The first
Every woman has her firsts. First kiss, first love, first base.
Me. I had a first mouse. In Brooklyn. In my bedroom, in my home.
Shit. I was fucking scared. Out of my mind.
(sorry for the language)
I jumped up onto a stool. Fresh out of a shower. With a robe on and nothing else. My heart was racing. It's tail flying past me. For a quick second, I almost thought it was cute. Almost. But I stayed awake all through the night. Building a fortress of pillows around me. thinking.
Is this what it means to be a woman?
Me and the mouse?
Everyone has a first. This was mine.
Damn rodent. for putting me in my place.
Officially, I've become a NY woman.
19 comments:
I don't know, Stella- I've never heard of just one mouse ;-) It's really a damned shame that such a neat, squared away-looking
critter has so many reprehensible attributes, like being a disease vector, its
propensity for gnawing anything it can get
its teeth into (food, electrical insulation,
treasured mementos), and scaring the bejesus
out of the unwary. I normally say, live and let live, but you're better off putting the
boots to rodents in the apartment.
Some of your readers probubly wish to be this mouse. Some wish to be this robe. ;)
and some... ... to be a Super-hero-neighbour.
I thought you weren't a nEw yorker until you'd vanquished a sewer rat with your bare hands.
I had a mouse that lived inside the typewriter on my desk when I was in high school. I'd leave a little piece of apple or some crackers on the desk and he'd come out at night to feast.
I thought it a fantastic frame for a story in which the mouse came out at night and jumped on the typewriter keys to leave me little messages.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the idea had already been done.
Maybe the vile, yet still somehow cute creature was just trying to get a break from the cold.
Or maybe he's just a perv.
Maybe he's a she, and still a perv. ;)
I did really enjoy the way you've written about him/her thought.
when i shared an apt with a roommate, she swore she saw a mouse. i didn't believe her until one night we both saw it. we tried to trap it...and tried to kill it with a broom. alas, it escaped. the next day we bought a mousetrap and one night...SNAP!
the only thing i didn't like was that my roommate made ME dispose of it...eeeek!
See, something to look forward to when you come an ex-pat. The mice speak french and smoke clove cigarettes over here.
awwww. i'm so proud of you. its your first step toward the magnificent reward of bottom-of-the-food-chain cockroaches! you should have them soon after the mouses fleas have infested your abode! miss ya stella, i hope you are welllllllllllll !
When a woman gets her first man, then she will have someone to take care of her first mouse.
(I'm available, BTW . . . )
: )
only a rodent can, put us in our place:).
isn't it funny how some animals can have that control. dogs kept me inside in Mexico when i went last year. it sucks!! anyhow, hope the mouse has left.
I've got some excellent Gruyere which you can use in a harmless trap which cages the critter. Take it straight away to your worst enemy's abode and let it run around with abandon, creating chuckles galore during the holiday season.
Ahh mice. It's not really a NYC thing, since I have mice and I'm in Iowa. Mine are just 'nicer'.
I have been dealing with them off and on the last few years (native Bostonian) and I still jump on chairs when they race by.
Traps work best, although they seem cruel. Poison works, but they usually choose to die underneath something very heavy. Then the smell.. oh God, the smell...
If there is no man available to dispose of them, invest in some of those yellow rubber kitchen gloves. That makes the job bearable.
See, and here I was thinking it was David Bowie that kept you trapped in a fortress of pillows (which sounds more like a line from a Sting song, come to think of it.)
Beep! Beep! It's time to spring you from captivity, so you can enjoy the holidays. I got this Cherry red Tucker Tin Goose, with Cream fur upholstery- even has a trailer hitch, for towing sleighs. It's the only time of the year that the beast leaves Las Vegas...
better a mouse when getting out of the shower than something larger like a...kangaroo...or...Norman Bates.:-)
I once killed a mouse with a pool stick.
One turns primal in an instant when something invades their home.
I wonder what is it that makes a rat such a fearsome critter? They are no bigger than a kitten and scared to death of us. What a world, so full of contradictions.
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