So, I lazily glanced towards my sleeping family before turning my back, and it was then when I saw a shining black thick lasso near the door. "Snake!!!" was the first thought and "Idiot!!!" was second.
"There couldn't possibly be a snake inside a closed room of a flat located on the top floor of the building" my brain told me in a jiffy.
"Must be a little mouse with a long tail" my thoughts were disturbed by a muffled shriek; rodent's attempts had woken up wifey. "Rats! Now I would be asked to get rid of this" I thought, pretending to be asleep. Anyways, as expected, wifey nudged me -
"उठो !"
"क्या ?"
"चूहा !"
"कहाँ ?"
"वहां !"
"कहाँ ?"
"अरे वहां !"
"मुझे नहीं दिख रहा !"
"अरे वो है ना, दरवाजे के पास !"
"मुझे नहीं दिख रहा !"
"अभी तो वहां था, पता नहीं कहाँ गया !"
"तुम्हारा वहम होगा, सो जाओ !""नहीं, मैंने देखा था! इत्ता बड़ा चूहा था !"
"सो जाओ, सवेरे देखेंगे !"
"प्लीज़ !"
This was the point where I had to get up, because lucky are those husbands, who get to hear the golden word "please" from their wives. I couldn't ignore increasing adrenaline-rush in my blood. The feeling of being superior took me out of bed and switched on the light.
The next moment all adrenaline disappeared, and before disappearing it made me jump back!
"That is a rat! That is a RAT! That is a RATTTT???? It can't be a RAT. Look at its size, it looks like that it has just eaten a bloody cat!"
This rat was a huge one; even bigger than ones that we see on railway stations. It had somehow & sometime found its way inside our flat, and had been sitting somewhere silently, waiting for us to fall asleep, so that it could attack and kill us in the night (thoughts of a petrified mind).
Upon seeing light and a jumping guy (me), the rat also got scared and ran towards corner & disappeared behind dressing table.
"Do something" wifey said.
"What can I do to such a giant Rattus Norvegicus, it will do anything it wishes" I thought, but said "yes yes, I'm thinking....", after all, no man would show that he is afraid of rodents, in front of his wife.
After some thinking, I opened the door towards balcony, took out a bat and started creating sounds to bring out the hiding beast. However, instead of bringing out the hidden beast, the noise woke up a sleeping beast - Piku.
When he saw the scene - his mom sitting on the bed holding the pillow and speaking loudly; and his dad hitting the ground with a bat and making noises; he decided to join in the chorus and started wailing. I couldn't decide which beast to handle first. However, Piku stopped crying himself as he pointed towards the ceiling. It took me a couple of moments that he wasn't pointing towards the ceiling, instead he was pointing at the top of the balcony door. The beast had shown its face, it was sitting on the top of the door and perhaps was trying to decide whether or not to jump from the door. It was first time when I saw its face and couldn't help noticing its similarity with Disney's Ratatouille. Piku also seemed to relate it with something he saw on TV because he spoke "moosh" (mouse).
So, situation was like this: the clock was showing 2 AM, room was freezing, Piku was enjoying the live version of cartoon series, wifey was tensed and waiting for the rat to jump outside, I was tensed and waiting for the rat to jump outside, the rat was tensed and waiting for me to move. Moments passed like this, and I realized various things like: the rat's brain is a small one and he won't jump to get outside the room, or the rat's brain is so small so he might jump. The most striking thought was that the situation was a deadlock and the rat could spend the entire night without moving an inch (because it did not have to go to office in the morning). So, I summoned my entire courage (without showing the expressions) and forced the door fiercely to make the rat fall. Trick worked, and the rat jumped out of desperation and disappeared into the dark.
You might think that the matter ended here, but it wasn't like that! Piku was again crying because his "moosh" was gone!
