I have a habit of looking around while I’m thinking. My eyes wander along with my thoughts–I stare out the window, or at my stuffed toys, or at the pictures on my desk, or my monitor until inspiration strikes. This evening, while I was preparing my month-end report, I was staring at my monitor, willing the numbers to miraculously make sense when I saw something at the corner of my eye: the quivering flank of a mouse.
I gave a scream of surprise, ripped my earphones off and pushed myself away from my desk and towards Sophie, who just last week found herself face-to-face with one of its kind. In all the commotion, the mouse must have fled because when we tried to look for it, it left no trace except a trail of pooplets.
When I described to my officemates and later on, to my parents and friends, what I had just seen, their first question was invariably the same: “Was it big or small?” Dude, when it comes to mice, size is pretty irrelevant. Even if it’s tiny, it won’t stay that way forever and besides, where there are babies, grown-ups can’t be far behind! Mama Rat and Papa Rat must be there somewhere too!
I’m still wondering what made it come out when our office was by no means deserted. It was 6:30 in the evening, all the lights were on, and it’s never quiet in our area. Maybe it felt like pooing? Because it seems to think that my desk is a perfect toilet. It pooed on my papers. It left a little offering on my picture frame right in front of my mom’s picture. And what upsets me most of all is that it must have sat on my little giraffe cellphone holder because there were little droppings inside!! Waaaaah!! My poor babies…desecrated. What if that little rodent snuggles up to them at night?!
I still can’t decide which creature upset me more–this little mouse, which violated my belongings and invaded my personal space, or the giant cockroach which I found nestled snugly in the spine of my notebook and which my boss kindly and calmly killed for me, but not before it flew around our area and gave Steph and I the evil eye.
I am grateful for one thing though: at least mice don’t fly!
