One weekend Marcelo decided to take his parents to visit some relatives in a city nearby, just a two-hour drive away. For this reason the grooming process would also include a thorough check-up.
They drove to their local garage and Marcelo handed Cherry over to the professional while he savored a cup of freshly brewed coffee in the waiting room. A few minutes had passed when a man in gray overalls asked Marcelo to follow him behind the office which lead to where Cherry waited.
“Marcelo, I am afraid there is a problem.”
Marcelo froze. “What happened? Is everything all right?”
“I’d like you to take a look at the engine.”The man pointed to a small opening behind the battery. “Right there, look.”
Marcelo was afraid to look but he had to. He bent forward to get a closer look when he saw it. It was the biggest tail he had ever seen and it was furless.
“What is that? A cat’s tail?”Marcelo asked nervously.
“Marcelo, I am afraid that it is a mouse.”
“A mouse? Look at the size of that tail!”
“Ok then, we’ll call it a rat. Anyhow, it seems to have been living in your engine for some time now. See how it has eaten its way to that spot?”Marcelo looked carefully has the man pointed and showed him what he was talking about. “You see we can follow its trail and we believe that he even goes into the interior when the motor is running.”
“I can’t believe it! The sound of Cherry’s engine has always sounded like music to my ears. I would have realized the difference. I would have known whether or not there was something strange going on.”
“Not necessarily. It is actually quite common and…”
“Common? You’ve got to be kidding.”Marcelo was dumbfounded.
“If it were a cat, it would have been cut up into pieces, but a mouse can live in a car for quite a long time. The biggest problem is that mice eat up the wiring and that costs a fortune to be redone.”
“Get it out! Get it out!”Marcelo shouted. : I don’t want a mouse, rat or whatever it is living in my car and chewing up the wiring!”
“We will." The man said calmly. “I just needed to show it to you so you could believe it.”
Marcelo went back to the waiting room and nervously waited for the removal of the critter and for the check-up to end. He kept trying to figure out where the mouse could have come from but the picture of the huge tail kept invading his mind and gave him the shivers.
An hour and a half later, Cherry and Marcelo left the garage, picked up the parents and off they went to the nearby city. Marcelo didn’t dare tell his folks about the mouse. His mother would have had a fit and his father would give him a sermon on how important it was to take good care of one’s things. His father would say this to Marcelo always at meal times.
The ride was pleasant and they arrived at the estimated time. The relatives were pleased to see Marcelo and his family and they were impressed with Cherry. “A VW Bug is not something we see in this town every day and this one is a beauty.” His relatives would say.
For dinner that evening, Marcelo’s aunt made homemade pizza. It was divine. During dinner a strange feeling came over Marcelo and he had a hunch that the mouse was still around lodged somewhere inside Cherry, so he decided to place a small chunk of the delicious pizza where he had seen the tail and after having done so, he went to sleep.
Bright and early the next morning, he slowly opened up the hood and noticed that the pizza was gone. Vanished. Not a crumb left. He even looked underneath to see if it had fallen through; after all, there are open spaces inside the hood of the car.
Marcelo was furious and drove Cherry to the local garage in that city, explained what had happened and to his disappointment, the mouse was still there. They opened up the hood and there was that huge furless tail.
“Get it out! Get it out!” Marcelo shrieked.
The people at the garage tried to calm him down. They told him that they had a super powerful vacuum cleaner that would definitely suck up the mouse and get the job done.
Marcelo waited for over an hour during which he spoke to the woman who was serving coffee.
“Can you believe that I drove all the way here with a mouse in my car engine?" Marcelo said.
“You don’t say.” The woman kindly answered.
“You’d think the mouse would go flying out with all the potholes on the roads and the heat the engine produces.”
“If I were you, I’d buy rat poison just to be sure.”
“Rat poison?” Marcelo was confused.
“Yes, you can get some at Joe’s, a small shop just down the road. You can spread it all over the engine and if the poison is still there the following morning, you will know for sure that the mouse is gone.”
“That’s not such a bad idea. But I am pretty sure that after they use the powerful vacuum here and after the drive back to my city, it won’t survive.”
“I don’t know. It sounds like you’re dealing with a pretty smart super mouse.”
Marcelo drove away and decided to stop by at Joe’s like the coffee woman had suggested and purchase the poison. He couldn’t believe that a creature could be so resistant and stubborn. He picked up his parents, said goodbye to the relatives and drove home. Unlike the trip to the city, the trip home took over four hours.
There is no way that mouse is still in the engine. Marcelo thought.
Before calling it a day, Marcelo took the poison and filled up every nook and cranny in the front part of the car. He wore rubber gloves to protect his skin because Joe said he only sold powerful stuff. As he closed the hood, he bid Cherry a good night and went to bed.
That evening Marcelo tossed and turned in bed and dreamt that the city where he lived had been infested with talking rats of all sizes and colors. It was a nightmare. The alarm clock went off; he rushed out of bed and headed for Cherry in his pajamas. He opened the hood and all the poison was gone.
“No!” He screamed.
The mouse had survived the super vacuum, the heat of the engine, the bumpy roads, the long drive, no food, no water and he had eaten all the poison. Marcelo wasn’t sure the poison would have any effect on the super mouse, so he decided to repeat the poison three nights in a row just to be sure he’d eliminate the resistant big furless tailed rodent.
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(Written Feb. 6, 2012)
copyright ©2012 - Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.
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