"ALL - MY -FAULT!"

The three friends were quiet for a while. It was a horrible feeling when something really was all your fault, thought Dot - you didn't want to own up to it but you had to, and you just wished things were different, and that you hadn't done something - but you couldn't forget it was ALL YOUR FAULT.

Even though you hadn't meant it.

Even though you wished you hadn't done it.

She remembered once at school how she'd pulled the roll-up board down to help Mrs Redman at the start of a lesson, just before she came in - only... she pulled it too hard, and... there was this huge CRACK and everything fell off the wall.

Everyone had laughed but she felt like crying because she'd only wanted to help and there was this huge MESS on the floor and Fred came in to fix it was going "BLOOMING kids!" like he always did. Only this time it wasn't funny because it was ALL HER FAULT.

She sighed. She supposed that was how her Dad had felt when he'd crashed poor Wilhelmina their car into the gatepost - which reminded her, that was what had started this story.

She remembered too what her Gran had said when she'd told her about the board falling down: "Never mind dear - these things happen - you just have to face up to what you've done, say sorry and put it right if you can, learn from it and then leave it all behind you."

And then she'd taken Dot out to the park and they'd done what Gran said she always did when she felt like that - find a big open space, stand there and put two hands together like a cup, imagine that what had gone wrong was in your hands, shut your eyes and throw it over your head. Gran called it "putting your troubles over the hill."

It had worked too. Maybe she could tell Mr Mouse about it and see if it would work for him.

Mr Mouse shook himself and sighed again. "And that was when Cousin Esure saved the day... and became a superstar."

"Wait a minute" said Wiz. "How was he called Cousin Esure before he became the mouse in the TV commercials?"

"Oh" said Mr Mouse "He wasn't really. His name was Esau - you say Ee-sore - which is someone in the Bible. Because of esure.com, he decided to change it just a tiny bit and make it his stage name. His proper name is Mister Mouse."

"But that's your name!" said Dot. "Must be a bit confusing!"

"No no" said Mr Mouse. "I'm Mr Mouse. He's Mister Mouse, see? Got to spell the whole word to get it right. But he's always Cousin Esure now to our family!"

"But wasn't Reg the caretaker still stopping you all from going on filming?" asked Wiz.

"Well, yeah" said Mr Mouse (not MISTER Mouse!!) "But in the end he said we could have another half-hour - Helen the make-up gerbil offered to give him this special treatment for his whiskers, which were getting all old and crinkly. Said she'd make him look the smartest walrus ever. He went "Well I shouldn't really" and "Don't know what'll happen if the boss finds out" and "Just the half-hour, mind!" but he said OK in the end."

He winked at his two friends. "I tell you, that Helen could get anyone to do anything. She's such a cutie!"

Dot grinned and Mr Mouse blushed. "No no we're just good friends, no really." He paused, and then held up a paw - it was trembling a bit with the excitement of his story.

"So we had half an hour - and it was all down to Cousin Esure to save us from DIS-ASTER!!"