“Wake up, wake up, there is a mouse in my room….”  I jumped off my bed.  “ You need to stay on guard, don’t let him run out of the room,  I will watch it now, you go fetch a box, so I can catch him….”   I was half awake and half sleep, I couldn’t quite catch what my son was saying.  The tiny mouse chose that moment to run out under the dresser.  AH-hah! I was wide awake then!  A mouse?!!

The poor little thing ran toward the radiator.  “Go find me a box!”  My son’s voice rose.  I glared at the clock, 1:30 AM.  I went down stairs to find an empty shoe box.  “What is your plan?”  I asked, and looked around his room - the room looked like it had been hit by a bomb or tornado.  There were books, clothes (clear and dirty), toys (electronic and none electronic), papers, music instruments and who knows what else under those displaced items all over the room.   He answered with hand gestures.  “I will clear this area, block that way, and then he will run toward this area for me to catch him using the box.  You need to stay by the door to prevent him running out of the room.”   Ah- hah!  Clear the room?  I had been asking him to do so for the last 10, 15 years?  He was going to clear the room at 1:30AM!!!

It sounded like a good plan, so I became the assistant.  I closed all the doors to the other rooms, I ran up and down the stairs  locating new boxes or containers to store  books and toys, to bring down dirty clothes to the laundry room, to bring out the garbage bags which contained of papers, books, clothes, and non-perishable  garbage  etc.  It was a full work out in the early morning hours for me.  Meanwhile, the mouse had run from the radiator to under the bed, under the music instruments, under the desk, and my son’s plan had to keep changing and clearing more areas in his room.  Finally, the room looked like a clear normal livable room, and the mouse ran behind the book case. 

The book case was too heavy for us to move it unless we took all the books off the shelves.  Meanwhile, we had opened the window and hoped fresh air will lead him to the window and out.  Unfortunately, the mouse chose to stay behind the book case.  My son said:” Where are Didi and his friends?  When I need them the most…” (Didi was our beloved cat.  His friends are neighboring cats).   Yeah, I wanted to know what those cats did too! They spent all those times in my back yard, and I still had a field mouse inside the house!

We finally came up with a plan to create a path from his room to the open front door, and tried to guide the mouse toward it.  The poor thing was so scared and running in circles.  Finally, he was caught on the stairs with the shoe box, but he got out when we tried to cover the shoe box.   He tried to run up the stairs instead of down.   I blocked him with a chess board, and said to the mouse “we just want to show you how to get out of house, we are not going to hurt you….”   Somehow, he ran down the stairs toward the hallway to the dining room, then stopped, and turned toward the front door again.   My son just stood by the stairs and watched him run, stop, run again and finally out of the house.

By the time, we finished vaccuming and disinfecting the room, stairs and hallways, cleaning ourselves and laid down it was past 5:30 AM.    I lay in my bed and smile – A field mouse did what I had been trying to do since my son was a preteen – the mouse made him clear up his entire room after he technically no longer lives in my house.  HAHA! Somewhere there is justice!

·         Though my son is an adult and lives in his own apartment, he insists that his room is his room forever.

o   August, 2010