There’s a leak in the drain of my kitchen sink.
A slow leak that is even slower in getting repaired.
I’ve learned to work around it. I’ve propped a double-sided utility caddy under the drain; one side catches the drips, the other contains the various detergents and scrubs used in the weekly cleaning exploits of yours truly.
On the occasion of cleaning other parts of the house, I check the levels and find an inch or so of water needing to be dumped.
Occasionally we go away on the weekend … and then the following weekend, perhaps, we make other plans. The grime and gunk around other parts of the house build up.
As does the pool of water in the caddy.
How many weekends has it been since I checked? I wonder.
What I found was dreadful. Horrifying even.
Two. Dead. Mice.
Two sodden, matted little corpses, floating in either ends of the plastic bin.
Putrid.
Oh … it seems so tame, doesn’t it? It seems so much like the daily diary of any frustrated housewife.
No one really cares what’s under your sink. Rodents floating in an inch of water, in a place one keeps their toxic chemicals to clean an inch of dust, matters not in a world where toxic assets have cleaned out entire retirement savings.
Yet this terrible discovery is what I’m thinking about as I’m reading “Sir Ryan’s Quest,” a charmingly drawn and beautifully written story by Jason Deeble about a little boy who meets the King of the Pots under his kitchen counter and goes on a journey of epic proportions in the otherwise mundane corners of his house.
But two people I know really do care what’s under the sink. They aren't even squeamish. There is adventure to be had.
Even Silas, at the grand old age of two, can spot the man living in Deeble's jungle closet. He screams in delight over the basement cave’s moldy monster. Annabel, likewise, giggles in anticipation as Sir Ryan's Quest leads from room to room.
Both kids adore the language, which adheres itself to a poetic chivalry of another age. It’s a joy to read aloud.
And I have to admit, I adore the message: Adventure is everywhere, even in the relative safety of home.
3 comments:
ooh, now I have to find this and take a look!
How come the new cat is not earning his keep...he/she should have scared all the mice away by now. I imagine the great mouse hunter is spending too much time in the trees!
Later...
As it stands, she's three for five.
My fear is we have a LOT of mice.
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