Acetarium

Sniffing around the bread with honey, the mouse grimaced. He was disappointed. He came to this trap to commit suicide and he wanted his last breath to be filled with the aroma of peanut butter. He hesitated for a moment and thought about the night before.

It was a quiet night. The mouse was thinking about his grandson who died on a trap last summer. He has always told his children and grandchildren to watch out for a large quantity of peanut butter. It was the wisdom his parents told him as they were dying on the traps.

As he dragged his weak left leg and slowly moved across the kitchen floor, he heard a loud bang from the hallway. The couple came home. He could feel his relatives running into the cracks on the walls but he remained still in the middle of the kitchen — The mouse is too old and too wise to be running around.

The light switch got turned on. He heard a gasp from his behind. Neither he or the human moved. The human called the other human in a quivering voice. The humans stared at the mouse for a while and started stamping around him. The mouse still did not move. From years of experience, he knew that most humans cannot touch mice directly.

The humans eventually covered him in a box and moved him along with the box. Oh geez, they’re going to kick me out of the house. On a whim, he scratched the box and the humans stopped moving the box to listen for a second. The mouse grinned and the humans started kicking the box even faster. They opened the backdoor and kicked the box down the stairs.

The night became quiet again. The mouse knew that they are going to set a trap tomorrow, a trap with a large amount of peanut butter. He sighed and pondered upon a recurring thought of committing suicide on a trap. As he aged, peanut butter traps became his fantasy rather than a fear. He will die without much pain and he will save someone’s life in the process.

The only remaining problem is, he thought, that the humans would not know that he died there on purpose. They will think that his gluttony led to his death. So little they know. He frowned for a second but then, the thought of the smell of peanut butter filling his nose and mouth was still pleasant enough for him to make a decision.

That was last night. Here he was, staring at a piece of bread with honey on top, with his fantasy half shattered, contemplating whether he should still go for it. There will be another time where things are just right. Look out for a large quantity of peanut butter, I say.

He blinked slowly twice before he closed his eyes completely. His mind was filled with the aroma of peanut butter.

Our building has five apartments and a camera store. We know the people on our floor and on the first floor quite well.

Our neighbor in the basement is quite a character. I am probably the only one who currently chats with him. The landlord didn’t even bother setting a mailbox for this apartment, so most people think that we only have four apartments. It doesn’t seem to bother him much as he thinks that nobody would send him any mail, not even junk mail.

He is shy but he likes guests. In fact, he always leaves his front door open.  The first time I saw him, one of my garbage bags fell down the stairs into his house. He picked up the bag and helped me take the garbage out.

Quite honestly, I was afraid of this part of the building because there is only one dim light and I heard from others that there are multiple really dark rooms in there (later, he told me that he saw these people coming into his house with a flashlight but he was too shy to talk tothem).

* * *

Last time I had tea with him, he told me that he left his country many years ago because everyone was afraid of him and he couldn’t make any friends there.  I told him that Mako and I once joked that a red eye flight is so called because the first overnight flight had a Chupacabra on board. He said that he didn’t take a flight to come here and smiled ever so slightly — he doesn’t laugh or smile too much because he once  scared little kids with his smile and that incidence really traumatized him.

He also told me that he used to grow chickens in the apartment but he quit and became vegetarian.  I told him about Quorn chicken nuggets and his eyes got really bright.  I should bring them down next time I’m there for some tea.