The Attic

The attic of Jim’s house contained oak doors, which he was in the middle of staining, buckets of stain, stacks of New York Times and The Economist, both dating a back a decade, old copper floor lamps, and a large, black, leather chair, which faced the window overlooking his wife’s garden. Some men had their garage, or their recreation room, or their TV room, but this was Jim’s haven: where he came to sit, read his periodicals, and occasionally stain an oak door.

Jim stood at the window and watched his wife below. Sherry was bent over the cucumber vines, pulling out the oversized ones she had missed yesterday. She put them in a bucket, and carried them over to the compost pile. When Sherry stood up, she looked toward Jim’s window and waved up at him. He waved back, then took a few steps back to sit in his chair.

The floor was mostly unfinished in the attic. Two large pieces of 2” Particle board had been laid across the beams, and a moat of pink insulation surrounded them. Cherry refused to come here, due to her allergies, and that suited Jim nicely when he wanted to be alone to read. Today, however, he didn’t feel like reading. He only wanted to take a nap. He nuzzled his head into the corner of the chair, and closed his eyes.

Jim woke up to the sun shining directly into the window, for it had been installed on the west side of the house. He reached his arms out and leaned forward to stretch out, and he noticed a pile of mouse droppings on his right shoe. This made Jim chuckle. She had bested him again, she being the mouse who was the attic’s other inhabitant. Jim had seen it scurry past him one afternoon, and he had attempted to find the mouse’s hole, but so far, he was without luck.

Jim began trying to catch the mouse, whom he had nicknamed Ralph, after Ralph S. Mouse, the children’s book he had read to his daughter when she was little. Initially, the traps were simple. The first was cheese in a coffee can. He sat the can by his feet and waited for Ralph while he pretended to read the Times. After a while forget he was pretending and actually read the newspaper. When he remembered his business and inspected the can, the cheese was gone.