Wasn’t that the trading card game some of the younger kids played at recess? Adults played that too? Before she could ask, the mouse raced along the wall and headed behind her refrigerator. What if it got inside the refrigerator? What if she opened her pasta salad and found a dead mouse in there?
“There’s a giant rat!” she exclaimed. “Can you come over?”
“I’ll be right over,” Dave said. “Don’t worry. I’ve had a lot of experience with rats in Brooklyn.”
“Bless you.”
A short while later, Dave arrived, her hero. She hugged him. “It’s in the kitchen.”
“Where’s your broom?” he asked.
“In the closet in the kitchen. Can you get it? I don’t want to go in there.”
He nodded once and got the broom. He wielded it like a weapon.
“What are you going to do?” she asked from a safe distance.
“I’m going to kill it.”
“You can’t kill it! Just get it out of here.”
“These things spread diseases. Believe me, you want it gone.”
“It might be a mouse,” she said. “Actually, I’m sure it’s a mouse. I know I said it was a rat because it’s huge, but it just seems huge because it’s touching my stuff.” A flash of gray went past. “There it is!”
Dave took off, swiping at the mouse, which led him on a merry chase around the apartment. Loki watched from a safe distance, looking terrified.
Steph got on the sofa and pulled her legs up so the mouse wouldn’t accidentally run over her foot again. Dave trapped it by the sofa when it ran underneath.
Steph jumped up. “Ah! Dave!” she screamed.
Someone pounded on the door. “Steph! Are you okay?”
Griff?
“Dave!” she hollered again. The mouse had reappeared on the other side of the sofa.
Dave came flying toward her, and the broom bumped into her calf with a whack.
“Ow!” Steph cried.
“Steph! Let me in!” Griff hollered. “I’ll break this door down.” A hard thump sounded on the front door.
“Dave!” she screamed, pointing to where the mouse was now hovering by the wall.
The front door thumped again. Steph tore her gaze from the mouse. Another thump. The wooden door actually bulged. Shit. He really was going to break the door down. Steph ran to the front door and flung it open. Griff came tumbling in just as Dave ran by with the broom after the mouse that was heading for her bedroom again.
“Get it!” she screamed. “Don’t let it touch my bed!”
“What is going on here?” Griff asked. “I thought you were in trouble.”
Steph spared him a quick glance while she gathered all the oranges off the floor before Dave killed himself on them. “Dave’s trying to catch the mouse that just ran into my bedroom!”
Griff nodded. “I got this.”
He left. She could hear Dave banging around in her bedroom as the broom thwacked the floor and walls. The mouse tore out of there. She jumped back on the sofa to find Loki trembling in fear. She scooped up the cat and stroked his quivering body. “You are the worst hunter ever, Loki.”
Loki made no reply.
Griff returned with a baseball bat.
“Omigod, Griff, what are you doing?” Steph asked. “Where did you get that?”
“Your neighbor. I’m going to get the mouse.”
She watched in horror as both Dave and Griff chased the mouse around the apartment, wooden bat and broom swinging wildly. Dave swung the broom down just as Griff swung the bat, nearly taking out Dave’s ankle.
“Guys, stop!” Steph exclaimed. “You can’t both hunt the mouse. You’re going to hurt each other.”
“I’ll do it,” Dave said. His eyes never left his prey.
“I got it, honey,” Griff said, charging toward her bedroom.
She heard a scuffle, several thumps, and a whack as the bat hit wood. “Don’t destroy my furniture, Griff!”
Suddenly a flash of gray zipped close by her feet, which was enough to prompt Loki to leap out of her arms and run in the opposite direction. The cat ran toward the bedroom just as Dave and Griff tried to get through the doorway at the same time. The cat tripped Griff, who knocked into Dave, and they both went face first to the floor.