Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Eek! (02/25/10)
-
TITLE: A Leap of Desperation | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mildred Sheldon
02/28/10 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Going back many years when my children were little is a challenge and taxes my memory just a bit, but I hope you enjoy reading about this tale as much as I enjoy reminiscing about it.
It was in the 1970’s and we lived in a Trailer park in a nice 3 bedroom trailer. We had two children, our 8 year old son, Rob, and our 6 year old daughter, Robin. We loved living in this larger trailer. It was such an improvement from a 2 bedroom little trailer that looked worse for wear on the outside, but was well kept on the insides.
That particular day I had gotten up before our children and was on my way to the kitchen to fix coffee. I need coffee to help get my juices flowing before anyone or anything has a chance at upsetting the apple cart. I am not one of those blessed persons who can hit the floor running. I’ve got to get my brain in gear and my body engaged for everything to run smoothly, but that is the way I’m wired.
And now for the rest of the story. I had barely opened by eyes and was shuffling towards the kitchen sink when I noticed some sort of movement out of the corner of my eye. That was the jolt needed to bring me out of my haze, and there by the stove sat a tiny, fuzzy field mouse, no bigger then a minute, but I squealed loud enough to wake the dead and desperately leaped from where I stood to the kitchen chair.
My precious husband came running from the bathroom to the kitchen even before that little critter had time to move. What assailed his eyes was me standing on a kitchen chair, a look of terror on my face, and a field mouse standing on his hind legs looking so innocent; it sent my husband into peals of laughter.
At the time I couldn’t see the humor, nor even understand why my sweet husband could react that way to my dire situation. He slowly walked over to the chair put his arms around me and very calmly lifted me from my perch. By that time the little varmint had ran under the kitchen cabinet by the sink, and disappeared. Bob calmed me down as best he could while still shaking from laughter at my plight.
The commotion had wakened the children and they ran to the kitchen as fast as they could to find out what had happened. My darling husband had regained some composer and calmly told the children that Mama had seen a little mouse and it frightened her.
“Ok” replied my children with a wide eyed look and calmly returned to their bedrooms.
I looked at Bob with tears in my eyes and asked him why he thought the situation was so funny?
“Oh honey,” he said as he hugged me and gave me a tender kiss, “if you could have seen the look on your face, the way you were standing on that chair you would have laughed. You laughed when Barb, our sister-in-law, opened the refrigerator and frog legs jumped out of the bowl of salt water. I’m sorry, but I think that mouse was more afraid of you then you were of him.”
After he held me awhile and assured me everything would be all right I calmed down, and was able to fix coffee biscuits, gravy and bacon for breakfast.
Afterwards I removed everything under the sink, and Bob found how that tiny 2 inch little mouse had made his way into our trailer. I found out that mice can chew through about anything. In the PVC drain pipe was a minuscule hole large enough to gain entrance into our kitchen. Bob filled the hole with steel wool and put duct tape over the steel wool to keep that little critter out. All he or she wanted was a warm place to nest, forage for food and stay warm until spring arrived.
Well, after I had time to think about my leap of desperation to that kitchen chair as well as my look of horror, plus Barbs experience I had to chuckle to myself. Got to love those eek moments.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
I think the strongest section is the middle--some of the intruductory material and the conclusion could be trimmed and the rest expanded, perhaps to develop the plot or the characters a bit more.