If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

Or rather, if you attempt to return a bike...

After a fun biking excursion Friday afternoon, during which Allyson had pulled Sydney around in the bike trailer, she left the bike and trailer in our garage. Little Ally also left her tiny, gearless, purple bike as well.
So, tonight, with nothing else to do, Dad and I planned to return the bikes to their owners. I rode Ally's torturous (no offense-Ally, you need gears!) little bicycle and Dad pulled the trailer on Jimmy's bike. Mom was to follow us in the van.
Coincidentally, as we pedaled down the road, a silver Jeep shot past, and what do you know, it was Jimmy, Ally, and Sydney, coming to retrieve the bike and its towing apparatus! But, not to miss out on our offer, Allyson simply put Sydney in the trailer, as she loves to ride in it, and sent us on our way.
So, Dad and I parted ways at the Adams intersection, with him continuing right toward the Nadramias', and me riding straight to the Sargeants'.
I dropped the bike off at Ally's, then cut across some parking lots to Jimmy and Ally's. Mom and Dad were there with Sydney. However, although Jimmy and Ally had said they were coming to open up the big trailer to put the bikes in, no one was there. We called and called but the Jeep and its passengers seemed to have disappeared.
Just as I was getting a hint of worry gnawing at the back of my head, Jimmy pulled up. Alone. "Where's Ally?" he said. But wait. Ally had been with him! Jimmy told us that he thought Allyson was going to ride with Mom, and so he had left her at our house. But Mom had come alone!
A few fretful minutes passed, with much contemplating, and then Jimmy drove off to get Ally from our house.
It wasn't so easy. Barely two minutes after he left, Allyson walked up!
Mom had left the house, thinking Allyson was going with Jimmy. Jimmy had left, thinking Ally was to ride with Mom.
And Ally was left alone, abandoned, caught in a mix-up, or a "French Farce" as Mom called it later. So she had walked.
But now, Jimmy was going up to our house, which would be empty when he got there!
We (Dad, Mom, Syd, and me) sped (not really) to the house, only to find that Jimmy was no longer there either!
Just thinking about the circling makes me dizzy now. We drove back to Ally and Jimmy's, relieved to find Jimmy there with the Jeep. The bikes were safely stowed in the big trailer, and everyone was happy, more or less.

...and if you give him some milk....
...he'll want a cookie to go with it.