Once upon a time there lived two very happy mice, Charming Raton and Ella Raton. They had three beautiful mice children, Charlie, Ernie and Billy. The three mice always played together and knew all each others' secrets; their parents even called them The Three Musketeers. Billy was always the boss of their pack, deciding what they would do that day and what food they would eat. He was just the naturally born leader in the group. Ernie was the jokester, who always liked to make people laugh. Ernie could always come up with a good way to get the three mice out of trouble when they landed in a sticky situation. Charlie was the intelligent one of the pack. Whenever he wasn't hanging out with his siblings, he had his nose stuck in a book. The Three Musketeers were so alike on the outside, but so different on the inside, that you might wonder how they were such close friends.

When the three Raton kids were born they were a sight! All of the Raton family, far and near came to see the first set of triplets in the family history. The mice were all born with perfectly smooth skin and the cutest tails any mice had ever seen. The Raton triplets also had the biggest eyes, so big you could see the whole world reflected in them. During family reunions all the kids wanted to play with the Raton triplets, and all the adults wanted to take family pictures with the triplets. Needless to say the triplets were the center of attention all the time, no matter what they were wearing or what they were doing.

As the mice grew up they started to go on adventures together, make-believe adventures to be exact. At first they were just little adventures like to the playground but after a while they started to grow into magical lands with dragons and monsters. Ernie thought it was fun to pretend to be the helpless, gorgeous princess trapped in "The Castle" as she waited for her prince. Meanwhile, Charlie and Billy liked to pretend to be the big, brave knights that saved the princess and got to be the hero with the girl. The triplets had so much fun playing imagination games that Ernie had even asked Santa for a talking mirror and the boys had asked for swords.

In Squeakyland, where the Raton family lived, there was a cute little school house. Although it looked small from the outside, the kids knew there was much more inside. Once you entered the school house it was like you were surrounded by the math equations, grammar, science, history and all the other things that made up Squeakyland. It made the world seem so big that you would never imagine that one little school house could hold so much truth and secrets.

Even though all the little mice in Squeakyland loved going to school, there was one field trip that they all looked forward to. During the third year of school, all the mice in Squeakyland got to go to the building the parents called "The Castle". No one knew what was inside "The Castle", or what its purpose was until the day of their visit, which made the mice even more anxious to go.

"So what do you two think "The Castle" does?" asked Ernie to her two brothers thoughtfully.
"I think its the place that turns boys into princes and girls into princesses." Billy replied.
"Actually Billy I read that you are born a prince, you can't turn into one." Charlie said proudly.
"Oh...well I also heard that that is where they keep all the magic equipment!"
"You mean they have talking mirrors there and everything?" Ernie cried
"Excuse me children, quiet down. I know that you are all really excited for our field trip tomorrow but you have a pay attention to your classes too." demanded the triplets' teacher when he overhear all the little mice talking.
"Sorry Mr.Cheesy, we won't do it again"
Even though the children didn't talk about the field trip for the rest of the school day, it was all they could think about.
"What is a triangle?" asked Mr.Cheesy asked the whole class.
"Hm...I wonder what shape "The Castle" is in." thought Ernie.
"What is a noun?" asked Mr.Cheesy.
"Castle is a noun." thought Charlie.
"Here's your Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich." said the Lunch lady.
"I bet tomorrow when we go to "The Castle" there will be better food." thought Billy.
When The Three Musketeers arrived home they could hardly wait to fall asleep because they knew that when they woke up it would be time to go to "The Castle".

"Good Morning children." said Mr.Cheesy in an awfully cheerful voice so early in the morning.
"Ugh, did we have to wake up so early?" complained of the the triples' classmates.
"Of course, you want to see all of "The Castle" don't you?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"Alright let's go!"
All morning the kids rode in the bus on their way to "The Castle", but they didn't mind much because now they could finally talk about what they thought would be in "The Castle". Although the kids had waited for this moment all their lives, none of them could had been more surprised then they were the minute they saw "The Castle". It was bigger, brighter, and more beautiful then they had ever imagined. Jaws dropped at the sight of this beautiful castle, the kids didn't want to take their eyes off it while they were existing the bus.
"Remember kids we only have three rules here today. No pictures, no touching, and most importantly all of you have to report to the main lobby at 3:30 for the movie." said Mr.Cheesy.
"Ya!" yelled the kids as they started running towards "The Castle".
"Oh right, and no running!"

Once the kids reached the door no one knew what to do, so Billy decided to take charge, as he had done his whole life.
"Hello?" he said as he knocked on the doors of "The Castle".
Swoosh, the grand doors opened to display the most beautiful lobby with the most glorious stairs. Once again all of the kids mouths dropped in excitement and intimidation. As all the mice split into groups to travel "The Castle" together, Charlie, Billy, and Ernie went their own way. First they went to The Hall of Talking Mirrors, were Ernie asked every mirror if she was the fairest one of all. Then they went to the Knight Room, where Billy and Charlie examined every knight outfit. The triplets then made their way to the gift shop. As Ernie and Billy were looking at gifts to buy their parents, Charlie was reading the map.
"Wow, did you know that they had a magic wand room!"Charlie exclaimed.
Billy gasped "We have to go! I've been waiting to see a real wand since I was two months old!".
"Yes! And then we can turn our parents into flies and never have to listen to them again" Ernie said sarcastically.
"We're not going to steal the wands...just...look at them." Billy said.
"Of course you shouldn't steal them, they are much too powerful for you." agreed Charlie.
"But wait, the exposition opens at 3:30 and it closes at 4:30, that's the exact same time that our class movie is"
"Well we could always skip it, I mean, what could an hour long movie talk about that we haven't already read from a book?"
"True, okay so what we'll do is get in line and then tell Mr.Cheesy that we have to go to the bathroom, we'll go to the wand room and then sneak back into the movie toward the end."

When the triplets had finally separated themselves from the group at the movie, they made their way to the wand room. Once they got there, they were surprised at how many types of wands there were. There was a real boy wand, a house building wand, a princess wand, a prince wand and so many more. The triplets ended up taking way more time in the wand room then they had expected, and pretty soon they were closing down the room for the day. The triplets had missed the whole movie! They quickly ran to the entrance of the movie theater that they were supposed to be at and found their class. Luckily no one said anything about not seeing them, so they thought they had safely made it back without anyone noticing, but they were way wrong.

The next morning Charlie, Billy and Ernie woke up to a pitch dark room.
"Mom? Dad? Where are you?" Charlie asked from his bed.
"Can someone please turn on the lights?" asked Ernie from her bed.
"Oh my, oh no! I think we've gone blind!" cried Billy.
"No, no, no!" exclaimed Ernie.
"Calm down, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for why we can't see anything" assured Billy.
"Like what, the sun burned out and the electricity went out?" Ernie said sarcastically.
"I don't know, I'm just really scared" Charlie said sadly.


When the Raton family arrived at the hospital, they were sent straight to the eye doctor. He couldn't find anything wrong with the mice. They were then send to the neurologist to see if their eyes were sending the wrong message to the brain, but still, nothing. They triplets spent the next two months blind and no one could figure out what was wrong. Until one day, their wise teacher had an idea.

"You know it seems a bit peculiar that you three had been blind ever since we came back from "The Castle". Maybe something happened there that you might want to investigate there"
So the Raton family decided to go back to "The Castle" to talk to the King of "The Castle"
"Hello Raton family and welcome back to my castle."
"Hello Mr.King. We're here to discuss our children's medical condition since they left the kingdom. You see, ever since they left "The Castle", they can't see anything. We went to every doctor in town and they can't seem to figure out what's wrong with the kids." said Charming
"Oh no! You didn't! Did you kids watch the movie? Please tell me you watch the movie you were told to watch!" the King uttered, panicking,
"Um...the one that showed at 3:30?" asked Charlie.
"Well you see....." said Ernie.
"We actually didn't" finished Billy.
"Oh no, you see every mouse in Squeakyland goes blind after visiting "The Castle" for the first time unless they watch the movie."
"Is there anything we can do?" asked Ella Raton
"I'm afraid not. Now if you'll excuse me I have other things to do"
The King and the Raton Family said their goodbyes, and the Raton children said their goodbyes to "The Castle", a palace that they no longer found a beautiful place, but instead, a place filled with dark and evil. Most importantly though, the children learned a very valuable lesson, to resist temptations.


This is the story of The Three Blind Mice.
The End.


"Hey, does anyone know where they bathroom is?" asked Charlie.
"Yeah, it's the door to the left" said a tour guide.
"The red one or the green one?"
"The red one"
"Okay, thanks!"

To be continued....