I was at a restaurant recently and I saw a mouse shoot across the floor and scamper under a table. I wasn’t the only one who noticed the little critter. A number of people began to scream, especially some of the people who were at the table that the mouse chose to pass under.
Actually, a better description of those people was that they were really panic stricken. Their faces were twisted and their voices or actually their utterances were sharp, loud and full of four letter words. They all started jumping out of their chairs, actually into the air, some gaining great height on just one leap. One lady, with tears streaming from her eyes actually climbed up onto her chair, trying desperately to put as much space between herself and the floor, or should I say the mouse.
Her response was contagious, everyone in the restaurant reacted. Finally, things began to calm and people began to settle back into their seats while others literally got up and left the restaurant.
A waiter rushed forward to try and help calm things and to make sure that the mouse was gone and not still under the table. Sadly, for the mouse it too was scared and stood stark still and frozen. The waiter was then able to take a broom and very deliberately sweep him across the floor and out the door.
I do confess that I just stayed in my seat, eating my sandwich and watching with amusement. I had a few thoughts, was the mouse responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If it was, shouldn’t the hero waiter also have become hysterical and climbed up onto a chair? Why wasn’t the waiter disturbed? Why was I still just sitting there and watching? The waiter handled the situation with as much as possible grace and perfection. He dealt