My Neighbor, the Mouse

As night arrived and began covering the land in darkness, a man named Alex Wertol sat in his prison cell, wondering what would happen next during the last few hours of the day. He had been falsely imprisoned for thievery as when he was shopping in the town market, someone had mistaken him for a thief and because nobody argued against that, he was quickly imprisoned within a few days.

“How could they,” thought Alex to himself, “I remember seeing the thief and I don’t like anything like him.” Pacing around his cell, he wondered what his family was doing at the moment. “My wife Anne is probably at home helping my son Troy with his homework. He needed help often, and I would’ve been the one to do that in most days.”

Continuing to pace around, Alex knew that the worst part about being in the cell was that no one would talk to him. From the quietness of the prison, he was sure that he was the only person in the area. Not even the guards would talk to him, and that bothered him as at least he would have someone to talk to, even if it was a police officer. “They don’t even bother coming down here most days,” thought Alexa, “they only come once every few days to bring food. Even if the food tastes horrible, at least it would be something to help with the monotony of living here.

Suddenly, the door opened and for a moment, Alexa seemed to be content as even if it was a guard coming to yell at him, at least something was happening. The loneliness and discomfort of the prison made a few minutes seem like days. Unfortunately, the door quickly closed, and Alexa guessed that the guards must’ve opened the door by mistake. “The guards here are lazy,” thought Alex, “they regularly forget to check records and open doors by mistake.”

Needing something to do, Alex instead tried to look outside the window in his cell. Unfortunately, it was in a very high position in his cell, almost to the ceiling and Alex guessed that it must’ve been at least seventeen feet above the floor. “I need to be able to see what is going on outside,” thought Alex, “there are not a lot of tools at my disposal, but I want to look outside nonetheless. At least I would have something to do with my time.”

Alex tried to look around for anything that he could use as a ladder to reach the window. Searching his cell, he looked for anything that he could use to tie together from bed sheets to the blanket that he had in his cell. It wasn’t a lot, but he was able to tie them together into a makeshift rope that he threw at the window, hoping that it would catch one of the bars and get stuck.

Alexa’ first attempt didn’t go well as he didn’t throw high enough and the rope didn’t even come close to touching the window. “Alright,” thought Alex, “I will try again, even if it takes hours.” Alex tried over and over again, from the beginning of dusk for hours until it seemed to be midnight. The closest he ever got was one attempt where he came close to reaching the window, but the rope quickly fell back and Alex had to start the process all over again.

“Well at least it was something to do,” thought Alex, “and it was exercise, which is something that I barely get anymore.” As Alex sat down, forlorn that his attempts to reach the window didn’t work out, he began to wonder if anyone would ever try to visit him. “I don’t know about that. I was accused of a pretty serious crime, so I doubt that one of my family members would come visit me in prison. I wouldn’t want that kind of stress on them anyway. Maybe it is better if I am left here all by myself.”

Suddenly, something ran by his cell and curious to see what it was, Alex leaned against the bars to see what it was. ‘Why it is a mouse,” said Alex to himself. He was careful not to say it too loudly as he knew that if any of the guards heard him, they would come into the area and kill the mouse. He had seen that happen multiple times now, and he was not interested in seeing his new neighbor be killed.

“I can’t believe that I am talking to a mouse, but it is alright,” thought Alex, “it will never talk to me, but at least I will have someone to talk to.” Again, Alex was quiet not to speak too loudly to avoid alerting the guards. “Hello mouse, what are you doing today.” The mouse stopped for a second and looked at Alex. “I know. You must think that I am weird talking to a mouse, but I think it is nice to have a neighbor, even if we will never have a conversation.”

Alex continued to talk to the mouse who, after a few seconds, returned to looking for food near Alex’s cell. “Well, you see my friend,” said Alex, “there really isn’t much to do in prison, and I think that that is the whole point of prison, which is to harshly punish people for minor offenses. However, I think that if we try our best, we can find things to do. For me, it seems to be talking to a mouse who is my only neighbor.”

The mouse continued searching for food, and Alex looked around his cell, hoping to find food to give to the mouse, but didn’t find anything. “Well, there isn’t any food in my cell,” said Alexa to the mouse,” otherwise, I would’ve given it to you. I guess I can’t do anything else right now other than talk, but I think you will find that I am fairly decent in making conversation.” Alex continued talking to the mouse for the right of the night, content that at least he had someone to talk to during the days and nights of his isolation.