Part 2

So I started this on Sunday's post, I'm setting this to auto post (first time ever!) because a friend has suggested that I go overnight hunting with her before the season fully ends. However, I didn't want to leave y'all hanging until Wednesday. (And yes, Y'all is something I was saying due to a play I was in. I had not quite gotten it out of my system before living in TX. Now, I doubt I ever will :P)

We left our disgruntled hero waiting to see if a hospital visit was in order and our heroine trying not to laugh.

Without further ado, Part 2 in our fairy tail...

Out of habit, Leona dialed the Xray department where her father in law worked during the day.

"X-ray department." A woman answered the phone absently.

"I'm sorry, I meant to call the main number. But maybe you can help. If my husband was just bit by mice does he have to be seen by a doctor?" Leona just barely kept the laughter out of her voice.

"Um, I don't know. Let me ask someone." The nurse spoke slowly as if confused. Leona listened to the muffled voices, giving her husband covert looks under her eyelashes.

"Is it infected?" The female voice finally asked.

"I don't know. It just happened." Leona was a little exasperated. Really? How was she supposed to know?

"Okay. Well, he's probably okay. Why would he bite a mouse?" The disembodied voice asked.

Leona sat in stunned silence for a moment. "You think my husband bit the mouse." A bark of laughter burst out of her. "No," she finally said breathlessly. "He was bit twice by a mouse." There was no stopping the giggles now. She could imagine the gossip going around the hospital now.

"Oh, in that case, he needs to see a doctor soon," the nurse said so fast that it was apparent that would have been her initial answer if she hadn't been thinking that it was the man biting the little rodent.

Leona hung up and took a deep breath to still the laughter.

"Okay, honey, we need to go. She said you have to see a doctor soon and your clinic doesn't open until Monday."

"Really? Now?" he was incredulous.

"You were bit by a rodent. You probably need to at least take antibiotics or something."

He starts shrugging into his coat when Leona stops him. "You're going to have to wait a minute because I have to change this shirt," she said emphatically.

She pulled the picture of the John Deere tractor out away from her chest with both hands and peered down on it. "There is no way on God's green earth that I am going to the hospital in a John Deere shirt to tell them my husband was bit by a mouse."

"I--" he started to say than changed his mind. "Okay. You know I only got bit because I was trying to put it outside instead of killing it."

"Yes, honey, I know," she said, her voice muffled through the shirt she was putting on. She knew he would figure out how hard it was not to be laughing if she kept saying 'honey' but it was hard. "You're my hero. It is really sweet that you were trying to help me not feel so bad. Really it is. I love you." She meant every word. It was probably the most romantic thing he'd done in ages. Worrying about her feelings over a mouse was above and beyond as far as she was concerned.

Twenty minutes later they pulled into the emergency room parking lot. Leona had stifled giggles off and on all the way to the hospital.

"Honey, you will probably have to explain it. I'm sorry. I won't be able to without cracking up too bad." She got out of the car and shut the door.

"I noticed. I'll take care of it," he said.

At the admitting window they went through the initial paperwork. When Nathan began describing the incident, a giggle escaped Leona. The woman in admitting lost it a little and grinned.

"Oh no, don't laugh," Leona said. "I won't be able to hold back." It didn't help. They were both laughing as the receptionist tried to finish asking the necessary questions. Nathan took it all in good naturedly and even smiled a little himself.

The triage nurse was almost through when she realized he was bitten on both thumbs. When she asked how that happened, Nathan sighed. He knew it was going to be the end of her ability to not laugh. He was right.

When the nurse heard how he had ended up with both thumbs bitten, she smiled.

"You should get a cat," she said.

"We are," the couple responded in unison.

An ER nurse came and got him from the lobby and they went back to a corner room. When she heard the story her lips twitched. Leona was laughing outright by this point. The story was funnier every time. She kept having to assure her husband that she loved him and he was her hero for trying to save the mouse, but it was funny.

The nurse then told him we should get a cat. Nathan and Leona rolled their eyes. It was Nate who answered. "We are. It's on its way."

Leona studiously went back to the newspaper whe was reading in an attempt to distract herself.

Then the robust, good natured doctor arrived. "We're going to give you a tetnus shot and antibiotics. You should be fine. If you show any signs of infection or get a fever, come back or go see your doctor." He laughed as well at the story. "Get a cat," he said while leaving.

"We are," Nathan said yet again, setting off Leona's giggles.

A few minutes later the doctor came back to shut the door as she was giggling uncontrollably now. They'd forgotten to tell the doctor they had the mouse with them. It was in the plastic sack Nathan had carried in and promptly set somewhere because neither one of them had wanted to hold onto it.

He looked at the mouse than back at the couple with his eyebrows raise? "This is the mouse that bit you? This little thing? No wonder she is laughing," he said indicating her with the nod of his head.

"They told us we had to come in," Nathan said defensively, but with no real heat.

"Yes, yes. It's true. But," he seemed to change his mind and said instead. "The nurse will be back soon with your tetanus shot. Good night." Smiling hugely at us with his large straight teeth, he left the room closing the door behind him.

The nurse came in and gave him his shot and his antibiotics. Going over the signs to watch for again and handing him a prescription. She smiled at us, twinkling. "Be careful next time," she admonished.

"Oh, we will," Nathan promised her as Leona giggled again.

By the time they left the hospital it was two in the morning. He had been scheduled to work a twelve hour shift at five. He wasn't going to make it.

Leona had to work at seven so they went home and he called and left a message explaining about the shot that gave him side effects not appropriate for working with machinery--dizziness and nausea.

The next day, Nathan went back to work. How the men at work howled at him. When they could stop laughing they gave him a new nickname. "Mickey it is you. You were felled by a little mouse."

Leona's twitter friends were laughing as well. Some even suggested he might turn into a weremouse. She laughed out loud. As a former EMT Leona knew how to handle a lot of things. Could even help save a life if needed. But having her husband look so insulted at being bit by a tiny mouse all for love was too much.

The war on the mice is now very personal for both of them. Pregnant mice, young mice, have been spotted scurrying around the closests and across the floors.

"Laugh it up. Soon, I shall be the one laughing. The cat is coming," she said grimly to one especially openly rebellious mouse.

Yes, definitely one too many Disney movies.

The End. For now.

Gearing up

I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Lots and lots to do. Prep time, planning, etc are not my strong suits, even for cleaning. Oh, I can plan with the best of them, but SOMETHING always happens. Also, I am, by nature, a pantster. No doubt about it. If I know too much of what's going to happen, I'm bored, and for life, a bit pessimistic. I have too much experience of what happens to the schedule with mice and men who have large families and even larger extended families.

I don't know about you, but for me, the largest biggest obstacle in my life seems to be boredom. If my mind is bored, it's nearly impossible to engage. Even if I want to. Like with my kids. They're talking to me. It's important to them, so I'm trying to listen. But really, unless you're a Halo fan, who cares if the Brute almost killed Master Chief but you put a sticky grenade on him and he blew up? (Obviously, even in my inattentiveness I've managed to pick things up!)

Don't get me wrong, I love video games. When I was a kid, *here comes the dating* I was master Atari Pacman & Ms. Pacman player. No-one beat me. Until I got to be an adult and they changed all the d* joy sticks into controllers. Then I became a Master Super Mario Brothers player with a controller with A, B, and D-pad (I'm picking up the lingo!)--until they changed them again. At four, my son could use those controllers better than I ever will. Why? Because very few games can engage my interest long enough for me to WANT to learn and practice the fancy-pantsy moves on a controller that has as many gadgets as my car.

Whether or not you like games, I'm sure you understand my reference. It's not that I CAN'T learn it. I'm simply not interested. My time is better spent doing other things. However, if a game interersts me, than I learn.

I write the same way. If I plan things out. I. am. bored. No two ways about it. I thought I was just being lazy and I had an opportunity for a possible series so I outlined Everything. Now, I haven't got past the first chapter. After deleting over 60k in words, I'm still bored, but now I am very frustrated as well.

Maybe this is the story I need to write for NaNoWriMo? I hadn't even considered it. May be the impetuos that I need...

Update on Family: MIL doing Very well! Children all calming down and being less hellatious. Husband off to work although he says he's not feeling well :( I'm tired and my and the baby's allergies went sky rocketing at the latest routing of dust, garbage and mouse stuff. UGH The boys seem to be keeping this lingering cough that's affecting their asthma, although it's not as bad as it was. But otherwise we are all doing much much better. Sounds funny after the so/so comments, but believe me, the last 2 months have really sucked on the sick factor.

Fall Cleaning is going well again. I'm on an upswing! If only we could figure out a way to drive the mice back out! My MIL pointed out that the reason we have such a HUGE problem in the last 2 months is that they finally started cleaning the house/yard behind us. It has been collecting cars and debris for probably 50 years. No joke. The man who lived there (Uncle who died in late Dec. as stated in an older post) lived through THE DEPRESSION. The one that makes this one look like a pout? Yeah, that one.

He kept everything. His son who lives next door to him is almost as bad. Probably learned from Dad? Anyway, they started cleaning it up. All of those wonderful hidey holes for bugs, mice, and arachnoids being burned up and taken away, depending on what it was. I can't believe we didn't realize it sooner. Trying to get rid of the little suckers, but I hate killing them. If I had a cat, I wouldn't mind so much. Natural order of things and all that. You know? But they are making me and my children sick and nothing I do seems to make them want to leave.

Thanks to Disney and The Great Mouse Detective :P LOL