• ⇤
• ⇽
• ≡
• ⇾
• ⇥

killed a mouse today

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I had to kill a mouse this afternoon on a walk around the sea wall. It was lying still in the cycle lane, more or less on its feet but pressing its head down onto the ground as if it were listening intently. I was sure it was dead, and decided to move on. Then I noticed that it was breathing very hard.

I realized that it had been hit by a passing cyclist (or maybe someone on inline skates). I tried to find a rock with which to put the mouse out of its misery, but before I could a child on a mountain bike clipped the thing's nose, sending it into a short loop through the air. Then I saw a dog coming; the thing would surely notice the mouse and torture it further.

I hurriedly grabbed a large, filthy stick, and crushed its skull. I've never seen something twitch so much after dying.

Then I noticed the young mother with her stroller, looking at me as if I were demented. I plucked the poor crushed beaſty up by its tail and tossed it over a concrete divider up against some bushes. I don't know why I didn't think to chuck it into the inter-tidal rocks; I guess because that would have meant throwing it through the passing traffic.