I had an unexpected visitor in my bed last night. I woke up to an annoying pain coming from my ring finger. It was a sharp pain, like a prick from a needle. I woke up suddenly. I knew right away, I had been bitten by a mouse. I ripped the covers from me and turned on the fluorescent light in my room. Sure enough, a little grey mouse dropped from the inside of my sheets, onto the floor, and scurried away under the bed. At this point my heart is racing and i'm standing frozen, my hand still on the light switch. Disgusting. My eyes wide open and immobile, I stood there a while, contemplating my next move. How could i fall back asleep knowing that a rodent is out to get me, wanting to gnaw on my hands, or any of my extremeties for that matter... where the hell did it even come from?
(And the worst part about the whole thing is this is not my first encounter with a mouse in my room. A couple of weeks ago, before I headed to Suva to visit my site, I packed my bags and had put some chocolate in my backpack, but forgot to zip it up. The next thing you know I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a crinckling bag, I thought, ok, a cockroach got in my bag... so as I started to empty the contents of it... a mouse ( the same mouse, i think) comes flying out of my bag! I dropped my stuff and screamed... I think that time the mouse was more afraid of me that i was of it...)
But this little fucker is hidden away all day, living in some dark corner in my room and only comes out when its completely quiet and dark, helping itself to my secret stash of chocolate or my hand. eeewww. I now know the true meaning of "as quiet as a mouse".
I wasn't having it this time. Not only did the mouse bite me, but it woke me up and now it was impossible to fall back asleep. I looked at the clock. 3:00 AM. I was pissed! So I muster up the courage to take my hand off the light switch, and looked under my bed to see if i could spot it. I had an umbrella in one hand and my shoe (ok, yes, my teva) in the other. I was ready to crush its little nasty skull in. But there was no sign of the mouse. The batteries from my torch died so I got back in bed, switched off the light and just laid there, eyes, still wide open, twitching at any miniscule noise or touch on my skin. I really looked like a crackhead, paranoid from every little sound, and lighting my surroundings with the backlight of my cellphone. At this point the dogs outside started barking, the geckos in my room with their loud chirping, the crickets outside my window... And i just laid there, eyes wide open in the dark... 3:30 AM. Another sleepless night in Saweni. Welcome to the frickin jungle.