A New Take on a Comfort Blanket?

The other night I slept with a mouse. Really, truly. I think I subconsciously knew it was there, but I thought it was my alarm clock. I don’t usually sleep with an alarm clock either, but I strangely have been lately, just in case I wake up in the night and want to check the time. Or, more likely, in case Bessie wakes me up in the night and I want to check the time. Bessie is a whole other story, or post. Or several posts as the case might be.

Back from that little sidetrack: The mouse didn’t have a tail, or a cord, more accurately. The mouse was named Dell, I think, at least that is what the writing said. In this case I’m going to believe the writing.

Why there was a cordless mouse in my bed, I haven’t the foggiest. But at least it didn’t have fur and a tail. Although I am slightly troubled about the Dell. It just doesn’t sound as cute and friendly, as let’s say, Freddie….

Once upon a time, there was a little girl, who would stay up late into the night, her pen scratching across the paper, line upon line building itself into a suspenseful tale of murder, mystery, and ancient family feuds. Sometimes it got chilly in the little attic room, sometimes she got sore from sitting on the hard wooden floor. The old house would be quiet, everyone else in the family fast asleep, and the story she was writing would scare its very own author. But then she would hear scratching in the walls, it was a lone mouse that she never saw, but sometimes would hear. She named him Freddie, because Freddie seemed like a good name for a comforting mouse that you never saw, but scratched around, traipsing through the walls, keeping you company late at night.

I was that little girl. Well, teenager really. Writing such suspenseful stories was such a break from the monotony of real everyday life, that included evil politicians, shady lawyers and passing knowledge of someone who would one day be become a killer*.

And it is entirely possible that it wasn’t a cute little mouse but something horrible like a bat. I’m glad the thought didn’t occur to me at the time. Did I have bats in my attic? Frightening thought indeed.

Dell? Doesn't that sound like cold hard plastic to you? Almost like a robot, or whisper "computer."

This is T.W.

I'll be back.

P.S. Any mention of Dell is not to be taken literally, or figuratively, positively or negatively, I may or may not like computers called D-E-L-L, I may or may not like people called D-E-L-L. I may not know what I'm talking about. That's not likely, but I thought I'd throw it out there. :)

*Note: What I said about evil politicians and shady lawyers was said in slight gest. However I did indeed in my life unfortunately cross path with someone who down the road killed people in what was, really, a type of terrorist attack. I do not think that is anything to joke about. Good people lost their lives that day, spouses lost their loved one, children lost a parent. Justice will never bring them back.