Todd Terwilliger

I’ve been hearing things. Not big things. Small things. A little scratching maybe, some oblique shuffling perhaps. Nothing I could put a finger to concretely. However, after I convinced myself that I wasn’t hearing things that weren’t there, that I was, as a matter of fact and record, sane (or what passes for sane in an insane world), I determined that some thing or things were moving around behind my refrigerator and stove.

Moving. Invading. Interloping. And that spot was a good place to interlope. There’s a nice sized gap between the stove and fridge and the wall. There is also a spot in that gap where some pipes come up through the floor. Having peeked back there, I had seen that the hole isn’t exactly a tight fit around the pipes. There was room to maneuver, a space through which something intrepid might slip unnoticed into my domain. Mostly unnoticed that is.

I had seen nothing. I had suspicions only. I had to test my observations, so I set a trap. One trip to my local hardware store later, I had a couple of glue traps. I set one one up on the back edge of my counter, right at the junction between it and my stove, The two objects do not meet cleanly and there is a small alley there. I set it and then went about my afternoon.

Sometime later, I was in the midst of a game of Castle Crashers on my XBox when I heard a rustling. It was followed by a light squeak, like from a small bird. I paused the game, got up, and found my trap had been sprung.

The Invader After Capture, Moments Before His Deportation Outside

It was a mouse. A baby mouse by the looks of it. I released the rodent outside, probably to its doom, but such is nature. My domain is and must remain inviolate. I have already dealt diplomatically with my spiders. Somehow I don’t think I can broker a similar peace with the mice. And where there is one baby mouse, there are more and bigger mice lurking about. Time to call the landlord.

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