The Little Noise

After the day is done, putting my feet up is so wonderful.
I have a stack of books next to my chair at all times.
There is usually one book that demands my attention more than the others.
Either it is a have to book or it is a want to book.

The want to books are always fun.
I get lost in the story.
I want to see where the author is going with the plot.
Want to books seem to call to me.

Have to books are necessary.
Often, they are books that I read in preparation for the Bible study I teach.
Sometimes, they are books that coincide with a podcast about a particular author I enjoy.
Have to books require my red pen nearby to underline and comment on a passage.

What is frustrating about the want to books is that by the time I get to them, I’m tired.
When I sit in my favorite chair and my eyes are cast downward to read, falling asleep is possible.
I can tell myself over and over, you will not fall asleep.
I must not listen to myself very well in those moments.

I began a new book that can easily be read in one or two sittings.
I was really enjoying the story.
I must have dozed off a bit.
I heard the noise that startled me.

I wasn’t even sure I heard it.
You know those moments between wake and sleep.
You are never quite sure if it is real or your imagination.
I heard the little noise coming from the fireplace hearth.

I looked to my left to see what was making the sound.
I saw movement.
I have a large basket on the hearth.
The little noise seemed to come from there.

I saw movement again.
I focused on it.
It was a mouse.
A mouse was in my house.

I know there are mice in the attic when the weather turns colder.
My husband will set traps up there.
It is his job to get the trap because I do not want to see it.
In fact, I don’t even have to know whether he caught a mouse or not, but he always tells me.

My husband was on the sofa.
He apparently did not hear the mouse.
We have a mouse, I said to him gluing my eyes to the fireplace hearth.
Where? He asked as I sat there pointing.

As if on cue, the mouse scurried along the fireplace and went behind some stack boxes.
It never came out the other side.
I wanted to get up to see if the mouse was behind the boxes but thought better of it.
My husband went into the laundry room to get a mouse trap.

It is one thing if the mouse trap is out of sight in the attic.
It is another thing to have a mouse trap set in plain view.
The mouse never came back out, I said to my husband.
It probably went into the fireplace, he said nonplussed.

But we’re going to be turning the fireplace on soon, I said worrying about the mouse.
I imagined the mouse getting incinerated in the gas fireplace.
The mouse probably went back outside, my husband said.
Now I know that there is a way for a mouse to get in and out of our house, right near my chair.

The mouse trap is still there a day later.
There is no mouse.
I’m glad.
I think.

It was mice that chewed through the ropes that bound Aslan on the Stone Table.
It was a mouse that freed the lion from a hunter’s net in Aesop’s Fables.
It was a mouse that rescued the princess from the rats in The Tale of Despereaux.
Brave mice to be sure but not in my house.

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. (Genesis 7:7-10)

Two by two the animals came.
Every time I have seen pictures of Noah’s Ark in a children’s Bible, the animals are the same.
Lions, giraffes, elephants, and sheep are common to see.
However, two of every kind of animal, clean and unclean, came into the ark.

There were two mice.
There was a male and female mouse.
Inevitably, there would be baby mice.
I understand the ark, or the woods, or my attic, but not my fireplace, near my favorite chair.

If I saw the mouse in a picture book, I would say that it was cute.
If I saw the mouse in a little cage, I would have been perfectly fine.
Seeing the mouse behind my basket and my stack boxes was disconcerting.
Knowing that the mouse went into the fireplace is not a pleasant thought.

I will sit tonight and try to finish my want to book.
I will hope that my eyes don’t get heavy.
I will listen carefully for any little noise that comes from the fireplace area.
I will keep my feet up off the floor, just in case.

2 responses to “The Little Noise”

1. Cute story, Gina…and I think I would keep my feet HIGH up off the floor, just in case…lol! Mice belong outside and not in a nice comfy warm family room hiding in a basket close to the fireplace where its just asking for its demise, poor thing!

   Reply

   • Country living!
     You understand it as well, Carolyn!
     We have not seen the mouse since.
     To be continued…
     Gina

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