My Mouse Story and Roald Dahl

BOY Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. I grabbed this audio book the other day at the IF public Library for one reason: To burn the name Roald Dahl into my memory.

Why? Because on a certain occasion with Mr. Pediatrician we discussed books and I was asked if about Roald Dahl and I pulled a blank. “I don’t know who he is.”

Mr. Pediatrician didn’t say: “Willy Wonka Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl.” But he studied me like a counterfeit bill.

He didn’t realize that yes I sat entranced in elementary school looking up dreamily at my teacher while she read about James’ adventures. My hands holding my slanted head as I too fell into the book she’d opened.

So when I was at the library and I saw his book as my eyes hungrily searched the backs of books on shelves I saw the name. I pulled it and last night as I drifted to sleep I chuckled as the voice of Andrew Sachs came through my old black Sony speakers.

I held my breath for the Mouse Plot he schemed just as the elementary kids stood spell bound for mouse story.

Which I will include here, for you:

I stayed in a basement apartment in Rexburg while I went to Ricks College. The Grover’s house was located by a large field that invited little rodents during the fall when the weather cooled off.

The scratching in the walls of the house let me know that they were “gathering” their stores of food somewhere by my bedroom for the upcoming winter. I imagined that in the night they would crawl up my bed and nibble at me so I figured I’d have to put the bed on top of silver coffee cans so if they did, they’d slide back down to the ground.

Instead, I told Mr. Grover about our predicament and he set a small trap with cheddar cheese on the kitchen floor next to mouse hole. Which wasn’t like Jerry’s from the cartoon a perfect rounded top but a square opening in the floor board next to the old stove.

One night around mid-night as I was studying I heard a small: “Clap!” Holding my breathe I put the book down on my lap and sat up in bed. I knew that in the kitchen was the culprite. I tiptoed to my door and slowly opened it. I peered into the dark kitchen halfway through a slit in the door.

Sideways I walked through it and then climbed on the arm of the couch and then flicked on a light. Shiny little eyes looked at me from the kitchen floor! I raced back to my bedroom and flung the door shut while I devised a plan.

I wasn’t going to touch it. I need something to trap it. A box. I searched my closet and found an orange Nike shoe box and then went back into the living room. I grabbed the chairs from around the table and like lily pads set them in a straight line into the kitchen.

The mouse watched me expectantly and I him. Once I was closer he started to tremble.
On the counter was a generic can of green beans. I grabbed it.

Then I lowered the box and beans over the mouse. The beans were the dead weight to keep the mouse from lifting the box! Aren’t I smart?

Then I hopped each chair back to my bedroom, left the light on so he’d think I was still there and went to bed.

The minute my alarm sounded I dashed up the stairs in my pajamas and knocked on the Grover’s door. Breathlessly I told the story to the Grover’s who then accompanied me down into the kitchen. He grabbed my can of beans and with me on a chair he held his arm back as if he were going to use the can to wallop the mouse!

He pulled back the orange Nike box and there on the floor were little splats of blood and as soon as the mouse had a chance he ran into his square leaving a trail of blood and his lone leg.

The mouse had chewed his leg off in the night! I about fell off my chair. Not only did we have a mouse loose but a three legged mouse!

It took me a couple days to clean up the mess. (I kept it covered with the Nike box) And even longer to eat in the kitchen again.

A few days passed and Mr. Grover knocked on the door to inform me that he’d caught a mouse! It was dead by the time he got to it he said, but he knew it was our culprite because it had three legs and in its front two paws it stil clutched the cheddar cheese bait!

This might be more scary if you imagine me dressed up like Sally telling you it!