Mice

yesterday i found this YouTube channel that reviews different types of mouse traps. i don’t know why it showed up in my recommended list, but i figured why not and watched one of their videos. in it this guy was like, “hey, today we’re testing out this new trap someone told me about. you’ll only need two things.” he then poured peanut oil into a regular glass bowl, and left it outside on his lawn.

the rest of the video was sped up to show how, one by one, mice climbed into the bowl, thinking they’d found a pleasant buffet. by the end of the night there were about ten of them in that one bowl. they were able to see the sky above them, the grass below, but unable to claw their way free because of how slippery their paws got in the oil. some were still trying to run up the side of the bowl, which i could have easily imagined being used for something innocuous, like a salad, the night before. others however were lying calmly at the base. stomaches fat, expanding and contracting quickly. fur sparkling under the light of the camera. in their beady eyes, a vacant stare.

after showing his viewers how cheap and effective this kind of trap was, i expected that YouTube guy to go “okay, so i think they’ve learned their lesson. i’m gonna let them go.” instead, he picked up the bowl, swirled it around, not hard enough to hurt the hopeful ones, but instead toss them back to the bottom. yet the host did not laugh about this, or have much of a reaction really. instead, in his exaggeratedly enthusiastic youtuber voice, he said, “well, i’ll be cleaning these guys off for a future video. thanks for watching. and please be sure to click subscribe and hit the bell for notifications.” 

‘thanks for watching,’ i thought to myself, placing my phone upside down beside my bed, then rolling over, my face now against the cold white wall. it was time for bed. I had to be up in the morning