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 |  a place to rest my thoughts |
| The first time I saw him I jumped back and almost screamed, except that would wake Mama and that would be bad, because she had a bad head and was lying down with a cool cloth over her head. She hadn't remembered to pack my lunch for school again, so I was on a chair in the kitchen, getting the peanut butter down out of the cupboard, and it was a good thing I had a good hold of the back of the chair, because when he scurried past across the floor with his naked tail waving pink and long behind him, I didn't fall over with a clatter even though I lost my balance a bit. He came real close to me, like he wasn't scared at all, and that was strange because mice are supposed to be always scared and tiny, and he was big. As big as both my fists and nearly as long as my elbow to my fingertips, so maybe he wasn't a mouse. I looked him up at school during library when we had computer time, and I was right. He was too big to be a mouse, and too small for an opossum, and apparently there were other rodents that he wasn't. He was a rat. Rats are fascinating. They can swim and laugh and their teeth never stop growing so they need to chew on things to grind them down. I was born in the year of the rat while the world shut down, or that's what Mama says. When I got home and let myself in with the key that Mama had threaded around my neck because she was at work, he was there, over the crumbs I hadn't cleared away. He ran off when I came in, but when I made my after school sandwich, I dropped a piece of crust with peanut butter for him, and he came back. I named him Jasper. He wasn't a very good pet. He didn't want to play with me, but I talked to him sometimes. I told him about school and how math was hard and I told him my spelling words and read him stories from my homework. We had a wonderful afternoon together. I swept up after him to make sure Mama didn't notice, but I must have missed some mess. When Mama got home, I was already asleep, but her clatter woke me a bit, and I heard her muttering about messy rodents. She doesn't like rats. It made me worry for Jasper. The next morning, she was up when I woke up, and made me breakfast and my lunch and warned me not to touch the traps because they'd take my fingers right off. I wanted to warn Jasper, too, but it was time for school so I went away, and when I got home, a trap was spring and I saw him, so still. His tail was so long and I turned away so I didn't see his head. I couldn't eat. I wasn't hungry anymore. But last night, after I went to bed and turned off the lights, while Mama was still out, I heard Jasper's family scratching in the walls. And I know I'll have more friends to talk with, soon. word count: 546 |
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