The Story of Herman...

In my last post, I told you about my family vacation at the cottage in Wisconsin. I told you all about the peaceful atmosphere, the beautiful lake, and the Mosquito Death Squad. What I neglected to tell you about was Herman.

On the second night of our stay in the cottage, CT and Ty were out with Mickey. I figured they'd be back by 10 or so, so I just put AJ to bed and then decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and lack of responsibilities to sit and read the book I'd brought with me: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." (It's a pretty good book, in case you were wondering.) Now, as much as I enjoyed this book, it does have some rather dark and intense parts to it, and as the hours crept on and on, I started to get rather jumpy. 

I don't think it's ever been a secret around here that I'm a bit of a worrier. (And if you know me well, you will also know that that was a bit of an understatement.) So when the hour kept getting later and later with no sign of the boys returning, I started to freak out a bit. This real-life anxiety, coupled with the anxiety and intensity brought on by the book I was reading, made me a bit of a nervous wreck. And through all this anxiety, there was Herman.

You see, as I sat there on the bed in our room, reading, alone, I kept hearing some odd scratching sounds. I got up a few times to see if AJ was awake and wandering the house. She wasn't. So I got back on the bed and started reading again. And then there, again, was the scratching sound--growing louder and more pronounced. That's when I realized that the sound was coming from INSIDE the walls of my room. Oh yes, some poor critter must have crawled up inside those walls and gotten stuck. But from the sounds of it, the little guy was putting up a heck of a fight. 

Scritchitty, Scratchitty, Scramble, Thud...For hours. When I was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I kept imagining a huge, rabid badger or raccoon stuck inside those walls. I just knew that it was going to claw its way through and chew my face off. I just knew it! 

Finally, finally. At just after 1 am, the boys came back. Just as I was finishing my book. (Seriously, their timing could not have been better.) I got CT to bed, and Ty came into our room and started getting ready for bed himself. Then the scratching and thumping started up again, and Ty heard it. "Can you hear that?" I said: "Yes, it's been driving me crazy all night!" He said: "It's been in there all day long, too." I nodded, relieved to have another face in the room for the critter to chew off should it ever break free, "I think I'll call him Herman." 

And that became the critter's name for the rest of the week. As I lay there that night, in the dark, trying to go to sleep, Herman kept scratching and scrambling his way up through the walls of our room. Eventually, I heard him directly above where our bed was, so he made it into the attic somehow. And then, as the hours wore on, I heard his little clawed feet make their way across the ceiling and settle somewhere else in the house. Finally, I was able to go to sleep. 

The next day, we found out that Herman was a squirrel. And he was scrambling around inside the walls of the bathroom. I didn't mind too much. At least he wasn't keeping me awake anymore. Poor Herman. We're not entirely sure if he ever managed to escape from the walls/attic of the cottage. I hope he did. 

Also, as a consequence of that night, I finished--on the second night of our stay--the book that I had brought along to last me the whole week. Ha! So I went to a little bookstore and got a different book to read. It was okay, it was interesting enough that I wanted to finish it, but I don't think I'm interested in reading the entire series. (Which now, apparently, consists of 3 books.) 

Anyway, that's the story of Herman. Was it everything you hoped for? No? Well, at least I helped you kill a few minutes, right?