To Catch a Mouse

Carol, Michelle & I were very excited. Armed with bread pieces, cake crumbs and a mouse trap, we were all set to hunt for those irritating rodents that scamper about the house as soon as the lights are out.

Michelle carefully placed some cake crumbs into the trap and set the trap in position on the window-sill. Then, after putting out the lights, the three of us huddled together on the bed in silence with our ears perked up to catch the slightest sound. “I think something’s moving” whispered Carol, staring into the darkness with us straining our eyes to see what she seemed to be seeing. Suddenly, ‘Thwack’, the trap clapped shut. We squealed and jumped off the bed and hurried to admire our first, unfortunate victim. The little mouse was running around in circles, trying hard to find a way out of its prison.

 Michelle carried the trap and its temporary occupant and rushed outside to transfer him into the open drain across the street. Carol and I followed her and cheered loudly when the mouse slid out of the trap and disappeared into the dark depths of the gutter. Then, after performing a little victory dance of sorts, we returned home and set the trap in position once again.

When the trap clapped shut again, we switched on the lights to find an even tinier mouse caught with his head in the trap while his body wriggled outside in vain. Carol ‘ooohed’ and ‘aaahd’ over him, calling him cute, but she quickly changed her opinion when we suggested she should take him home with her. Soon mouse number two was united with mouse number one.

The trap was set all over again, but for quite some time nothing moved. Carol began to doze off and I was already curled up under the blanket, ready to follow her example. Michelle went up to the trap and peeped into the empty cage and rattled it a little as if that would somehow make a mouse appear inside it. Carol got up and declared she had hunted enough for one night and was off to bed. Michelle followed her sister and I took myself to bed as well.

Lying there in the silent darkness, I could almost feel little beady eyes eyeing me as I tucked myself into bed. I agreed with Carol, two mice in one night was a good haul. Probably tomorrow we’d try again, then the night after...and I fell asleep with my head full of mice, mice & still more mice