House of Men

“…and there it was. Just in front of me, a big bucket of all kinds of foods. Vegetables and fruits, bones with fresh meat on them. It was paradise. I jumped in and started tasting the goods.”

“Wooooowww… Said little James. That’s amazing. So they kept the food there, to eat it later?”

“That’s what I thought,” grandpa said. “But no. Suddenly I heard someone coming in. A human, big as a log, even bigger. I hid underneath some carton in the bucket, which, by the way, had a delicious taste of milk, and watched him walk over to a big closet by the other wall. When he opened it I saw… Paradise!”

“Paradise? What was it? More orange skin?”

“No, little one. There were oranges, whole oranges, but there was so much more. Cheese. Big, round cheese, and ham, and patè…”

“Patè? I’ve never tried patè before…” Little Mons licked his lips, imagining how it must taste like..

“Neither had I. I needed to get in there. I ran over the floor as fast as I could, and just when the human was closing the door, I snuck in without being noticed.”

“Ooooohhh” The children were impressed. So brave their old grandpa had been on his younger days.

“I was inside. There was more food than we could eat in months! So what did I do?”

“You ate!” the two children shouted at once.

“ Exactly! I ate! I ate and I couldn’t eat any more. The I realized it was cold in there. Very cold. Too cold.

I tried to get the door open, but it was way too heavy. I sat there for a long time, freezing. Then the door opened again. I was so frozen I couldn’t even react fast enough to hide. The human screamed…”

“Ah! He saw you? The human?” The little rats looked at their grandpa with terror in their eyes.

“Yes… He saw me. So I had to get out of there. I jumped out on the floor. The human jumped away, and I ran towards the hole in the wall where I had come in. That’s when I saw it. A beast so fast I hardly saw it coming. A dog.”

“A dog!”

“But how did you get away?”

The two children was sitting on their toes now, they couldn’t wait to hear the rest. They knew about dogs, but neither one of them had ever seen one.

“It came running at me. I threw myself towards a crack under a bench. It was to small or the dog to come in, but there was no exit. The dog was barking, giving away my hiding place. The only exit was to pass by its horrible jaws.”

“But what did you do? How did you get out of there?”

The old rat held his hand out. He would come to that soon. “The human stuck a stick in, almost stabbed me. The first time i jumped away. The second time it hit me in the side.” He showed off a huge scar on one side of his belly. He can see the impression in the little rats’ eyes. “I knew I couldn’t stay were I was, so I ran for it. I ran past the dog. It bit after me. I could hear its jaws clap together right behind me. The human was screaming, there were several of them there now.

I hid under a shelf only sheltered by bars, the human could clearly see me. For a moment our eyes met. I saw… fear. The huge human was terrified of me, even though he was a hundred times my size. He lifted his stick, pointed it at me. His only objective was to kill me…”

“By the deepest sewers! What did you do? What did you do?”

“I felt a strange feeling that moment. A feeling of power, of courage. Maybe it was the fear of the human that gave me strength. I thought: this is the moment I’ll die, so I might as well die fighting. I ran out of my shelter, straight towards the human’s leg.”

The children released a sigh

“Then the most extraordinary thing happened. He jumped away.”

“He jumped away from you? Why? You’re just a rat!”

“I have no idea, but he did. He jumped away.”

“Haha! That’s so funny!”

“But the dog was not afraid. The dog was not afraid at all…”

Silence.

“It came running towards me. The human jumped aside, and fell. He fell over the dog, blocked it’s way. I ran out of the room, through another. I could hear the dog behind me. Behind the dog came the human. The dog was whining like it was having the time of its life. It wanted to murder me just for fun, I tell you. Just for fun!

Then I smelled something. Water. Quite clena, but with a hint of home. It came from some kind of a beholder. I jumped in there, knowing it might have been a dead end, a death trap.

Under the water there was a tunnel. I swam in underneath it. I could hear the dog’s jaws biting in the surface behind me. I swam further in. The dog disappeared. I could not go back, and the tunnel didn’t seem to have any end. I was doomed to drown.”

The children made big eyes.

“I heard a flush. A strong currant pulled me down, away from the horrible creatures behind me. I have no idea how long I was being pulled through watery tunnels.I could nothing but let myself go.

When I was losing consciousness I reached the surface. A the beautiful smell of sewers filled my nostrils. I was home.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewerage

https://listverse.com/2012/04/09/top-10-fascinating-facts-about-rats/

Perspective