Drying Up!

(Day 9/10 of 112)

Seeing as I’m alone (and bound to be missing the Fellow) my mother-in-law calls me everyday to make sure I’m ok and eating properly (well knowing that in all probability I’m not).

Today however, our conversation moved away from my eating habits. Having locked up the house, I’m currently sprawled at my aunt’s. This made my mother-in-law very happy since it meant I was at least being fed several times a day. I of course, had another reason to move here. There was a mouse in the house - under my bed to be more specific. And while I’m not scared of it really, the very thought of stepping on it when I went to the bathroom at night totally freaked me out.

The Fellow told me (during one of my more freaked out moments on the phone) to put out rat poison for the mouse, telling me confidently that it will go outdoors to die. I checked. It wouldn’t have. All that would have happened is that instead of dying in some corner or concealed behind a cupboard, the mouse would have come out of its hiding place and died. This I couldn’t have because my maid was on leave and I really couldn’t stomach the thought of being in the room with a dead mouse on my bedroom floor. And picking it up to throw it out? Shiver. Shudder. Goosebumps. Instead I spread liberal amounts of rat kill before I locked up the place so that any mice who have to die do so in my absence. A day later it struck me that I do have to go back into that house, and if there are dead mice in there…ugghh.

All this I discussed with my increasingly amused mother-in-law who couldn’t help but laugh (lovingly I like to think). And then she told me “Don’t worry beta. You’re in Rajasthan. Even if the mouse dies, it’s so hot that by the time you come back it would have all dried up and you’ll only be left with the skeleton.”

Huh! Doesn’t help ma, doesn’t help.