the mousekins always ring twice

Ensconced in an armchair.

With a little pang I think of the mouse.

It's been a few days since we caught him and released him in the garden.

I've left the humane trap baited and open beside the piano since then just in case he gets tempted to come back for a recital.

I wonder what he's doing.

Foraging maybe.

Or playing cat and mouse with Pushkin.

Or snoozing in his nest in the hedge.

It's cold outside.

Oh gentle little thing where are you.

There comes a tiny scrabbling sound.

I freeze.

All cutesy cutesy thoughts evaporate.

The sound to all intents and purposes appears to be coming from inside my armchair.

I look at the dogs hopefully.

Neither of them are inside the armchair.

I look at the parrot.

He shrugs: "Not me Guv. I pooh on em. I don't scrabble about inside them."

The scrabbling sound continues.

No, it's not the curtains.

No, it's not from outside.

No, it's not Ernie's ghostly milk tops rattling in the grate.

I imagine the police arriving and doing a parody of  the sensation scene from When A Stranger Calls to wit: "The scrabbling is coming from inside your armchair," instead of "The maniac's phonecall is coming from inside your house."

The scrabbling grows indubitably existentially louder.

It is definitely coming from inside the armchair.

I exclaim like that character from the old Mae Leonard play On The Train: "She's here. With us now. On the train. She's coming back. Back to Farancreesht."

Substitute 'in the armchair' for 'on the train' and 'Kilcullen' for 'Farancreesht' and it kind of works.

More scrabbling, a bit frantic in fact. Maybe the mouse is hungry. Or he just doesn't like my parodies.

I was in fact about to move-on.org smartly to a parody of  Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Supremacy where the guy exclaims: "He's back. The assassin is back. Jason Bourne is back in Hong Kong," substituting 'mouse' for 'assassin' and 'Mousekin' for Jason Bourne and 'my living room' for Hong Kong, it was that kind of a moment, only I was no longer feeling that comfortable in the armchair and I decided to head out to the kitchen and give the mouse a bit of peace.