Thursday, August 04, 2005

Howard

The second night we were in Jinja, I got somewhat of a fever. I think it was jet-lag catching the best of me, I also had something weird going on with my left arm, but that's neither nor there. My roomie, Mary Ann, RN, whom I affectionately refer to as MAV, tells me I need to lie down after dinner and try to nap. So I did. Feeling quite strange, I drift in and out of a light sleep. About one hour later, I roll over under the mosquito net and see something brown jumping up and down in the paper gift bag next to my bed! I flew out from under the net (I was quite tangled up) and scream at the top of my lungs. I can see my heart beating out of my chest. "It's a jumping African cockroach," I say out loud. Well, it's either that or I am officially delusional, which would be fitting because I took my flippin' Larium earlier that day. I thought, great, I am a looney toon for sure. I stand in the corner of the room for, I kid you not, a good 15 minutes. For some reason I am paralyzed with fear. I finally muster the nerve to peek over into the bag....nothing. I am crazy. There is nothing in there. No roach. The Larium must have gotten to me, I think. Later on, MAV comes into the room and I start bawling...spilling my guts to her about the jumping cockroach actually being a delusion. I think she really wanted to laugh, but she looked me in the eye and told me she believed me. I think she would have given the ol' wink-wink had someone else been in the room. But being the lady she is, she prayed with me and we ended up falling asleep. The next morning while I am in the shower, MAV lets out a scream. "I saw him too! You're not crazy! I just saw something run across the floor!" Well, I am just tickled pink that I actually now have a jumping African cockroach in the room with me, and not just in my head. That night, we hear a little rustling noise. MAV and I wake up out of a dead sleep. She in a fearful voice asks, "Nicki, is that you making that noise?" Now, with all do respect, why would I be making that kind of noise at 2 a.m.? "No, are you?" I answer. Now we are both afraid. Afraid of Papa Roach. He's a big one. You know how fear plays off of other people's reactions...well, this would have been prime horror movie material. All of the sudden, MAV jumps out of the bed and screams, "He just ran across me in the bed!!!!" Well, that hoists my hiney out of bed in an instant! We are now standing on our beds in the dark squealing. After 5 minutes we decide there is nothing we can do. Quite frankly, I am not sure I want to find the thing to kill him, because the slaughter would have been a 3 part series. First, a bat to ding him. Then, a shotgun with 2 shots in each end of his massive roachy body. SO, we decide to lay in our beds and tuck our nets in really tight so he cannot get in the covers with us. MAV is just too curious. She must find the source. She gets out her flashlight and starts the hunt. I remain tucked in tight as a tick. Nothing is crawling into my bed! MAV looks in the closet, shines the light behind our bed...the noise gets a little louder. Rustling and cracking. Then...she pulls out the bed side table...shines the light down and she squeals..."Nicki! It's a MOUSE!!!" A mouse. A brown mouse. Eating my peanut offering no less! It was a mouse all along. I had to name him as I do all strange nameless animals I encounter. His name became Howard. Howard was quite a guy. The hotel staff came to know of his whereabouts, and also referred to him as Howard the mouse. They tried to kill him with rat poison pellets, but Howard was too sneaky for that. That was his room and we had invaded. So, we came to love him and called him our own. He would run in the bathroom and hide and we would occasionally see him streak through the room early in the morning. I miss Howard. He was probably rabid, but I miss him all the same.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Where did you find it? Interesting read »