The Stow Away
“Gee Wheeze, Mel. Get up … quick!”
“What? What? What’s the matter?” He replied
“I don’t know”… Go outside. I’ll call you when the coffee’s ready.” I said in disgust. I just needed to be alone and clear my thoughts.
Looking at the cereal … I questioned why this happened.
“We must have another leak in galley window above.” I thought.
Reaching for the dust buster, I quickly sucked up the Cheerios. As I emptied the canister in the trash, I glanced in the main salon to check for any other drama that could have happened on our last day’s journey. The cracked window was shocking enough. But there could have been more water damage.
As I glanced over the white Berber carpet, I noticed candy wrappers spread all over the sides of the room.
“That’s strange”, I thought.
During the last party, a glass container of chocolates had broken and I replaced the jar with a plastic open Tupperware container. The foil wrapped mini Musketeer bars filled the bowl nicely.
Hearing Rips’ steps on the gangway, I went into the salon to turn on the television for the weather channel. As I walked into the room looking for the remote, I caught a glance of a foreign object with the corner of my right eye.
To my shock, on the plush white sectional couch was a tan furry mouse with huge pink ears. Truly, he looked like a minuscule Chanukah. He was peacefully sleeping on the white cushions, comatose with shimmering green candy foil wrappers scattered around him.
The remote by his side facing the television, he looked at me as if to ask, “What’s for lunch?” Obviously he was in a chocolate caffeine stupor.
We starred at each other for what seems like minutes, communicating telepathically.
I slowly stepped backwards, neither one of us left each other’s stare. His large ears perked up as I slipped into the galley hoping he won’t move.
I bent over the galley stove trying to recollect the mornings’ events with the cereal and chocolate wrappers. All of a sudden, everything became clear. We picked up a stowaway mouse in the shipyard, who likes to eats Cheerios and Chocolates. And now with a broken window, he’s going to invite his new friends.
I peeked once again around the divider into the salon. Sure enough, there he was. Quickly, I returned my head back into the galley. Walking very slowly through the pilothouse and gingerly down the gangway, I then scampered down the dock looking for the captain.
“Mel, Mel, where’s Captain Rip? Catching my breath, you’ll never believe this,” I yelled “There’s a mouse on board in the main salon!”
“Really?” He responded, “There’s a mouse in the house!” He said laughingly.
“I can catch him”. A voice from one of the workers came from the side of the yacht.
“Donald, Are you kidding me?” I replied
“No, truly I can. I’m a great mouse catcher. Where is he?”
“He’s in the main salon, on the sectional”. I replied
“I’ll come up through the stern. You’ll see, Gina. Don’t worry. I’ll get him.”
I returned up the gangway through the pilothouse and watched Donald enter from the stern opening the salon doorway with a painter’s cup in his hand.
Within moments, Donald and I stood at opposite sides of the salon, looking at our target. With one quick swipe, he lunged at his prey and caught the pink-eared mouse under the painter’s cup. He slid the cup down the couch and then covered the open end of the container with his palm. He proudly sashayed out the back door, like a proud cat with his catch in his mouth.
Once his watchful audience on the dock bwas assembled around him, he flung the contents of the plastic cup high into the air over the canal. All of us watched the little mouse fly with his pink ears wide open like a parachute. It seemed as though it took minutes as he gracefully arched over the canal.
All of a sudden, we watched in shock as a huge iridescent “strip bass” jumped out of the water. With his mouth opened wide, he swallowed the mouse whole.
