[naviga:h2]Friends For Life[/naviga:h2]

'I'm scared. I'm in this church all alone and it's Christmas. I want to be with my family,' I thought. I'm Ralph, the St. Peter's Church mouse, generations of my family have enjoyed the warmth and shelter of this old historic building. But I am not feeling happy at this moment as my parents are nowhere to be seen. Where could they be? Why would they leave without me? I froze as I heard the familiar patter of paws across the bare floorboards.

"Meeeeow. Hello. Hello?" echoed round the rafters.

"What was that?" I whispered to myself. I saw a big grey cat standing in front of me. It had razor like teeth and sharpened claws — this could be the end of me! But strangely, I realised, this feline actually looked sad and lonely.

I plucked up the courage to say, "What's the matter?"

"I lost my family on Christmas and I am hungry, there is no one home and I have looked everywhere for them" replied the cat miserably.

"Do you eat mice?" I asked, rather timidly.

"No. I gave up the habit of eating other's offspring years ago. I am a vegetarian. By the way I'm Steve."

"I'm Ralph. I lost my family too."

"Will you help me find my family, if I help you find yours?"

"Sure. Maybe if we work together, we will have some luck. Let's go outside and look, maybe together we can find them!"

It was a cold Bermuda night. The wind was howling, the trees were rustling in the breeze. We set off to look for our families. We looked around and saw the silhouette of St. David's Lighthouse.

"Let's go and look in the lighthouse. My grandma lives in there, she is getting older, but she might know where they are as she has lived in this parish her whole life," I said.

"Okay."

We went inside and we found my Grandma Betty scurrying around her store of casuarinas berries.

"Hello little one — Where are your parents? Aren't you supposed to be at home with them enjoying Christmas?" she asked.

"That is actually the reason why we are here. We can't find them. So we came to ask you if you had seen or talked to them lately," I replied.

"Oh. I spoke to your mother last night down at the square, but don't know where they are at this moment. They are probably just making last minute arrangements and not worry, you and your friend can always stay with me if you cannot find them."

"Thank you grandma for the offer. We will stay with you if we don't find them. We will keep looking, they must be in this Ole Town somewhere. Have a good Christmas Grandma."

"Let's go Steve. Bye Grandma. I'll see you later." We walked out of the door and suddenly heard the joyful sound of Christmas music. It was coming from Coopers Island nature reserve. We scampered over to the low wooden gate and crawled under. On the beach there were so many people. There were tents and food, music and dancing - a lovely festive feeling. All of the people were sitting in their seats that were set out across the beach. A mysterious man came out of a tent dressed in a huge red suit with big shiny black boots — It was Santa Claus! All the children started to get excited.

"Hey. There's Santa," I whispered to Steve.

"Maybe he knows where our parents are?"

"Don't be silly. We are animals. He wouldn't be able to understand us."

"True, but he does communicate with the Reindeer. I guess with all those cute little children, we would never get near him anyway. Let's go to my house. Maybe we can find a clue as to where my parents have gone."

We walked back to the gate.

"Where do you live?" I questioned.

"In a burrow in the woods."

"Okay. Let's go."

We walked and walked and tried to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights. After a while we found his house. Much to my surprise, not only were his parents there, so were mine!

"Mom and Dad, how did you get here?" I inquired. "We have known the Simmons for years, so when we couldn't find you Ralph we came over to ask for their help, we were scared that you would be alone and upset for Christmas. When we arrived they told us that Steve had gone missing too," my mother replied. "We have spent the past 24 hours searching for the two of you!"

"So that is why neither of you were home. How come you never told me that you were friends with felines mom? I always thought that they were the enemy!"

"No Ralph, we wanted you to discover for yourself that even though we are all different, that we can live together peacefully and that we can respect each other for our differences. When you went missing we asked our friends for their help and well, we had no idea that you would meet Steve and become friends so quickly. I guess that we raised you right. We are so proud that you and Steve would become friends on your own."

"Why don't we all spend Christmas together! Bermuda is a small island and we must appreciate one another and live in harmony, it will be so much fun to spend Christmas with friends," said Mrs. Simmons.

We all sat down at the table and Mrs. Simmons put a big plate of vegetarian food on the table. I tried it and it was so yummy. We ate every bite of the food and then we all went and sat around the fire place and sang Christmas carols for the rest of the night.

"Peace to you and all your family this holiday season," said Ralph. Who would have believed that a family of church mice and felines could peacefully sit down together to share the joy of Christmas? I guess anything is possible!