The Mouse and the Music

The human species is one of the very few mammals that sing and play musical instruments.  Therefore, it was no surprise that sentient mice would try to emulate this human capability in some way.  Duletta the Fourth, cousin of Duletta the Great, was determined to sing and create new music for the Mousean populace.  But what to try was the question.

Opera sounded appealing and the soprano voice was a perfect squeak.  Unfortunately, multi-part harmony was out of the question as there were no known Mousean bass or baritone voices.  Rap sounded cool, but most of it focused on rape and violence, and the Mousean culture was already filled with that kind of material.  And then she heard it.  Willie Nelson and Ray Charles singing “Seven Spanish Angels”.  

Tears rolled down her face as the song’s message penetrated to the depths off her soul.   Oppression, punishment and death had been the Mousean’s lot.  She knew immediately that this song, adapted for the greaser population, was going to be the Mousean ‘s greatest hymn. Duletta the Fourth picked up a tiny feather and penned: 

ADOREMOUSE ANGELS

Zoret looked into her eyes,

said “Say a prayer for me”
Duletta hugged him closely
uttered “God will keep us free”
They could hear the catpaws comin’
He said “This is my last fight
If they use a springin’ Mousetrap
They won’t take me back alive”

There were Adoremouse Angels
in the town of Washington
They were praying for the lovers
In the alleys where they run
When the mousetrap sprung and silence fell

Ten million greasers groaned
and the Adoremouse Angels
Took another hero home.

She reached to pick the stick up
That lay silent at his head
She said, “Dear God please forgive me
I can’t live with Zoret’s death”
She knew the stick was useless
She knew she couldn’t win
and her final prayer was answered
When the mousetrap sprung again.

There were Adoremouse Angels
in the town of Washington
They were praying for the lovers
In the alleys where they run
When the mousetrap sprung and silence fell

Ten million greasers groaned
and the Adoremouse Angels
Took another hero home

Duletta the Fourth was confronted with a major problem – how to manage success.  The hymn had made the it to the top of the international music charts and was a massive Amazon hit.  How to broadcast it quickly to the growing Mousean community now became her singular focus.

American ingenuity, along with the massive profit implications, filled the void.  The problem of recording and broadcasting ADOREMOUSE ANGELS was solved by nano-miniaturization of chips resized to fit the Mousean auditory canal. 

Greasers lined up by the millions for chip implantation. (The chips were great for receiving but hidden within the implanted device was a clandestine broadcasting capability used to track and exterminate greasers who opposed things like climate change legislation and mRNA vaccines.)

Duletta the Fourth was not only musically inclined but had business savvy as well.  She realized that success needed to persist in perpetuity, and well after her demise.  Working with Absolom B. Cromwell, a well-respected lawyer and music industry entrepreneur, she create No Cats or Kitties, Inc.  (She was, of course, the first CEO and her board consisted of Mousean confidants.  The corporation was also staffed primarily by young Mousean song writers who had been inspired by Duletta’s “first of a kind” #1 hit song.)

The Mouseans had entered the entertainment world, and nothing would ever be the same again.