The Rat and Mouse Chronicles: Chapter Two

Chapter Two: The Flood

In the morning the first thing Rat heard as he awoke was the continuing sound of the rain. Mouse joined him as he was soft-boiling some eggs and making the toast for breakfast. The friends were both experiencing a strong feeling of uneasiness that kept their normally vibrant conversation from becoming anything more than minimal.

A pair of sharp explosive sounds from the direction of the river made them hastily don their raincoats and head for the Mouse’s small jetty. Beaver’s rather pudgy form could be seen dragging himself from the river onto the jetty. The sharp cracks had been Beaver’s way of announcing his arrival.

“Beaver,” said Mouse, “what brings you out in weather like this?”

“Weather like this,” responded Beaver, “means very little to a beaver, but bringing a warning to friends would take more than a little rain to turn me back!”

Beaver went on to explain that his magnificent new dam, about a mile up the river, just beyond the waterfall, was about to burst. The unseasonable rain had placed a strain on it that even Beaver’s most capable engineering skills could not relieve.

“I would say,” continued Beaver, “that you have perhaps four hours before the dam goes. That should cause a rise in the river level by about four feet or so. And if the rain continues for another ten hours I would imagine that both of your houses will have the river flowing through the doors.”

Rat and Mouse had always responded well to crises, and after they had thanked their friend Beaver for his kind warning, they started to plan the evacuation of their beloved cottages.

Fortunately the phone lines were still up and working, and Rat called the Orflea Police Station. When Bill answered Rat explained what was happening and Bill promised that help would arrive shortly. Rat suggested that several tarpaulins should be brought under which he and Mouse could store their belonging in case the flood should destroy their homes.

While the friends were awaiting the arrival of help from the town, they organized their belongings into piles, having a pile for things that they really needed, a pile for things they thought they needed, and another pile for things that they did not really need, but would like to keep anyway. By the time they heard the Police car siren in the distance, they had everything in as good order as was possible under the circumstances.

Bill, Sergeants Smith and Gallagher, as well as several more of the townspeople arrived with large canvas tarpaulins, and started immediately to carry the contents of the two houses to higher ground. Fortunately there was a high grassy hill alongside the road behind Rat’s house. Soon the hill was looking very much like an army encampment as the good townsfolk lugged and carried and dragged and pulled everything from the cottages except the kitchen sinks (and the local plumber even volunteered to unhook these!). The houses were soon empty, and the labourers rested and sipped piping hot cappuccino which Bill had been thoughtful enough to bring along in large vacuum flasks.

A sudden gathering roaring, rushing sound from upriver caused everyone’s head to turn towards the river. A massive grey wall of water hit Mouse’s jetty, and caused it to disappear in a cauldron of swirling water. The wave rushed on, to dispel itself in the reaches of Long Lake, but it left behind it a water level that was washing over Mouse’s verandah, and flowing through Rat’s open door. Beaver’s dam had held almost exactly the four hours he had promised.

Rat and Mouse looked at each other, each realizing that their wonderful cottages would soon be no more. They were homeless, and had no idea at all as to what they would do next. And the rain continued.