History WhatHappenedToTheMouse / Literature

* In LesMiserables and its adaptations, whatever happened to Valjean's sister and her kids that he stole bread for in the first place? Granted, 20 years have passed and he's now on the run, but one could imagine he'd find some way to check up on them if he could.

*** Even though in the movie [[spoiler:Sirius was dying as he fell]], in the book it's obvious that [[spoiler:the fall through the arch is what killed him]]. So, it's fairly clear what lies behind the arch, especially when you take into account what Harry heard from it.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.
* Again from Creator/StephenKing, in his short story "The Jaunt", the protagonist's daughter almost literally asks this question when the protagonist tells the family the story of the eponymous teleportation device's invention. To wit, the inventor ran down to the pet store and tested some white mice out on the machine. Slightly subverted when he euphemistically explains that they "didn't feel so good the first time" after being sent through awake. [[spoiler:And by now you've probably guessed why he was being euphemistic with his family about what happened to those mice.]]

* Also from Creator/StephenKing, ''TheLangoliers'' ends with the survivors abruptly and happily arriving back at the airport. Um, that's great, but just how the hell are they going to explain how [[spoiler:a plane appeared out of nowhere, with the corpse of a little girl on board?]]
** They mention that they ''are'' going to [[CassandraTruth tell the authorities what happened]], they just decide to put it off until after the story ends.

* At the end of ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}'', said doctor's brother Ernest is the only member of the family completely unaccounted for by Shelley (the others are all dead).
** Especially {{egregious}} because the doctor whines and mopes at length about how ''everyone he loves'' is dead.

** ''Spore'': [[spoiler: Spore's pod is floating free through the AsteroidThicket, ready to endure for centuries until it's picked up again, as [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jerec's forces]] look for it.]]
** ''The Doomsday Ship'': [[spoiler: SIM downloaded itself into the memory banks of a nearby space station and plans to try again.]]

* Somewhere between this trope and AbortedArc, almost every book of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' ends with a stinger where the horror of the book is still around, or ThereIsAnother, or something of the sort. Exactly one of these is followed up on. ''EatenAlive'': [[spoiler: D'Vouran is in another part of space being stumbled upon by spacers.]] ''The Planet Plague'': [[spoiler: A cure for early stages of TheVirus has been distributed, but the villain has some new lethal vial with him.]] ''Ghost of the Jedi'': the villain is NotQuiteDead. ''Army of Terror'': [[spoiler: [[UltimateLifeForm Eppon]] collapsed when its [[YourHeadASplode head exploded]], but [[FingerTwitchingRevival a finger twitches hours later]]]], though the narration does say perhaps it's the wind. ''TheSwarm'': two ExplosiveBreeder bugs are on the heroes' ship, though ''that'' is maybe more a nuisance since as fast as they breed, they can only produce ten eggs a day and will be noticed before it gets dangerous. ''Spore'': [[spoiler: Spore's pod is floating free through the AsteroidThicket, ready to endure for centuries until it's picked up.]] ''The Doomsday Ship'': [[spoiler: SIM downloaded itself into the memory banks of a nearby space station.]] ''Clones'': [[spoiler: Darth Vader's forces are gathering up the clones, and he thinks the ones of the ShapeShifter and those of the Arrandas - one of whom is Force-Sensitive - could be studied before they were [[ExpendableClone destroyed]], and the Emperor would be interested in this cloning technology.]]

* Somewhere between this trope and AbortedArc, almost every book of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' ends with a stinger where the horror of the book is still around, or ThereIsAnother, or something of the sort. Exactly one of these is followed up on. ''EatenAlive'': [[spoiler: D'Vouran is in another part of space being stumbled upon by spacers.]] ''The Planet Plague'': [[A cure for early stages of TheVirus has been distributed, but the villain has some new lethal vial with him.]] ''Ghost of the Jedi'': the villain is NotQuiteDead. ''Army of Terror'': [[spoiler: [[UltimateLifeForm Eppon]] collapsed when its [[YourHeadASplode head exploded], but [[FingerTwitchingRevival a finger twitches hours later]]]], though the narration does say perhaps it's the wind. ''TheSwarm'': two ExplosiveBreeder bugs are on the heroes' ship, though ''that'' is maybe more a nuisance since as fast as they breed, they can only produce ten eggs a day and will be noticed before it gets dangerous. ''Spore'': [[spoiler: Spore's pod is floating free through the AsteroidThicket, ready to endure for centuries until it's picked up.]] ''The Doomsday Ship'': [[spoiler: SIM downloaded itself into the memory banks of a nearby space station.]] ''Clones'': [[spoiler: Darth Vader's forces are gathering up the clones, and he thinks the ones of the ShapeShifter and those of the Arrandas - one of whom is Force-Sensitive - could be studied before they were [[ExpendableClone destroyed]], and the Emperor would be interested in this cloning technology.]]

* In ''Literature/Musashi'', a novel based on the life of MiyamotoMusashi, the title character learns that his sister has been arrested as a ploy to lure him out of hiding. He's about to play right into the officers' hands when he's stopped by the kindly priest Takuan, who then imprisons Musashi himself for three years so he can study the classics and become a more thoughtful person. The story promptly forgets all about his sister, except for a brief mention at the end that she's moved to another region and is happily married, with no mention of how she got out of jail.

* PamelaDean's ''Literature/The Secret Country'' has a "What happened to the relatives" in it: The older cousins, with whom the game was usually played, had emigrated to Australia: the younger cousins were left in Illinois with other relatives while ''their'' parents were spending the summer in Australia without them, and thereby hangs the tale. At the end, [[spoiler: after the Illinois children show up in Australia via a magic mirror, their parents decide to accompany the children back to the Hidden Land. It's a one-way trip; they know they'll never come back. The parents cook up plausible explanations for their "disappearance", pretending they're going to emigrate to Australia also and then "just lose touch". In the middle of all the preparations, no one suggests that the Illinois relatives might like to know how the kids disappeared from what was supposed to be an afternoon trip to the library, and how they got to Australia.]]

* In Lauren Myracle's ''Literature/Rhymes with Witches'', the main character's best friend's older sister is described in detail in the first few chapter. However, she is rarely mentioned after that.

* In ''Literature/The Short Second life of Bree Tanner'', Freaky Fred runs away before the newborn army is sent to fight the Cullens. He is never mentioned again in the series, even though the novella ends with Bree mentally begging Edward to be kind to Fred if they ever meet.
* In-universe in ''Literature/The Fault in Our Stars'' by John Green. The main characters love a CutShort novel and want to know what happened to, amongst other things, the pet hamster.

** Inverted in the same novel, where Windle recalls receiving a note from Mr. Ixolite the banshee. No such scene is included in the book; presumably, it was supposed to be one of the "three inexplicable phenomena" which Windle ponders on another occasion, because there are only two shown. Instead, it's a Where'd That Mouse Come From? inversion.

* Dan Simmons' ''{{Illium}}/Olympos'' cycle. What happened to that mice colony? What happened to that humongous tentacled brain? Where did Caliban go? Did moravecs manage to get rid of those 768 black holes? Can the remaining firmaries be turned on or not? Why didn't anyone care for more than seven years? Who the hell was Quiet and did (s)he actually do anything? Has the quantum stability problem been solved? If yes, then how? Aaargh, so many questions...

* At the end of ''{{Frankenstein}}'', said doctor's brother Ernest is the only member of the family completely unaccounted for by Shelley (the others are all dead).

* In the ''SwordOfTruth'' series, Richard's two hulking bodyguards Ulic and Egan disappear from the narrative entirely after ''Temple of the Winds'', and no reference is made to where they are, or what they're doing. Their sudden and conspicuous return to the plot in ''Confessor'' seems to suggest Goodkind actually forgot about them entirely.

* Happens quite a bit ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. The Quagmires, Friday, and the rest of the island inhabitants in The End, Mr. Poe, and many, many more. Curse you, Lemony Snicket, you psycho author you. Knowing the author, this was probably [[LemonyNarrator completely]] [[NoEnding intentional]].
* In the first ''SherlockHolmes'' story "A Study in Scarlet", Watson mentions that he "keeps a bull pup" before moving in with Holmes. Once he moves in, the bull pup is never mentioned again. Maybe it died between two adventures? Though there is an explanation that's seen print is that "to keep a bull pup" is slang for "to have a short temper."
* In Peter F. Hamilton's ''NightsDawnTrilogy'', a fairly major character in Book 1, Kelven Solanki, vanishes without a trace at the end of the book after being promoted and assigned as a liaison and advisor to Admiral Meredith Saldana on his flagship. Despite Saldana and his taskforce playing major roles in Books 2 and 3, Solanki is nowhere to be seen. The author later admitted in a Q&A on his website that he had simply completely forgotten about him, but his overall importance to the story had been fulfilled. Given that the ending was so comprehensive that even the fate of a minor car thief who appeared for one paragraph is wrapped up, Solanki's abrupt disappearance seems a bit unfair to the character.
* Steven Erikson's ''MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' series is also noteworthy: a full list of characters who appeared briefly and then vanished would be quite long, but chief among them is Tattersail and her reincarnated form, Silverfox, who vanished along with several thousand kickass undead warriors in Book 3. Apparently their story will eventually be told by Erikson's co-writer, Ian Esslemont, several years down the road. Maybe.

* ''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' raises numerous mouse questions, as might be expected of a semi-historical narrative with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. To quote the book's 17th-century editor, "A beloved commander, a beloved son, lost for the sake of a woman... but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened to lady Zou?]]""

* TomRobbins' ''Still Life With Woodpecker'' hangs a lampshade on this, when Leigh-Cheri's reaction to the story of the Princess and the Toad is "Whatever happened to the Golden Ball?" (that the princess was chasing when she first found the Toad.)
* In ''Musashi'', a novel based on the life of MiyamotoMusashi, the title character learns that his sister has been arrested as a ploy to lure him out of hiding. He's about to play right into the officers' hands when he's stopped by the kindly priest Takuan, who then imprisons Musashi himself for three years so he can study the classics and become a more thoughtful person. The story promptly forgets all about his sister, except for a brief mention at the end that she's moved to another region and is happily married, with no mention of how she got out of jail.

* In Thomas Harris' ''BlackSunday'', Lander gave his pregnant ex-wife two tickets to the Super Bowl. No mention is made on if she went or what happened to her.
* In ''[[EndersGame Ender's Shadow]]'', Bean is shown drawing up Ender's army. He decides to add a girl named Wu to his group. He mentions that she was a brilliant tactician, a great shooter, and did well in her studies, but as soon as her commander assigned her to be a toon leader, she filed for transfer and refused to play. No one knew why. In the rest of the book (and in EndersGame, which takes place at the same time), not only do they never mention her again, they even make it clear that there are no girls in Ender's Army.
* Early in TomClancy's ''RedStormRising'', Iceland is conquered by the Soviet Union to allow their submarines and bombers a clean shot at convoys ferrying war material and American reinforcements to Europe, where the ground war is raging. In the course of this operation, the ship carrying the Soviet invasion force is Harpooned and strafed by American fighters, seriously wounding the captain. Much buildup is done about whether or not the captain will survive. As soon as the ship is run ashore (most of the line handlers had been killed, so it couldn't dock) the General of the invading army takes him below to the surgeon, thinking "Maybe there's still enough time." The captain is never mentioned again, leaving the reader to wonder as to his fate.

* PamelaDean's ''The Secret Country'' has a "What happened to the relatives" in it: The older cousins, with whom the game was usually played, had emigrated to Australia: the younger cousins were left in Illinois with other relatives while ''their'' parents were spending the summer in Australia without them, and thereby hangs the tale. At the end, [[spoiler: after the Illinois children show up in Australia via a magic mirror, their parents decide to accompany the children back to the Hidden Land. It's a one-way trip; they know they'll never come back. The parents cook up plausible explanations for their "disappearance", pretending they're going to emigrate to Australia also and then "just lose touch". In the middle of all the preparations, no one suggests that the Illinois relatives might like to know how the kids disappeared from what was supposed to be an afternoon trip to the library, and how they got to Australia.]]

* In the first ''MaximumRide'' book, the main characters (who are winged humans, part bird, part human, created by some MadScientists) have gone years without seeing another genetic experiment like them. When they get to a secret facility in New York, they find several expiriments caged up. Naturally, they set them free. You'd think they'd want to talk to them or interact with them, maybe help them find a safe place, but it never goes anywhere. Over 5 books later, said experiments don't even get a passing mention, they're never thought of again, so it's a plot thread that went nowhere and contributed nothing to the story.
** ''MaximumRide'' suffers from this a ''lot''. The second book also has the group finding two kids in the woods. While Angel reads their minds enough to know that they aren't experiments, she can tell that they aren't normal kids. The kids use a tracking device to lead people from Itex to the group, and the most that's found out is that they were kidnapped solely for that purpose, and that they would be left to be eaten by something if they failed. The group leaves them in the woods to be recaptured by the company, and they're never thought of again. The third book has an entire facility full of successful experiments, including clones of Max (introduced in the book prior and herself having fallen into this trope until that point), Nudge, and Angel. It's never revealed what happened to the experiments after the facility is captured, and again the group never thinks anything of it. Meanwhile, Fang starts a worldwide revolution via the children that read his blog. You'd think that something like that would get a mention in the next book, but it might as well have not happened for all the aftermath there was.
* ''PeterPan'': In Wendy's personal imaginary world, she owns a wolf pup abandoned by its parents. Naturally, when she gets to Neverland the wolf appears and becomes her constant companion--or so the narration claims, since it never gets mentioned again. Surprisingly, this detail was never referenced or expanded on in any adaptations, even though the [[LighterAndSofter Disney version]] could easily have turned the wolf into a cuddly WoodlandCreature and the [[DarkerAndEdgier 2003 live-action version]] could have thrown it into some fight scenes. (There was at least one set of illustrations (Trina Schart Hyman's) which didn't neglect the wolf and showed it hanging around at Wendy's feet in the "Home Under the Ground" scene.)
* In book four of the ''InheritanceCycle'' Eragon and Arya wind up captured by a group of evil priests. A young novitiate appears and agrees to help them escape. He fails and winds up unconcious, while the more competent Angela comes to the rescue. Eragon insists that they take their would-be rescuer's comatose body with them as they escape the cathedral, however after this the boy is promptly dropped off in an alley and never mentioned again.
* In the ''AnneOfGreenGables'' series, Anne's adoptive guardian, Marilla gets this treatment. As the ''Anne'' series continues, Marilla gets less and less mention, being mentioned briefly in several of the books. In the final book of the series, ''Rilla of Ingleside'', it's mentioned in passing that Marilla had died many years back.

* In Lauren Myracle's ''Rhymes with Witches'', the main character's best friend's older sister is described in detail in the first few chapter. However, she is rarely mentioned after that.

* Just before the timeskip in the {{Thoroughbred}} series by Joanna Campbell, Ashley reveals she's pregnant with her second child and "due in January" (incidentally, the scene plays out almost exactly the same as did the one in which she revealed her first pregnancy). The next book (and the timeskip) comes around, the series now follows Ashley's now teenaged daughter, and...the daughter is an only child. No mention is made of Ashley's second pregnancy.
* In some of Tolkien's older works such as ''TheSilmarillion'', there are several minor characters that are simply never mentioned again with no resolution, although this can be forgiven since he never completed those works in his lifetime.

* In the sixth book of the ''[[The39Clues 39 Clues]]'' series, [[spoiler:Isabel Kabra]] mentions that [[spoiler:Amy and Dan's parents visited, among other places, Karachi, Pakistan, and also thought Amy and Dan visited there, although they never did.]] This does not go unnoticed by Amy and Dan, but it is soon forgotten and never brought up again. [[spoiler:Though with three books still left in the SequelSeries, and suspicions of Isabel being a member of the antagonistic group of said sequel series, Karachi may still be brought up again.]]
* In ''The Short Second life of Bree Tanner'', Freaky Fred runs away before the newborn army is sent to fight the Cullens. He is never mentioned again in the series, even though the novella ends with Bree mentally begging Edward to be kind to Fred if they ever meet.
* In-universe in ''The Fault in Our Stars'' by John Green. The main characters love a CutShort novel and want to know what happened to, amongst other things, the pet hamster.

* In StephenKing's ''TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.
* Also from StephenKing, ''TheLangoliers'' ends with the survivors abruptly and happily arriving back at the airport. Um, that's great, but just how the hell are they going to explain how [[spoiler:a plane appeared out of nowhere, with the corpse of a little girl on board?]]

* Again from StephenKing, in his short story "The Jaunt", the protagonist's daughter almost literally asks this question when the protagonist tells the family the story of the eponymous teleportation device's invention. To wit, the inventor ran down to the pet store and tested some white mice out on the machine. Slightly subverted when he euphemistically explains that they "didn't feel so good the first time" after being sent through awake. [[spoiler:And by now you've probably guessed why he was being euphemistic with his family about what happened to those mice.]]

* Several ''{{Warcraft}}'' ExpandedUniverse novels mention princess Calia Menethil, the older sister of BigBad prince (and now Lich King) Arthas Menethil. Calia's fate has never been revealed; in each book, she simply drops out of sight and is never mentioned again. She is the subject of several EpilepticTrees in fan circles.

* In the ''Literature/BlandingsCastle'' novel ''[[Literature/{{Psmith}} Leave It to Psmith]]'', it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:one of the maids is an undercover detective hired by Baxter in case there's an emergency]]. This is never brought up again.
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* In ''LucifersHammer'', Doctor Charlie Sharps leads a group of highly intelligent (not to mention prepared and supplied) scientists out from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, headed toward the San Joaquin Valley and shelter. Not only are they never seen or heard from again, they are only mentioned ''once'' in passing by another character, and then forgotten.