#Flashfictionchallenge – Mouse

Charli Mills’ flash fiction challenge for March 7, 2019 is as follows: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about a mouse. It can be real, imagined, electronic or whiskered. Go where the prompt leads! You can join in here: https://carrotranch.com/2019/03/08/march-7-flash-fiction-challenge/

I am currently listening to the audio book of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. You might wonder what Dracula has to do with a mouse so I will explain the link. Dracula is written entirely as a collection of diary and journal entries and letters to the various characters. I thought it might be fun to write this 99-word prompt as a diary entry, so that is what I have done:

Yesterday morning I saw a mouse dash across the kitchen floor and slip under the dishwasher. We live near a bird sanctuary so we do get the odd furry visitor. My husband catches mice using a method involving rat glue smeared on a piece of cardboard. I hate it but we cannot have mice taking up permanent residence in our home.

The gluey cardboard worked and this morning I found the mouse stuck to the cardboard. It was still alive and had to be drowned in water. That is the down side of rat glue – it doesn’t kill quickly.