Slice of Life Story - Photographs and Memories


Photographs trigger memories. I had this clearly illustrated yesterday when a photograph of our old Brooklyn apartment flashed across my computer screen. –I use my picture library as a screen saver and when I walked back into the study there it was –the old Brownstone fourth floor walk up apartment in all its faded glory. For some unaccountable reason, the first thing I thought of was the mouse who lived with us for a while. I had an instant mouse mind movie…


I had never seen a mouse in a dishwasher before. Not until the screaming of my dear wife Vicki, drew me to the kitchen in our new apartment. She ran from the kitchen screaming, “There’s a mouse in the dishwasher! Quick do something!” So I did. I went and had a look for myself. I opened the dishwasher ghingerly and there staring back at me was a tiny mouse. I almost said hi and then remembered that I was dealing with a rodent. Our eye contact was fleeting –literally a few seconds. The mouse scurried away in a flash and though I searched the recesses of the dishwasher, I was unable to locate any sign of our mischief making mouse.
From some distance behind me I heard a anxious cry –“Just get rid of it, please!”
“I think it’s gone,” I replied trying to sound re –assuring.

Later that evening I turned on the dishwasher and never gave the mouse another thought. At the conclusion of the washing cycle, I opened the machine and removed the clean dishes. As it emptied I made a startling discovery. There, lying on its back was one very clean and very drowned mouse. Our week long mouse melodrama was now at an end. No more scampering through the lounge-room. No more skittering beside the wall –and definitely no more hiding in the dishwasher. The mouse in the house had departed. I felt somewhat sad for the mouse and at the same time relieved for Vicki. She could now step down from the chair she was standing on. The dishwasher had become a giant mousetrap. Mickey Mouse beware!
Ah yes, photographs and memories are linked like day to night , sun to moon, or George Bush to incoherent rhetoric.

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 March 2009 at 09:22

    This is a great story! I agree: photos can really help us save the best memories. Poor mouse. Poor Vicki.

    ReplyDelete

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