Worse than Roaches

Two nights ago I was sleeping in my bed. Around 4:00 AM I felt shifting pressure on my chest. Within 5 seconds I was completely awake. Was I having problems breathing? I couldn’t figure it out. Then something scampered onto my shoulder, then onto the bed, then the floor.

For the two hours that it took me to fall back to sleep, I convinced myself that I had been dreaming. My malaria medicine gives me eerily vivid dreams.

But my mind kept returning to this past Thursday. I had woken up at a similar hour to the distinct sensation that something was nibbling on my finger nail. I had convinced myself that I must have been scratching the shelf behind my bed in my sleep.

Yesterday afternoon I found mouse droppings on my dresser. My fear had been confirmed.

My apartment-mate “Jen” and I were watching Scrubs last night. Around midnight I went to brush my teeth. I opened the bathroom door and saw the mouse. (I say “the” mouse with the hope that there is only one.)

I screamed. Jen came over. I made her look at the mouse with my flashlight just to confirm I wasn’t hallucinating. I wasn’t.

We knew the routine. I held the bathroom door shut from the outside. Jen ran for the security guards. Two guards came in with buckets. Slowly, Jen and I opened up the door to show them. The mouse had moved closer to the door. When we located it, it was about 2 feet from us. We screamed simultaneously and darted in different directions. The security guards were in hysterics.

(Jen would later say, “The glass ceiling has just been lowered.”)

I heard buckets thrown against the floor. Less than 20 seconds later they had bucketed the mouse. We have no idea how they caught it so quickly as we were both hiding while the capture was occurring.

—–

Is there really an international school of aviation by Elwa Junction? If not, does anyone know when the sign is from?