The Mice in the Drawer
Mr. Silva walked up to the store-room at the corner of his garden. This had all sorts of junk, unusable furniture and old newspapers.
“It’s time to repair this and get it painted,” thought Mr. Silva and pulled the drawer of one of the writing-tables, without much thought. He was surprised to see four round eyes staring back at him. They were of two baby mice. They were just as surprised as Mr. Silva, for they had never seen a soul other than their mother. Mr. Silva quickly closed the drawer.
Now, mice are not nice animals to have around and they damage property and spread diseases. But Mr. Silva, being the kind person that couldn’t harm a fly, didn’t want to harm them. “They are big enough to survive on their own,” he thought. “Next week I’ll get the gardener to empty the drawer into the little thicket which is away from the houses. They’ll survive there. And when I get the shed repaired, I’ll make sure to get all the holes in the ceiling closed so that mice can’t come in again!”
As Mr. Silva came out of the shed in a hurry, the chubby cook who worked at his place was near the shed. Now she was the complete opposite of Mr. Silva. She hated all animals. She stomped and squashed all small animals she saw and hit the bigger ones with whatever that was laying around, usually stones.
“What’s in the shed?” she asked, seeing the expression on Mr. Silva’s face. “Oh, nothing,” lied Mr. Silva, who knew how the cook felt about animals. “Just thinking of renovating the old shed. That’s all!” he said walking away.
“Oh no, there’s something you’re hiding and I will find out!” thought the cook. “When he goes to market tomorrow, I’ll investigate the shed!” Meanwhile, the two little mice,
Brown and Black had so much to discuss. When their mother came, they told her about the incident.
“We thought this place is the whole world but the outside is much bigger with different creatures!”
“Oh the outside world is much bigger!” assured their mother, “but you two are still a little too small to go out there.
You could be harmed. In a few more days you’ll be big enough and I’ll take you out. Till then stay in here!”
The next morning when their mother went out, one of the two baby mice crawled out from the hole behind the drawer.
“Stop! Stop!” shouted Black,
“mother told us to stay in!”
“Don’t worry,” replied Brown, the naughty one, “I won’t go far; Just exploring around here!” He jumped to the ground and looked around amazed.
That was the exact moment the cook opened the door, holding a stick for defense. She hated all kinds of animals, but what she hated the most were mice. She was very scared of them. The moment she saw Brown, she shrieked from the top of her voice and jumped on to an old chair. Brown squeaked from the top of his voice, after seeing the chubby cook with a stick and crept under the old cupboard. Black, after hearing his brother, came running out to his rescue and he too crept under the cupboard after seeing the cook.
“Rats! Rats! They’ve invaded the shed! Soon they’ll invade the whole house!” shrieked the cook and ran out, banging the door behind her. After a while Brown and Black returned to the cupboard. When their mother returned, Black told her what Brown did. Although she was angry, she agreed that maybe they were ready to leave this place and go out in to the world. So she promised to leave with them the next day to live outside.
The cook slowly crept into the shed with a rat-trap the next day. But by then the mice had already abandoned their nest. She fixed a piece of burnt coconut into the trap and smiled. “If this doesn’t get them, nothing will!” she giggled to herself. “This will be the end of those pesky rats!” She came into the shed everyday to check the trap, but it was empty. She came again the next day and the day after that, week after week for about a month. But there were no rats caught.
The cook examined the trap and shook her chubby face, which turned red in annoyance. She was pretty sure that she saw mice in the shed. But she couldn’t understand how even one of them didn’t get caught. She left the trap where it was and walked away angrily. “Maybe they were not rats! Maybe they were just shadows I saw like rats!” she muttered to herself. “My eye-sight is not what it used to be!” she thought angrily, more cross with herself than she was with the mice.
Mr. Silva came with some workers to renovate the shed. They got rid of the unwanted clutter, cleaned the place and started painting. Finally they covered all the holes in the ceiling, leaving no space for mice to enter. After they left, the cook slowly sneaked in and saw the trap shut. She jumped in joy and ran saying, “there’s no escaping me!”
But when she went and examined the trap, the cook noticed that although the coconut piece was missing, what was caught in the trap was an old potato. She huffed and threw the potato out, took her trap and walked away. Mr. Silva chuckled to himself, watching the cook walk off fuming. The cook didn’t know that Mr. Silva checked the drawer a couple of days after discovering the mice and learnt that they had already left their nest. As for the potato, one of the workers thought to play a little joke on her.