The Visions of SssBella
Vision, The First - The Lady and the Mouse
This is not a parable exactly, nor a rant, nor does this story have a
moral, or even a beginning. There is a starting point, of sorts, but
it is only there to make you feel comfortable. To catch you off
guard, so to speak, before I pull the rug out from under your very
feet and drop you on your ass. Fair is fair, so don't bitch, dear
one.....that's what the mouse did to me, after all.
This is not a white mouse we are speaking of here, but a tricky wild
mouse living in a spooky old house in Philadelphia. I know the house
was spooky because I lived there too, and I was only four years old.
The mouse and I were little and the house was huge, as my father was
huge. I was always scared, but the mouse was fearless and cunning,
and taught me the power of audacity and laughter in the face of
authority. She picked my father up in her tiny little fist and
dropped him flat on his face and laughed at him.
Now, here is the starting point I promised you........my mother and
her best friend Helen were in the second best bathroom curling their
hair. The mouse was watching and when she judged the time was right,
she came out of her hole, winked at me, strolled into the bathroom,
sauntered across my mother's feet and helped herself to a piece of
toilet paper from the roll hanging on the wall. Mother screamed and
jumped onto the toilet seat....so did Helen. I watched in delight as
they bounced off one another. Helen became wedged between the wall
and the toilet, and Mother splashed on her ass into the sink full of
cold water.
Our hero, stood in the doorway, laughed at them both and then (for
she had balls of steel) came back for more paper. 'Do you see,
SssBella?' the mouse said to me. 'Do you see what chaos even we
little ones can cause? Let the fools bounce off each other while we
take what they foolishly consider to be of no value.
Here is the middle point......in so far as anything which has no end
can have a middle, that is. The mouse became even more emboldened
after the bathroom incident and took to waiting in the middle of the
living room floor for my father to come home from work. Every night
when he opened the door, the mouse was waiting, grooming
herself......and I was waiting on the stairs, biting my nails. Was
this the night he would catch her? The night she would step into the
traps he set? The night his shoe would bounce off her poor little
head, squishing her flat. Ah.....the suspense...as night after night
the mouse dodged and twisted and made a fool of my father. Until one
day....we come to the fateful moment at last.....my father decided to
sneak in the back way.
He tiptoed to the rear door in his stocking feet.....crept through
the kitchen and up the back stairs. The mouse sat on the floor and
watched the front door. Father snuck down the hallway and stood at
the top of the stairs. The mouse sat on the floor and watched the
front door. Father started down the stairs behind me......and I
reached up my tiny fist and grabbed his foot. I dropped him flat on
his face and laughed at him. 'Did you see that?' I said to the
mouse. 'Did you see what chaos even a little thing like me can cause?
Let the fools bounce off the floor when they try to take what we
wisely consider to be of great value." And I was no longer afraid.
Here is the second starting point.....in so far as there is a point,
of course.....My father stirred on the floor so the mouse and I ran
upstairs. I followed her down the long upper hallway to an unused
bedroom. She ran under the door and I opened it.
The wallpaper was of blue roses...I see it still....in the corner
stood an old fashioned dressing table with a mirror on top. The mouse
sat on the dresser and groomed herself in the mirror....but it was no
mouse that looked back at me. It was a lady. A woman with dark hair
and eyes like my mouse. 'Do you see me, SssBella the Giant Killer?'
she said. 'Do you see that nothing is what it appears to be, and
that even the powerful are sometimes brought low by our tiny hands
and the fearless audacity of our laughter.?'
And she reached out of the mirror .....just put out her hand and
pulled the rug from under my feet...and dropped me on my ass. And
then she danced away.... but she came back..... and she’ll be back
again.
How secure is the rug under your feet, dear one?
-By SssBella, the Oracle of Doom, High Papessa
[Originally posted on November 25th, 2003]
SssBella's Website is at www.sssbella.com
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