The One That Got Away: Part II

The latest escape involved the mouse who lives in Great-Grandma's kitchen. When we arrived in Indianapolis, we dropped John Mark and Becca off at Great-Grandma and Grandpa's apartment for the night. While we were visiting, Philip exclaimed, "There's a mouse!" It was one of those times that it would have been much better to keep his mouth shut, but- too late. A long discussion on mouse-catching techniques ensued, and John explained to the kids that it is possible to scare a mouse to death once it is caught. "All you do," he explained, "is tell it BOO! It's already so scared that it will have a heart attack and die right there." The kids were not buying it, but he kept on and finally had them convinced. The next afternoon at Thanksgiving dinner, John Mark and Becca relayed The Rest of the Story:

John Mark gets up in the night to go to the restroom and lo and behold, the mouse shows up in the bathroom. It scampers into the closet and into a bag which happened to be lying upon the floor. John Mark picks up the bag and makes what may be the easiest mouse-catch in the history of the world. But now what to do? He did not want to put the poor thing outside where it might freeze to death, so he decides to scare it to death. He opens the bag, where the mouse is shaking and staring up at him. "BOO!" says John Mark.

Nothing happens.

"BOO!"
"BOO!"

The mouse stares at John Mark and John Mark tries one last time: "BOO!"

The mouse grows tired of this and finally seizes the opportunity to JUMP out of the bag and scamper off in the direction from which it came. The next day, John Mark has to explain to Great-Grandma that the mouse was caught but escaped and is still on the loose.

Fortunately, John Mark has a great sense of humor and can laugh at the fact that he had been taken by his father- hook, line and sinker. The rest of us are simply glad that Dad is a Christian as well as a world-class liar; otherwise, he'd be a criminal mastermind.