(A Short Story)
A silent enemy knocked at the gate of a quite family in deep slumber. The young girl felt the looming danger immediately. Her rasp breathe panicked her mother. Jolting out from their sleep both stood up. The young girl got on her mother’s back. Like the waters of the ocean her belly was undulating in anxiety. But the mother kept her normal composure and began thinking how to troubleshoot the challenge.
The flood inundated their Den and its volume continued snowballing. Sacredly the young mouse looked at the water from the safety of her mother’s shoulder.
The “Mew, mew, mew…” sound dinning into their ears continued near their hole. The rodents’ dread increased. The size of the swamp became shoulder high.
“It seems gentle but dangerous,” said the little rodent gazing down at the flood. The mother rat hadn’t yet gotten the way out from the flood; their den’s roof was not that high.
“Hurry up. We have to go out now?” The young girl begged the old lady.
“There is a fire out there. Stop your nonsense” the oldest rodent quivered lowering her voice.
“Relatively the fire affords us a second chance at least,” said the younger one eager to avoid a washing away or drowning by the flood.
“What is that second chance?” The mother snared annoyed than ever before, for they were locked in avoidance-avoidance conflict.
“We can escape that demon cat! We can outpace it,” said the young rodent. The mother murmured withstanding the biting teeth of the cold. Narrowly escaping from the famished cat, gnawing its teeth, is rarely possible seen in light of the old rodents’ experience.
“Only humans win competing on the racing lane. We rats need rocky places and haggard terrains to win races against our enemies,” said the old lady. Gradually her hind legs became shaky from the load and the cold. Soon the young lady’s back got swallowed by the flood. Two souls were confronted by the ugly face of death in their hell hole. For them rats’ world is riskier than any creature. In the presence of cats, their ends begin. Imminent risks compel them to do what they had never done before when they stood on the brink of a do or die battle.
The flood filled their hole gradually. A little free space was left beneath the roof. Unsuccessfully the old lady tried her child to jump out of the hole using her shoulder as a springboard. Then standing on her toes she trimmed the wood below the roof by her third trial.
A fight to get a breath continued, holding up the bites, the mother fought hard to save lives, the muscles around her neck distended awkwardly. The cats growled and shouted on one another.
For the rats landing on the floor proved risky, remaining in the hole was no better choice.
Many times in life, the only chance once in a blue moon knocks by the gate of a lot of houses. A mother bore excruciating pain hoping that it ends soon.
Cats waited wagging their tails for a while and left. Their growling became distant after many anxieties. The mother rodent ordered her child to swim with the tide. They became free then after.
“I can’t breathe” a subdued voice was heard.
The old lady pressed the young rodent’s belly quickly to regurgitate the water. Finally, the latter managed to breathe.
Some incidents in life may make you unable to breathe, visitations in terms of hardships come in life to challenge your limitless or give you a lesson the hardest way.
“Chances are very slim for us babe,” the old rat advised the younger one hugging the latter after resilience, “you are lucky today, for your siblings were made preys by demon cats,” again she hugged her.
“You have to be cautious, vigilant, serious, active and fighter at any moment of your life. Don’t sleep much. Nobody could come to save you if once you faced a risk” The young lady affirmatively nodded, the old lady’s pieces of advice were not just words, they look as testate.
Two cats were lurking in the corner to stalk the mousses nearby; the advice made the latter to forget the cats for a while.
“Heed my words,” the mother uttered. True to the fittest survive, the races began.
By Desalegn Dagnew
The Ethiopian Herald August 18/2024
