Rats!

I hate rats. Or rather, I am terrified of rats.

When I was 9+, mom sent me to live with my cousins in Singapore. She felt my brother and I would have better education here than in Sabah. Moreover it would be difficult to take care of us as a single mom while she worked so I remember taking the plane all by myself feeling unsure what's life going to be like in a foreign land away from mom. I arrived at my cousins' attap house at night. They told me to take a shower before going to bed. It was a creepy looking bathroom. It was quite big with a small wooden window. The floor is plain grey cement with some parts already corroded by water. Some parts had green moss too. There was a raised cement platform that covered about 1/3 of the flooring, also had corrosion on it. A big bucket was placed under a tap on the platform. A small scoop was in the bucket of water for bathing purpose. All the water was supposed to flow into a palm size hole at the bottom of the wall adjacent to the platform. There was also a waist height cement ledge where shampoo bottles and a bar of odd-shaped soap sat. On closer look, the soap seemed to have nasty teeth marks on it. At that moment, my cousin asked if everything was ok. I enquired about the marks on the soap and she said it was nothing I should worry about.

I was begining to feel uncomfortable standing naked on that platform and missing my mom already when, suddenly, a huge dark brown rat ran into the bathroom through the hole in the wall! It was as big as a puffy, furry bedroom slipper with a really long tail. I screamed and jumped and slipped on the mossy cement floor. The rat ran back into the hole when it heard me scream. Needless to say, I was terrified and cried....

I made friends easily with the neighbourhood's kids. All but one were boys. They were around my age and we played well together. We were generally left alone at home after school as all the adults were at work. One day, one of the boys came to say hi to me outside the house. He had something behind him and his brothers had smiles on their faces. "Guess what I found?" he asked. And then waved a plastic bag of baby rats in my face. They were still pink and blind! And there were so many of them! Screamed-screamed-screamed! I screamed and ran back into the house slamming the door behind me. There was a big hole in the floor under the door due to corrosion and they stuck that bag of horrifying pink, blind rats through it and waved again. Screamed-screamed-screamed! I jumped on the table and screamed again. Luckily one of my neighbour whose mom worked from home heard the commotion and came over to check. She chased the boys away but needless to say, I was terrified and cried.....

Just recently, Russell asked me if he can have a white mouse as a pet. I told him no because rodents creeps me out. He said "But mom...a white one would be so cute!" I shuddered at the thought of one in my home. I definitely don't want to be terrified and cry.......