to what had happened and the dread of going into school the following day. At least this had not been as bad as the last time, when Jade and her crew had threated to give Marnie a swirly. They grabbed Marnie at the end of lunch break and dragged her into the girl’s toilets. Two of them grabbed her legs, the other two her arms. Jade led the way into one of the cubicles, Marnie was panic stricken as she knew what came next. As her hair dangled in the toilet water, she could see an unflushed stool bobbing it’s way closer and closer to her. The smell was putrid, the site of sweetcorn embedded in the excrement and the thought that it might be near her mouth any time soon was all too much to take. Marnie recalled how she weirdly remembered what her dad had told her as she was being held upside down over that toilet; When you smell something, it is odorant molecules being detected by your olfactory system. So, she was basically “eating shit”. It was only by sheer luck that Marnie’s friend, Rajan, had happened to see Jade and her crew grab her. Rajan shouted into the girl’s toilets “quick, I just saw Crumpton headed this way!”

Mrs Crumpton was a fearsome head teacher, one that did not hesitate to contact your parents and in a few cases, involve the police or social services. Jade got her crew to set Marnie down, but not without some sort of pain being inflicted. She threw Marnie back against the cubicle before punching her in the stomach, they all spat on her head as they left the cubicle. Marnie was in too much pain having been winded to even muster the will to wipe herself. In hindsight, getting a punch in the guts and spat on was still better than a face full of shit!

Marnie thoughts drifted to Rajan – the reason why this had all started in the first place. Marnie and Jade had never been friends, nor enemies for that matter. They simply co-existed with their paths never really crossing. That is until the day when Rajan sat with Marnie one lunchtime as they had been working on a project together in art class. Jade was not even in school that day, despite this her minions informed her that the boy she’d like since year seven was talking to Marnie. Trivial and nonsensical yet enough of a red rag to Jade to start this three year long campaign of hate.

A message pinged the phone, snapping Marnie out of the deep thoughts back into reality. It was a message from dad with a video. 

“Hang in there kiddo” was the message with a smiley face. The video was of her and Mr Thompson playing doctors when she was very little, she looked longingly at their smiles on the screen. Such simple times when the worries were nowhere near the level of today. Marnie really loved her parents, her father had taught her so much about the human body and what can ail it. Playing doctors and nurses with a real doctor was way more fun!

Marnie used to love listening to everyone’s hear beat with the stethoscope. She even knew how to perform CPR, tie a bandage or sling and even knew what to do if someone got electrocuted. She learned all of this from her father. A tear rolled down her cheek as the little girl on the screen was picked up and twirled around, her laughter and contentment of being with her father, she longed for nothing more. Simple, pure and innocent. The video ended and the deafening silence was back, grandad may have gone forward in time, yet all Marnie wanted more than anything was to go back. 

Marnie being Marnie tried to see the good in the situation; you could never have enough pens, and the Swiss Army knife has so many practical applications. So many, so very many. Marnie threw the items into her school bag just to get them out of sight so that she could forget about it for a while. Lying on her bed she could hear Jacob next door talking to his mates, making plans to go and see the film and maybe going to get a bite to eat afterwards. Marnie put on her headphones and put on her playlist so she didn’t hear any more of Jacob’s conversation, she wanted to forget the whole episode and to at least not be reminded of it. Before long, she had drifted off to sleep, her only refuge it seemed from the constant thinking that had completely tired out her brain.

At school the following day Marnie went in as usual with a foreboding feeling that seemed to rise from the pit of her stomach. During the first lesson she noticed a new girl had joined, she seemed very quiet yet strangely confident. Her body language suggested that she knew how to handle herself. During register Marnie learned that her name was Tia-May, rumour had it that she had been expelled from her old school for punching one the teachers. Frustratingly, the school rumour mill once again failed to provide a reason why or any context. At one point Tia-May looked straight at Marnie who instantly averted her gaze so as not to unintentionally start a rivalry with the new girl. Two enemies is the last thing she needed.

Things seemed a little more tense than usual that day at school, Tia-May and Jade it seemed had entered into a silent battle to be the “top girl” in that year group. During lunch in the canteen the pair exchanged stares as if trying to psyche each other out. Jade and her friends had not even bothered with Marnie that day – a welcome break, even though it most likely would not last for very long at all.

At the end of the day almost the whole of year eleven was buzzing with the latest bit of gossip. Apparently, Jade had disrespected Tia-May on social media by posting a picture of her at school with the caption “what in the Universal Credit is this ting!”.

Marnie steered clear of any such goings on regardless of how interesting or exciting they seemed. She was just pleased that for once she was not the target of Jade’s rage or spite – whatever it was, she was safe, for now.

For the next few days it felt good to be able to go to school and not have to deal with anything. Marnie even started to come out of her room to spend more time with her family, she was happier and even slept better. Marnie was slowly beginning to heal and find herself again with the burden of looking over her shoulder being removed.

This break from the harassment from Jade et al had restored Marnie’s health, both physical and mental, to something that resembled normality. It was only two years before that a girl in the same year as Marnie had tried to take her own life due to bullying. Had her mother not found out about her plan, she may have been found dead in her bed. Her mother had found two packs of paracetamol under her pillow with a note she had written to be found next to her body. The note was an apology to her parents for leaving them but she felt that there was no other way.

This new-found peace was sadly going to be snatched away however, just through one simple errand that Marnie’s mum asked her to carry out. It involved going to the local Spa shop to get two pizzas for that evening’s meal as there hadn’t been time to cook. Marnie got the text just after school and thought nothing of swinging by the shops on her way home. As Marnie neared the shops her blissful walk was shattered when she heard a familiar laugh from across the street in front of the shop. It was Jade and her crew, cigarettes in hand and a half-drunk bottle of Vodka between them. Marnie stood back just out of site behind a bus stop, watching through the holes in the metal panels of the shelter that passengers sat in.

Jade was loud and brash gesticulating wildly as she regaled some story of a fight she’d apparently been in. The other three girls listened as they drew on their cigarettes, occasionally they’d spit wads of phlegm onto the ground. Jade took a break from talking only when she’d take a swig out of the bottle before passing it round. A man in a suit came out of the store talking on his mobile phone, in his other hand he carried the bits he had just purchased. He happened to glance at Jade, her reaction was instant “What the hell are you looking at?”

The man just looked down and sped up to get away quickly to his car. The crew laughed feeling empowered by the fear they had instilled in this man.

Marnie was already thinking up excuses to tell her mother as to why she could not get the pizza – she didn’t feel like it, we should really eat healthier, after all, dad had drilled into their heads the dangers of weight gain and type two diabetes. Maybe they should just cook something together as they best meals are the ones just thrown together, right?!

Marnie’s train of thought was derailed by the sound of another voice she recognised. Tia-May/ She had emerged from around the corner with three of her own gang, each of them also drinking from cans or bottles. They strode brazenly towards the opposing gang like something out of a gangster movie.

It was then that everything seemed to slip into another reality as every movement and every sound was clear to see and hear. Or so it appeared to Marnie at least.

Jade only had time to bark the words “AND WHAT, BITCH?!” when Tia-May head butted her on the nose which seemed to erupt in a crimson explosion. Tia-May’s three friends all took on one of Jade’s gang, one of them smashing a bottle on the side of Chloe’s head. Blood seeped through her fingers of the hand she had brought instinctively to her head, shivering. She looked in complete shock as she fell to the floor, for a second staring at her leader, Jade. She was of no use as she was engaged in her own battle, and she was losing - badly. Ruby and Tori made a run for it, leaving Jade and Chloe behind to fend for themselves. With them gone, Jade was completely defenceless and Tia-May and her gang were not about to lose this opportunity to vent their frustration. They reigned kicks and punches on Jade, for what seemed an eternity before the three accomplices staggered back exhausted, knuckles bleeding. Marnie bit her lip as she watched on in horror, it felt as if she had not even drawn breath for several minutes. A staff member of the Spa saw through the window what had transpired outside their establishment and rushed off inside. It is then that the sickening finale came as Tia-May splayed Jade out onto her back. She coldly and calmly tilted Jade’s head back as she lay there semi-conscious. Curiously, it reminded Marnie of the CPR dummies that she had used when her father taught her how it is done. What Tia-May did next was the polar opposite however of helping someone with your own breath. She jumped off a bench next to Jade, crunching her exposed throat with the her foot, her whole body weight and gravity working together to seal the poor victim’s fate. Jade made faint rasping sounds as Tia-May seemed to stand back in order to admire her work for a moment before her partners in crime grabbed her away, even then she didn’t break her deranged stare. The girls ran past Jade’s friend that was still in shock from the sight of all her own blood oozing from her head.

At this point staff and customers had rushed out of the shop with calls for an ambulance “she can’t breath, she’s choking!” was all that Marnie could hear.

Marnie saw only Jade, her tormentor, splayed out before her. She dashed across the street and stooped down beside her as she lay there helpless. Without thinking Marnie tipped out the contents of her bag onto the pavement with a frantic energy about her. She grabbed the Swiss army knife whilst feeling for Jade’s throat with the other hand. One of the female customers from the store screamed whilst a couple of the others filmed the scene that was unfolding before them on their phones. No one stepped forward however to even question Marnie, let alone trying to stop her. Without another moment’s hesitation Marnie cut into Jade’s throat, there were gasps of horror from the onlookers yet the recording continued, some of them shouted “Oi. Oi, what you doin’?”

A feeble response to something so violent.

Marnie was oblivious to anything around her at this stage, the adrenaline was the pilot now, it was the Captain of this ship. Almost without thinking, Marnie grabbed her biro and removed the ink cartridge with the metal nib on the end. Feeling for the cut she’d made, she carefully inserted the hollow plastic tube. Just at that moment two police cars and an ambulance screeched to a halt with sirens piercing the air.

ONE MONTH LATER

Marnie looked out for her family in the audience as the applause reached a crescendo. The lights were hot and it was nerve wracking in front of all these people, it was worth it though. Finally, Marnie smiled ear to ear as she saw her mother, father and brother smiling back, albeit a little damp around the eyes. Carol Vorderman herself introduced Marnie and Jade to those in the studio and those at home tuning into the Pride of Britain Awards show. Jade still sounded a little raspy, yet she somehow still managed to tell her story of how Marnie’s quick thinking saved her life. The audience laughed when she said that she didn’t even know how to spell emergency tracheotomy, but she sure was glad that it was a thing! 

At one point Jade nearly broke down when Carol asked how she got to be friends with Marnie. Jade looked down tearfully, fighting back the tears. Marnie took her hand, speaking on behalf of Jade “We have been friends ever since year seven, and we always will be”.

“Wow, isn’t that just heart-warming, what a shining example you two really are, give it up for Marnie and Jade” came Carol’s instant response which was instantly met with more applause.

That night, as they drove back from the television studio, dad had a surprise for Marnie. When they got home, he gave her another envelope that he had managed to miss when they first opened the time capsule. Marnie opened it and read what was written on a small piece of note paper inside. Marnie read it in her mind several times over in the space of a few seconds. Looking up, she rushed into her parent’s arms, pulling Jacob along as she went. 

Mum looked at the piece of paper that had fallen to the floor during the embrace. It simply read “You are enough, you deserve no less. I always knew you could, and you did. Grandpa’s little Marnie moo, now and forever” XX