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.

The Rat and Mouse Chronicles: An Unfinished Work

The Rat and Mouse Chronicles is based upon bedtime stories that I used to tell to Geoff when we lived in Trinidad. They, in turn, were based upon two characters in one of his favourite children's books, Scary Story Night. I had started to put the series down on paper during our New Delhi posting, but, as often happens, life got in the way. Geoff told me the other night that he does not remember anything about the Rat and Mouse stories, so I decided to put the unfinished saga on my Blog...tada! Here is Chapter One.


Chapter One: Rat and Mouse

From his home beside the riverbank Mouse could look back down the road and see the cozy cottage of his friend Rat. The two shared many common interests, such as scary stories, a love of travel, and an interest in magic. Perhaps one of the most complimentary things about their friendship was that Mouse could make a most excellent chocolate layer cake, while Rat excelled at making the tastiest cappuccino outside of Italy.

Many interesting evenings were spent sitting on Mouse’s verandah, sipping a frothy cappuccino while exchanging stories with which each tried to frighten the other. Mouse tended towards an R. L. Stine sort of scary story, while Rat enjoyed telling s Stephen King type of tale. Their days were pleasant, with Rat pursuing his passion for philosophical study, and Mouse researching his family tree and playing each and every new computer game that came out.

One evening the friends were sitting on Mouse’s verandah watching a storm that was rapidly approaching over Long Lake, the lake that was located at the mouth of the river that ran by Mouse’s home. The thunder clouds had been thick over the Green Mountains all day, and now, at last, Mother Nature decided to give them a taste of some of her most exciting fireworks!

Although Rat enjoyed storms, they always made him a little uneasy. He thought that this might be because his father, Cornelius Rat (who had been a great explorer and adventurer), was lost at sea during an autumn storm. He was grateful when Mouse suggested that he spend the night. As the rain started and quickly became a violent downpour, marked by loud claps of thunder and explosions of vivid lightning, Rat suggested a tad more cappuccino.

The friends awoke in the morning with the storm still raging outside the windows. After some discussion over a breakfast of French toast with maple syrup, a glass of fresh orange juice and several cups of cappuccino, they decided that, considering the bad weather, they should take Rat’s car into town to pick up some supplies in case the rain should continue for several days and make the roads impassable.

A quick twenty-minute brought them to the town of Orflea. Mouse was very fond of saying that it was “an Orflea small town,” but Rat refused to laugh at this oft repeated pun. Orflea consisted of a large green park-like common in the centre of the town, flanked on one side by Main Street, with its twenty or so shops and boutiques. On the southern side of the common was a large parking lot and the town’s one cinema, presently showing “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for the third time. The western side held a few pretty, brightly painted houses, and two churches. The garage, supermarket, school and synagogue completed the square that encircled the park.

Rat and Mouse never came to town without stopping at the Police Station to visit with their friends, Sergeants Smith and Gallagher, and Constable Williams, whom they called Bill. In the past Rat and Mouse had assisted the town Police with several extremely strange and mysterious cases that had occurred in and around the town. Rat was fond of teasing the policemen about the poor quality of cappuccino that was available at the Station, while in fact it was quite an acceptable brew.

Today the discussion was centred around the unusual weather that the town was experiencing. Rat commented that he thought the unseasonal weather pattern was caused by the cyclical appearance in the Pacific Ocean of the current called el Nino. Bill, however, felt sure that it was part of an evil spell that had been placed on the town.

“What makes you so sure, Bill?” asked Mouse.

Bill replied, “The strange old wizard that we had to run out of town last week said that he’d get even with us, and I believe that this is his way of doing it!”

Sergeants Smith and Gallagher enlarged on Bill’s story by telling about a strange man in a long black cloak who had been wandering about the town, muttering to himself and frightening children. When strange lights started flashing in the man’s hotel room one evening, the policemen had been compelled to ask him to move on. The man’s parting curse still rang in their ears.

“Strange forces are on the prowl, and your pitiful little town of Orflea will be sorry that it ever crossed Mournfrug of Marivog,” said the dark figure as he walked off down the road to the south with his cloak flapping about his gangly legs.

Rat and Mouse thought about this tale with great interest as they completed their shopping and drove back to the river bank through the pelting rain and the oncoming night. The rain had continued unabated during their visit to the town, and certainly showed no indication of stopping. If anything, it seemed to be raining harder with louder thunder and more frequent lightning than last night. The friends decided to spend the night at Rat’s house, and were soon relaxed in front of a roaring fireplace, discussing what the strange man in black could have meant by his parting words.