The morning after we came back, I, in my usual morning trance-like state started preparing my coffee. When I opened the kitchen draw, I saw something furry move very fast. While I thinking that I could be hallucinating, I saw the grey little thing pass behind the wet grinder. It was confirmed. A little mouse had found its way into my home.
It passed by Sanju in the hall too and in the process made my teenage son stand on top of the sofa asking me to chase the little mouse out.
If I were that fast as the little mouse, I could have chased my dreams and made them a reality. But neither Sanju nor the mouse were in a position to understand this logic. I pulled Sanju out of the house and surrendered the kitchen full of provisions to the little guest.
After the initial few days, there was no visible sign of the mouse. Either she went away or she must have been hiding very cleverly. (if you are wondering how I knew it was a "she", you would know it after you move ahead a couple of paragraphs).
After a long hectic business tour, Ram came back, expecting to have a peaceful and restful weekend. But there were plans already made for him. The little mouse flitted across our hall and caught Ram's eye.
The Terminator (Ram) got himself prepared for the mouse-chase. He traced her path and found that she was hiding behind the junk in one of the shelves. We cordoned off all exit paths for her and started removing one piece of junk after another from the shelf. The mouse came out running and flew out of the apartment door. Ram followed her fast and I closed the front door with the same swiftness. The little mouse had gone into the shoe rack just outside the apartment door. We knew the chase was not over. She could easily get back inside.
The war between the Man and the Mouse commenced!
Ram, pulled out every slipper out of the shoe rack and cornered her again. She came out of the empty rack and stood right outside the apartment door. She stared at him. He stared at her back. She, with a "leave me alone" look. Ram, in a Ravana pose, with a rod in his hand, was asking her to leave his home.
I, from time to time, slid open the window and checked the status. After some looooong minutes, the mouse finally decided to part from us. She hopped onto the stair case and went down to the lower floor.
Ram, victoriously proclaimed that the mouse had left. I went in search of her, taking one careful step after the other. I then saw her perched pensively on the lowest step on the stairs leading the next floor. When she heard/felt my footsteps, she ran from the step, and hesitantly peeping into another apartment’s shoe rack.
I came back to our flat and went out on some errands.
When I returned, Ram was still in a disheveled state. On checking what the problem was, he said that there was one more. A little mouse which was just a size of an index finger. The little mouse’s baby! Ram said that it hardly moved and so, he threw it out. But he was nevertheless disturbed that the throw could have killed it if the little one was alive.
Though we were peaceful that the mouse just managed to damage a few polythene covers, we were a little disturbed that we did foil the relationship between a mother and her child.
Though kept telling ourselves that the mouse would eventually turn into more than one mice and become unmanageable, we did think back to the look that she gave Ram pleading to let her go.
Maybe, she wanted to come back inside to take her child back with her.
Maybe that is why she hesitantly stood on the last step on the stairs, thinking about the kid she left back.
We went about our cleaning chores and spent a few thoughtful moments about the mouse and her little one. Sanju was very disturbed and was upset with his father for being careless with little mouse.
I know you must be thinking that I am making a mountain out of a mole(mouse)hill with my melodrama. But a life, any life is precious. Be it a mouse or man. And the mother's distress did disturb me.
The little mouse must be eating away at the plastic covers in another apartment. She would be chased away after some time too. Hopefully not killed by a trap.
My mother-in-law called up and said that the mouse could have traveled from the village to our home in the old stereo system. Could be.
When I told this to my sister, she admonished me for infesting the apartment with a village mouse. I laughed it off. I could only think of the little country mouse turning into a city mouse through the old stereo system.
Just imagined how its journey would have been inside the boot of the car and finally landing in a strange house with limited fresh air, less light, tasteless water, and no trees. It would have been maddening to the little mouse. Especially with a baby in her belly!
The mouse hunt successfully got over with us not killing it. The only regret was the tiny life which might not live to see the world without its mother’s initial care. I guess the mom mouse would be knowing the rules of nature and would be, by now, paving way for a new home and a hearth (birth rather!) :-)
Rat-tata…
Kalps :-)
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