THE MOUSE IN THE BAG

One of my favorite people passed away last month. (This is the story I wrote about this family some time ago.) She was an amazing woman. She was afraid of nothing, not hard work, kids with bleeding wounds, teaching in front of a huge audience or most anything else but she had one vulnerable spot. Mice frightened her. She screamed every time she saw one or even thought she saw one. She set herself up for mouse-pranks with her children being the pranksters.

And her children obliged with mouse pranks. She found fake mice they kindly left around the house for her enjoyment. After she screamed, and held her hand to her heart, she tossed the fake mice in the trash, until the day the kids bought an expensive mouse. It had real fur and realistic beady eyes and whiskers. After she screamed she took a good look at it and realized her kids had spent some serious money on Mousie. So, being thrifty, she put him in a bag and put him in the very top of the closet. And then she forgot about him.

Until a year or so had passed and she was cleaning the closet. She saw the little bag, way in the back on the top shelf. What could it be? She opened the bag and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Then she remembered. Since Mousie was such an expensive and realistic mouse she put him back in the bag and back he went on the top shelf.

You can predict the rest of the story. Every year when she cleaned the closet she saw a little bag and wondered what was in it. Every year she opened it and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Every year! Until finally one year she had enough and Mousie went into the trash. And good riddance, Mousie.

Let this be a warning to you. Don't save your child's expensive mouse just because they spent a lot of money on it. You will regret it every year until you have finally have had enough and it goes into the trash. Or you die of a heart attack. I'm just saying it could happen. You've been warned.