Dusk fought to peek through the kitchen blinds, giving the room an
orange glow as it reflected off the peach colored walls. At that time of day, a
sliver of light reflected off the refrigerator door handle onto the floor. Brie
crawled from under the oven to investigate. Closing her eyes as she stepped
into the light, she enjoyed the warmth and rolled onto her back for an even
coat. A light clank came from the living room, startling her. By instinct, she
ran behind the overflowing trash can under the counter.
As she hugged the wall, she tried not to let the alluring smell of discarded food distract her. As unpredictable as he was, the pale skyscraper shouldn’t be downstairs yet. He always visited the kitchen before resting for hours in the living room. She continued towards the doorway when the scent of a half-finished microwaved Lean Cuisine made her whiskers twitch. She sat on her hind legs and contemplated her priorities. “Soon,” she whispered to herself and continued on her way.
Once she made it to the carpeted game room attached to the living room, Brie spotted Squeakisha staring at a corner behind the partial wall separating the game and living rooms she usually ignored. Brie ran towards her friend. “Squeakisha. Squeakisha! Was that you making all that noise? Damn near made me shit a pellet.”
“No, girl.” Squeakisha kept her eyes locked. “It was them.”
“Them who?”
“The rats,” she said.
Brie tripped over her fore feet and flipped on her back. “How the fuck did rats make it in here? Shit we gotta hide.”
“Oh, not those rats,” Squeakisha finally broke her gaze. “Ew, yikes! Girl, you know I would not even be out here if that was the case.” She sauntered over to Brie and dragged her to the living room for a better view. “See? The cage up there: regular sized white rats.”
Brie pulled herself up clawing up her friend’s back. There it was: a cage on top of the table with a pink tail hanging out the front. “Ooo, you’re right. How many do you think there are?”
“I dunno; I was waiting for you. I know how distracted you get.”
Brie played with a crumb tangled in a strain of hair. “Never.” She focused and ate the crumb, pulling the hair out of her teeth. “Ok, I’ve at least had a snack. I can say hi to strangers now. Lead the way.”
Squeakisha jumped up to the cushion of the chair in front of her while Brie followed up the chair leg. “Oops. My bad, girl. I’ll make smaller steps.” She kicked off the back support of the chair and landed on the table in front of the cage. Wasting no time, she called down, “C’mon you got it. I know you at least agile.” The smaller mouse made the leap and nearly missed, climbing up the edge thanks to a push from her companion.
Brie looked around the table. The usual Lego set had been pushed to the side to make room for this cage that seemed to appear out of thin air. She looked inside and saw the white rats were now on the other side of the cage staring at the wall. “Hey. Hey you over there.” The rat on the left yawned, aggravating her. “Hey! Shithead one and shithead two!” The rat on the right turned his head dumbfounded. “Yeah ya’ll. Get over here.” He walked forward, leaving his slightly rounder friend behind. Brie began her line of questioning. “The fuck did ya’ll come from?”
“You don’t have to answer that!” the bigger rat yelled.
Luckily for Brie, she was talking to the simpler of the two. “The store,” he replied.
She looked back at Squeakisha puzzled. “The store? Like… a grocery store?”
“No, you idiot. A pet store. Jeez, and I thought we were the sheltered ones,” murmured the rat in the back.
Brie stood up against the cage and grabbed. “Ey, you got a name back there, wise shithead?”
“Oh, he’s Finn and I be Jake,” answered the slim rat.
“No they are not; it’s Spinner and Teeter!”
“Hold up,” Squeakishajoined. “Ya’ll got slave names? Aw, this is rich. Ya’ll the white ones but yeah the ones locked up. From what I’ve seen on TV, this is very ironic and comical.”
Spinner started his approach, “Yeah, we’ll at least we were chosen. And we’re taken care of. Look at all this food. Meanwhile, what, you’re out deal looking for scraps?”
“Shows what you know,” Squeakisha responded.
Brie, still hungry, started around the right side of the cage. “When did ya’ll get here?”
“Yeah, and what’s with your real names?” Squeakisha added.
“Well, he spun out of our mum when she had him. And I’m just a big o’fan of breast mi--”
“Aht aht,” Spinner cut off his brother. “We got here this morning, I’m pretty sure. Haven’t seen the big one since he disappeared around that corner.”
“Ah, the stairs.”
“Stairs?”
“Now who’s the sheltered one,” Squeakisha laughed. “You make it sound so nice that you’ve got a bed and water and a wheel and bland food” that her friend was in the middle of stealing. “Well, jokes on you. This slob leaves food everywhere: on the table, the stove, the trashcan. Last week, I found a whole cookie in between the couch cushions. You think you have unlimited food now, but wait until it gets smoky in here and you get hungry out of nowhere but he disappeared to fall asleep again. Oh yeah, that’s the other thing; good luck trying to figure out when your next meal is coming. So sure, we may sleep in the wall, but at least we’re free to enjoy the diversity of the tall one’s scraps.” Brie gave her friend the signal as she scurried down the table to the TV stand with paws full of food. “Well, if you’ll excuse us. We’ll leave you two to start your first hunger.”
Spinner and Teeter turned around to find one lone food pellet left in their dish. When they turned around, the mice had vanished. However, they heard small mouths chewing in delight below them.
“Bland, huh?” Spinner said into the open air.
“Thank you, Finn and Jake,” the mice sang in unison.
Teeter nudged his brother, “Oy, I think fancy us, Finn.”
Spinner slapped his brother, “Shut up. And drop the accent.”
“Aw. You never let me have any fun.”
Word
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