Vermin

“Come around the back here,” Albert said to the new store manager. “I’ll show you where the rat poison is.” He led him to a metal shelf near the emergency exit at the back of the auto parts store. “Here it is. This is where we keep it.”

“Wow. You’ve got a lot of rat poison,” the new manager said.

“That’s because we’ve got a lot of rats.”

Albert was the owner of the auto parts store where he was working that day. In fact, he was the owner of a chain of auto parts stores. He’d worked many years to achieve his present level of prosperity through long hours, hard work, and buying up competing auto parts stores all over the city. Now, he was the auto parts king of the city, with 27 locations to serve you.

“It seems strange we have rats in this store,” the new guy said. “What is there to eat in here?”

“It’s not where they eat; it’s where they come to live. They eat all day and night at that burger place next door, then they come here to sleep. I’ve told them to keep their dumpsters closed and locked, but they don’t listen. And that steakhouse across the alley isn’t doing us any favors, either.”

“Why don’t you complain to the city?”

“They don’t give a damn. Besides, it ain’t just there; I’ve got them at home, too. They got into my garage and ate up the wiring in my Tesla. It cost me $4000 for a new wiring harness. They chewed a hole in the baseboard of my garage and then chewed through the drain hose of my washing machine. Flooded the whole garage out the next time I used it. I had a cardboard box of my dad’s old LPs sitting on a shelf. They chewed through that, too. I thought maybe it was the food that attracted them. I put out a new plastic trash can. You know, the big kind with the lid on top. They chewed through that too, just to get the kitchen scraps inside.”

“Sounds like those rats are out to get you.”

“They’re vermin. What do you expect?”

The rats were a sore topic with Albert, and whenever he talked about them, he ended up getting angry, causing his blood pressure to rise. At once, there came that familiar heaviness in his chest, and he became short of breath. He pulled a handkerchief out of this breast pocket to dab away the perspiration on this forehead and temples.

“Are you feeling all right?” the new manager asked him with a concerned expression.

“You know, one of the reasons I’m hiring you is that I’m undergoing a triple bypass in a few weeks,” he replied, putting away the handkerchief. “I’ve already had two heart attacks. The doctor says my next one will probably be my last one. He says I shouldn’t even be at work right now, but if I don’t do all of this, who else is going to do it?”

“Got ya.”

“I’m telling you, the world is at war with rats.”

Albert told him about the time he cornered a rat in his garage, how it stared back at him with its evil black eyes, and how he mortally wounded it with a hoe.

“There’s still a little bit of blood on the drywall where I hit it,” he said. “The damn thing ran off into the wall and died there too far for me to get it out. My garage stank for weeks. It’s probably a skeleton by now. I’m leaving it in there to warn any others that might see it.”

The new manager nodded slowly with a distant look, envisioning the scene.

“You’ll be running the store while I’m in the hospital. I might be doped up while I’m there; maybe not. If you have any problems, you can contact my son, Tony. He and his new girlfriend are driving over from the West Coast. They’ll be watching over my house. He doesn’t know the business very well, but you can trust him.”

The new manager nodded.

“Pardon me—What’s your name again?”

“Rupert, sir.”

“What made you apply for this job, Rupert?”

“Some of my friends work in your stores. They say that deep down inside you are a good and honest man.”

This unexpected answer startled Albert. He looked into the eyes of the young man, searching for some trace of mockery, but he saw none.

“Okay, Rupert. Let me show you how to put poison in the bait stations.”

When Albert got home that evening, his 28-year-old son Tony and his girlfriend Joanna were waiting for him, having let themselves in using the Hide-a-Key that Albert had told them about. When Albert entered, Tony greeted him at the door. The two men hugged.

“Good to see you, boy.” Albert said, patting his son on the back.

“Same here, dad. Come on. Let me introduce you to Joanna.”

They entered the living room. A girl about Tony’s age, with long black hair and a pleasant face, was sitting on the couch with an old family photo album on her lap. Others were stacked on the table. It was evident the two had been sitting together and looking at them when he arrived. She stood up, and they shook hands.

“I’m glad to finally meet Tony’s father,” she said, smiling.

“I haven’t taken those pictures out in a few years,” Albert said, looking at the photo albums.

“Yeah. I found them where we’ve always kept them. It seems you haven’t moved things around much since Mom died.”

“Just call me a creature of habit.”

“I saw pictures of your wife, Marianne,” Joanna said. “She was very beautiful.”

Albert let out a pensive sigh at the mention of his ex-wife. At that moment, he smelled food.

“Is that garlic I smell?” he asked. “There was that pressure in his chest again. Are you two cooking something?”

“That’s the garlic bread in the oven,” Tony answered. “Joanna’s cooking us pasta for dinner. You up for it?”

“Sure. I never refuse a home-cooked meal, especially if it’s in my own home.”

The three of them ate dinner at the nook in the kitchen. From there, they retired to the patio. There, they sat talking and drinking beer from bottles on fabric lawn chairs set up around a round steel table with a glass top. Stacked in the backyard off the patio were a few pallets of gray bricks, bags of cement, some lumber, and other building materials stacked. Tall weeds and grass grew between the materials, suggesting they had stood there for a long time.

“What was that going to be?” Joanna asked Albert.

“A waterfall,” Albert replied.

“Really? A waterfall?”

“Yeah. A little waterfall.”

“It looks like a lot of building materials just for a waterfall.”

“It was going to be a lot more than that.”

Albert described his wife’s plan to have a waterfall at one end of the yard. Water would flow from it down a little creek, down a few more waterfalls until it reached the other side to a small pond, where it would be recirculated back to the waterfall by means of a hidden electric pump. “We were also going to plant some bushes and trees around it to make it look nice.”

“It sounds like a wonderful project.”

“Yeah. I think she got the idea from some home and garden magazine she’d read. We got everything ordered, but then she died before we could get started on it.”

“Are you still going to build it?”

“For whom? The rats?”

Joanna’s eyes brightened. “What rats? Do you have rats here?”

“Are you kidding? This neighborhood is infested with them. I’m surprised we haven’t seen one already.”

Joanna was now smiling. “Really?” She looked at Tony, who suddenly appeared uncomfortable.

“Yeah. I’ve got rats at a few of my stores, and the city won’t do anything about it.”

Albert told her about his experience with rats. The more he spoke, the more broadly Joanna smiled, and the more Tony seemed to sink into his lawn chair. At last, he spoke up.

“Joanna, didn’t I tell you how my dad feels about rats? Now you see.”

“But he won’t mind,” she told him. “Mine are not like the wild ones he’s describing. I know for certain they would never have chewed out the wiring on his car, Tesla or not.”

Albert suspected that something was up. “What are you two talking about?” he asked them.

Tony turned to Joanna. “Why don’t you tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Albert asked him.

Joanna got up from her chair and went back into the house.

“Where is she going?” he asked Tony.

“You’ll see in a minute. But remember—this was not my idea.”

Joanna returned a minute later, carrying a large cage. Inside, there were two rats. One was black and white, and the other was butterscotch-colored.

“I’d like to introduce you to sisters Layla and Ginger.” Joanna said as she put the cage on the table.

Albert immediately stood up. “What the hell!”

“I told you, Joanna,” Tony said. “Didn’t I tell you?”

“What are you doing to bring vermin into my house?”

“They’re not vermin. They’re rats. They’re my pets.”

“Pets? You call them pets?” he said, pointing at them. “Do you know how much that vermin has cost me?”

“You can call them whatever you want, but I love them, and they love me.”

“I don’t care. I want them out of here right now.”

“Dad!” Tony interjected.

“Do you hear me?” Albert continued. “That vermin is not staying under my roof.”

Joanna stared at Albert crossly, but she said nothing.

“Dad!”

Albert pointed toward the front door of the house. “Go now.”

“That’s fine,” she said, picking up the cage. “Tony, I’ll be waiting for you in the car.” She left the patio and reentered the house.

“The nerve of your girlfriend,” Albert said.

“Dad, there’s something I ought to tell you.”

“What is it?” he said, easing himself back into his chair. “Why didn’t you tell me she was bringing those rats? You very well know how I feel about them.”

“Dad, I had to bring them. Joanna wouldn’t have come without them.”

“Why not?”

“We couldn’t find anyone to watch them while we were here, and one of them, Layla, is sick.”

“Then you should’ve left all three of them back in California.”

“Joanne wanted to be with me. And, frankly, I wanted her here with me while I took care of your place. We love each other, you know. She’s a good woman. I’ve never met anyone as kind-hearted as her. I think I’d even like to marry her. I didn’t want to bring that up right now, but it’s true.”

Albert crossed his arms. “I don’t want those rats in my house.”

“They’re in a cage.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Then what should we do with them?”

“I don’t care. Just get rid of them.”

“How? Exactly what do you suggest? You think we should rent them a private hotel room for the time we’re here?”

“Send them back to California.”

“There’s no way to ship rats to California. Not that I know of, anyway. The only way to get them back is for one of us to drive them back ourselves. And then we couldn’t be here for your operation.” He sighed. “In any case, I don’t think Joanna would come back after that, and I myself wouldn’t be inclined to either.”

Albert looked over at his son. “How could you be doing this to me? You know I have a bad heart.”

“Dad, I know how you feel. But the situation is what it is. Anyway, you’ll be in the hospital while the rats are here. So you won’t even see them.”

“And what about while I’m here?”

“We’ll keep them in the room with us. You’ll never even know they’re there.”

Albert took a deep swig of his beer. “Tony, you really...” His voice trailed off.

“If anything, do it for mom. You know she loved animals. She wouldn’t have minded if two rats stayed for a few weeks. And remember, you didn’t let her get another dog after Sammy died.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

A minute of silence passed between the two men. Both drank from their beers.

“So, Dad, what do you say?”

“Do I have to tell you now?”

“Joanna’s probably already moved our suitcases into the car. I can picture her there waiting for me right this minute. Should I go out to join her, or should I call her back in?”

Albert sighed. “All right, all right. Call her and the rats back in. But put them in the room—and keep the door closed. I don’t want them running around the house in case they get loose.”

“They won’t get loose. They’re both good girls.”

Albert gave his son a hard stare. “Good girls? Vermin, they are.”

“Yeah.” He stood up. “I’ll get Joanna.”

Tony left the patio. Albert finished his bottle of beer in one long drought. He scanned the table for a packet of cigarettes, but neither Tony nor Joanna smoked, and he’d given up the habit after his last heart attack. How he could use a cigarette at that moment!

He stood up to get another beer from the refrigerator. As he did, he caught the glimpse of a large, grayish-brown rat running along the perimeter of the patio, just outside the area of the floodlight.

“Vermin,” he muttered under his breath as he entered the house.

Albert spent the next few days at the hospital, going through preoperative checks. He knew from his years of business experience that the wheels of justice turned slowly. The same could be said about the medical establishment. He spent hours in lobbies and waiting rooms, waiting for his name to be called. Tony usually accompanied him while Joanna stayed back at the house. When they arrived home at the end of the day, the table was set, and Joanna always had something delicious prepared for dinner. True to what Tony had said about her, she was a kind-hearted person, and she indeed shared some of the same qualities as his deceased wife. To Albert, she was at least as good a cook. He decided he liked her. And just as Tony had promised, the rats were kept out of sight behind a closed door, and Tony and Joanna never talked about the rats in his presence.

This evening, Joanna had prepared for them veal Parmesan. It was delicious. Good food always put Tony in a good mood. He wanted to say something nice to Joanna—something more than compliments for the delicious dishes she served up. But because of their age difference, he found himself at a loss as to how to engage in polite conversation with her. So, as they were nearing the end of dinner, he decided to bring up the rats.

“So, how are the rats?” he asked her.

Tony looked at him, subtly startled by the question. Joanna continued cutting a piece from the veal on her plate without looking up at him.

“They’re all right,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Ginger’s okay, but I’m a little worried about Layla. Her breathing’s getting worse, and the antibiotics don’t seem to be working.”

“You give antibiotics to a rat?” Albert asked.

“Of course. Why not?”

“I mean, I never thought anyone would bother giving a rat a medicine that you’d give a human.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right. Why would anyone give antibiotics to vermin?”

The sharpness of her question disquieted him.

“I didn’t mean that they weren’t worth it,” he said.

She took a sip of wine. “Albert, may I ask you a frank question?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you hate rats so much?”

“Because they hate me.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You heard me telling you about the damage they’ve done to my property. They’ve cost me and my business thousands of dollars over the years. Isn’t that right, Tony? He knows. If that’s not enough to hate rats, then I don’t know what is.”

“I see. It’s about the money. Do you think they damaged your property intentionally? Do you think they got together and said, ‘Let’s see how much money we can cost Albert today?’”

“Of course not.”

“I don’t get it, then. Why do you hate rats so much if you’ve just told me they mean you no harm?”

“Okay. Maybe I’m overstating things when I say that I hate them. But I don’t see any good in them.”

“My rats make me happy. All rats make me happy. When I see one on the street, it brings me joy. Isn’t it a good enough reason to let them be if they bring joy to somebody?”

“For you, maybe, but not necessarily for me.”

She raised her wine glass but did not drink. “Albert, have you ever met a rat?”

“Yeah. I killed one in my garage a few months ago.”

“I mean, besides for the purpose of killing them?”

“No.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I didn’t think so.”

She nodded slowly and took a sip of her wine. Something in the way she looked at him at that moment disquieted him.

Albert did the dishes that night. When he finished, he was feeling short of breath, and he felt a headache coming on. On his way to the bathroom where he kept his medication, he passed the bedroom where Tony and Layla slept. This time, the door was open and the light was on. There, straight ahead on the desk, was the large cage that held Ginger and Layla.

“Tony? Joanna?” Albert called out. No answer. He heard water running in the bathroom across the hall.

It irritated Albert that they had left the door open and the rats unattended. What if they got out? When he reached into the room to close the door, he heard a wheezing sound coming from the cage. He paused to listen to it. That was the sick rat Joanna had mentioned. Curiosity took hold. He entered the room and walked over to the cage. He knelt over and looked inside.

There, for the first time, he saw the rats up close. The black and white one was standing by a bowl of seeds, eating a kernel it had pulled from the bowl with its small, delicate hands. The other one was doing the same. On seeing him, it dropped the seed it was holding and walked over to the side of the cage where he stood. It peered up at him with black eyes that looked like tiny pearls. One of them was wheezing, but he couldn’t tell which. Maybe it was both. On the table were a small insulin syringe and blister packets of an antibiotic called Enroxil.

He heard the rustle of clothing behind him. He turned to see Joanna standing at the doorway wearing a bathrobe with a towel wrapped around her head. She looked at him with an expression of surprise or bemusement—he could not tell which. Either way, he felt awkward at having been caught entering their room to look at the rats. Without a word, he slipped past her and exited the room.

The next morning, when Albert entered the kitchen, Joanna was alone at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal, staring at her phone propped up with a salt shaker as she ate.

“Good morning!” he said to her.

“Good morning to you.”

“Where is Tony?”

“We’re out of coffee. He went to pick some up. He’ll be back in a minute,” she said without looking up from her phone.

He picked up the box of cereal. “Froot Loops. I remember these when I was a kid. I didn’t know they still made them.”

“My girls like them, too. Most rats do.”

“You give them Froot Loops?”

“Of course. Rats will eat just about anything, even if it’s not good for them.”

“I see. Mind if I have some?”

“Sure. Help yourself.”

The two of them ate cereal together. Soon, they had finished. Joanna continued sitting at the table, scrolling on her phone. Albert collected the bowls and put them in the sink.

“What are you reading?” he asked her.

“I’m looking for a vet. Layla’s breathing is getting worse. I might need to take her in.”

“I’m sure there are some good vets in this city.”

“Yes. But not all of them see rats. I’m trying to find one.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, but it’s all the way on the other side of the city. I’m looking for one that’s closer.”

“I’m sure you’ll find one.” He picked up the box of Froot Loops. “I guess I’ll clear the table now.”

“Wait.” She took the box from him and poured some Froot Loops into her hand. “Come on. Let’s give some to the girls.”

Before he could refuse, she was already on her way to the bedroom where the rat cage was located. He followed. She opened the rat cage. The girls came to the opening and stood up, resting their front paws on the bars.

“What are you doing, leaving the cage open like that? Aren’t you afraid they’ll escape?”

“Why would they escape? Because they’re rats? They’re not stupid.”

She held out Froot Loops to Ginger and Layla. Both rats delicately took the Froot Loop from her finger and proceeded to eat it. The room was filled with her crunching. Once each finished the Froot Loop, they came up for another. Again, Joanna handed them more.

While they were eating, she turned to Albert. “Hold open your hand.”

“What?”

“I said—hold it open.”

He did as he was told. She put a few Froot Loops in them. Ginger finished her Froot Loop first. She came to the doorway.

“Now, give Ginger the Froot Loop. But before you do, think something nice about her.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Think about how nourishing the Froot Loop will be for her, even though it really isn’t. Or just imagine how much she’s going to enjoy it. Once you’ve done that, give it to her.”

“Is that really important what I think?”

“Yes.”

He sat there and tried his best to imagine her eating it. When he went to give it to her, he hesitated. The image of the rat he killed in his garage came into his mind’s eye. Ginger looked nearly identical to that rat. This rat had the same kind of beady black eyes and yellow teeth.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid she’s going to bite me.”

“Albert! You’re giving her something delicious to eat! Why would she bite you for that?”

Albert’s heart was racing, but he overcame his fear and gave Ginger the Froot Loop. Next, Layla came to the opening of the cage. He gave her the other Froot Loop.

“See? They didn’t bite you.”

She closed the cage while the girls were still eating the Froot Loops that Albert had given them.

“Aren’t we going to give them anymore?”

“Nah, these aren’t that good for them. A little is okay, but not all the time.”

Tony spoke to them from the doorway. “Hey, Joanna. I got the coffee. Whoa. I never thought I’d discover my dad in the bedroom with my girl.”

“Oh, shut up, Tony,” she said. “He’s with three girls. And Albert is showing us what a brave alpha male rat he is. He just fed Layla and Ginger Froot Loops.”

“He did? What are you trying to do? Give my dad a heart attack?”

Joanna turned to Albert. “How do you feel?”

“I feel fine,” he replied. And he meant it.

That afternoon, he didn’t have to return to the hospital for any reason, so he went back to the store to see how Rupert, the new manager, was getting on. Wherever he looked, everything was running smoothly. He walked through the back room with the manager. All the shelves were in order, and the store was full of customers. The store was doing well.

“Hey, boss. I’ve got some good news for you. I put the poison out, as you said. I found three dead ones in the store this morning.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. Two big ones and a smaller one. Got two more yesterday.”

At that moment, he recalled giving Joanna’s rats the Froot Loops that morning. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He felt as though he might vomit on the spot. The manager looked at him with a peculiar expression.

“You don’t look too happy to hear the news. I mean, last week, you were all gung-ho on killing them.”

“Yeah, but, you know, what is there for them to eat in this store?”

“I don’t follow you.”

“They just came in here for shelter. They don’t eat anything. The problem is all the restaurants in this area. They’re the ones feeding all those rats with those unlocked dumpsters full of food. By poisoning those rats, we’re doing the work that they themselves ought to be doing to control the rats.” He turned to face Rupert squarely. “I want you to pick up all the bait stations in the store.”

“You do?”

“Yes. And remove the ones outside the building, too.”

“What about the rubber hoses?”

“Put them up where rats can’t get to them, or order new shelving that you think will deny them access to it.”

“As you wish, boss.”

For the first time in as long as he could remember, he felt good. Not in the physical sense. That persistent shortness of breath stayed with him. It was something beyond that, much deeper and more profound. He felt that he was on the brink of discovering a new territory of his life that he previously hadn’t known existed.

He wanted to share his good mood with Tony and Joanna. There was a specialty wine store that he hadn’t visited in a long time, not since Marianne died. He thought he would buy some expensive wine and perhaps some Italian cheese to go with it.

He had just made a left turn at the light to head toward the wine store when his mobile phone rang. Normally, he didn’t answer the phone while driving, but he could not help seeing who it was. It was Tony. He wondered why Tony would be calling him. Was there a problem at the house?

He pulled over to the curb, put the transmission into PARK, and answered. Immediately, he heard Joanna’s voice, and she was crying into the phone, scarcely coherent.

“It’s Layla! Something’s wrong with her.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s as limp as a rag. She’s hardly breathing. I’m afraid she’s going to die!”

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. She was fine this morning. She ate some oatmeal, and when I came back ten minutes later to change her water, she was lying on her side in the bottom of the cage.”

“Where’s Tony?”

“He left a little while ago. I have no way of contacting him.”

“What can I do?”

“I need you to take me and Layla to the vet.”

“I can do that. I was just on my way home.”

“But it’s that one on the other side of town.”

“Just hold on. I’ll be home in a little bit.” He put the care into DRIVE.

“Albert! I’m so afraid for her.”

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. I’m on my way.”

Albert arrived home in half the time it normally would have taken him. Joanna was standing on the porch with comatose Layla, wrapped in a towel, pressed to her breast. Her face was streaked with tears. She hopped into the car and drove to the vet across town. They made it there in what might be considered record time, breaking five traffic laws along the way but fortunately not getting caught.

The ratologist at the vet had been expecting her. They immediately brought Layla into the examination room. Albert and Joanna sat alone in the examination room when the vet took her into another room for an x-ray. When she returned, her look was grim. She put up the x-ray on a computer screen and turned the monitor so that they could see it.

“Ms. Jones, I’m afraid the prognosis isn’t good for Layla.”

The vet explained that the x-ray had revealed a huge tumor in Layla’s chest cavity. The tumor was so large that it surrounded her heart. This tumor had been growing for a long time, causing the symptoms of a lung infection. This is why the antibiotics she was taking had no effect on the symptoms.

The vet injected Layla with a steroid and put her in an oxygen chamber to relieve her symptoms.

Albert and Joanna stayed at the vet until 9:00 p.m., skipping dinner, and spending most of their time in the waiting room. When Layla didn’t improve, the decision was made to euthanize her.

They brought Layla home wrapped in the same towel they’d brought her in. There was no rush to get home, and Joanna cried inconsolably all the way. Albert watched her, bemused by her attachment to the rat. How could such a creature invoke such love in someone? Was he missing something?

Once they got home, Tony was there waiting for him, also in tears.

The next morning, Tony and Joanna buried Layla in the yard. Albert watched from behind the sliding glass window that separated the dining room from the patio. On returning the shovel to the garage, he spent some time digging from the wall the desiccated body of the rat he’d killed a few months before. Later that day, when Tony and Joanna left for someplace in their car and he was alone, he discreetly buried the rat in the yard near Layla. While there, he found an empty cereal bowl sitting on the ground near a pallet of bricks. He brought it back to the kitchen, puzzled to find it there.

The house seemed exceptionally empty to Albert that day. It was that peculiar emptiness one feels in a home the day after a loved one departs from the world. He went over to the cage in the darkened room where it was kept. He found Ginger curled into a tight ball in the corner. She reminded him of the way he felt when Marianne died. He remembered feeling the emptiness of the home and the emptiness of the bed they once shared. His loss was compounded by the fact that he had not exactly been kind to her while she was still alive. And then there were the years he’d neglected their relationship for the sake of building his auto parts store chain. Some of her last words to him were that leukemia wasn’t the worst way to die, and she was lucky because some diseases were so much more painful. The next evening, she drifted into a coma. It was an evening he’d neglected to visit, having chosen to work late that night. He only realized the scope of how much he’d mistreated her after her death. Now he wished he could somehow make it up to her. He wished he could make it right.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Ginger,” he said to the rat, feeling the wetness in his eyes.

And now the same hospital where she had died called for him too. In two days, he would be lying on the operating table with his chest cavity opened in order to fix his heart. Such operations were usually done without complications, but there was always the chance he would not wake up, and those last fading vestiges of consciousness that passed as the anesthesia took over would be the last he would ever know of himself.

“Ginger, I’m going to have an operation tomorrow, and I’m scared. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, and I’m alone through all of this. Ginger, I’m so lonely. Do rats know anything about loneliness?”

He watched her breathing slowly. Her eyes remained shut. If he weren’t so afraid of her, he might like to open the page and touch her. Just to feel the touch of another living thing would comfort him greatly. He then recalled the fragment of a conversation he and Joanna had at the doctor’s office while Layla was in the oxygen tent:

“I’ve always thought of rats as being kind of mystical animals,” Joanna had told him. She then described a time when her roommate in college got kidney poisoning. This girl’s favorite rat also got sick around that time. She got treatment. As she got better, her rat got worse. And then the rat died.

“What did it die of?” he’d asked.

“Don’t know. It just died,” Joanna said. “She wanted to bury her as soon as possible, so we didn’t have a necropsy done.”

“A necropsy?”

“Yeah. To find out why it died.”

How foolish it was to do a necropsy on a rat, he thought. Why would anyone care why it died? After all, it was only a rat! And then Albert wondered whether anyone would care if he died.

“What do you know about anything?” he said to Ginger, wiping his eyes. “You’re just a rat.”

Two days later, Albert underwent his operation. He was on the table for 14 hours. Despite his trepidation, the operation was a success. Later that evening, still groggy from the anesthesia, he vaguely recalled Tony and Joanna visiting him at the hospital. Joanna told him about Ginger.

“She’s in mourning, just like you,” she told him.

“Rat’s don’t mourn. Besides, my wife died two years ago. I’m not in mourning anymore.”

“I don’t believe you. You mourn her every day.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you’re like Ginger. She won’t live with any other rats now. She won’t accept them. Maybe she blames herself, saying that she could have been nicer to Layla while she was still alive.”

“How old is Ginger?”

“Three and a half.”

“What? That’s three and a half years older than she should be. Vermin.”

“Yes, Albert,” Joanna said. “And vermin mourns too.”

The next morning was bright and sunny. Sunlight shone brightly through the window, which happened to be on the morning side. Tony and Joanna showed up at around 10:00. She was holding a vase of flowers, which she put by the bedside.

“How are you feeling, Dad?” Tony asked.

“I’ve felt better. Hey, I want to apologize about our conversation last night. I was kind of rude.”

“What conversation?”

“The one when I asked you about Ginger.” Albert related their brief conversation to them. As he spoke, Tony and Joanna looked at each other.

“So, I’m sorry I spoke to you that way. I guess I have some unresolved bitterness in myself over your mother’s death, Tony.”

“But Dad, we didn’t visit you last night.”

“You didn’t?”

“No, we couldn’t. You were in the intensive care ward until past visiting hours.”

“You must have been talking to someone else.”

“But you two were here.”

“It wasn’t us,” Joanna said. “But it is interesting that you picked up on Ginger being mean to Layla. Ginger was always the dominant one. Now I think she feels sad that Layla’s gone. I think she’ll get over it.”

“Do rats really feel regret?”

Joanna smiled at him. “Yep, just like the rest of us vermin, Albert.”

“So what now?” Tom asked.

“Dr. Patel says all went well. I’ll be here for a few weeks, and then I’ll be out as good as new.”

“That great.”

“So, you two take care of my house. All right? And no wild parties.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, Dad. But, you know, we’ll be hard at work.”

“On what?”

“We’re building mom’s fountain.”

“You don’t need to do that. In fact, if you want to do me a favor, you can just have all that stuff in the yard hauled away.”

“No, I think it will be a fun project.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t build anything out there.”

“Sorry, you can’t do anything about it while you’re stuck here. Besides, we’ve already started the work.”

“Whatever. By the way, I was thinking: There are some rat bait stations around the house. I’d like you to—”

“Don’t worry. We’ve already thrown them away,” Joanna said.

Albert cocked an eyebrow at her. “You did?”

“Yeah. They were old. And all the bait in them was gone.”

“Great. And now the rats are going to take over. And my car—they’ll chew out all the wiring.”

“Do you want us to buy some more bait stations for you?”

Albert shook his head. “No, that’s all right. It’s only a few days. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

After three days, the hospital staff moved Albert to a regular hospital room. Here, they allowed him to use a tablet, which Tony brought for him. On it he watched movies and generally amused himself. At Albert’s request, they brought Ginger to the hospital after getting a special dispensation from the hospital’s administration on the basis of Ginger being a “support animal.” They allowed Ginger to sit with Albert in the visiting room, and IV on a steel pole connected to his arm. While there in Ginger’s presence, he read scholarly articles about rats and accounts of the long and complex shared history they’ve had with humans since the beginning of civilization. No other creature had lived in proximity to humans as long as the rat—and that included the dog. Like the dogs and cats, rats followed humans across the seas as unwelcome fellow travelers, to far-distant lands, to the ends of the earth. And yet they managed to hang on all those millennia, despite mankind’s best efforts to exterminate them. They were survivors. It was hard to believe that they were finally accepted as pets only 150 years ago.

While he read, he occasionally looked up from the tablet at Ginger.

“You’ve got quite a history, dear. I had no idea,” he said to her.

He noticed her gazing back at him with her dark pools of inscrutable darkness when he spoke. Why is she looking at me that way? he wondered. Then, in an instant, he realized the existence of intelligence behind her eyes, an intelligence that remained hidden to most of the world. It then occurred to him that she might be studying him. Yes, it appeared to be true. Then he began to wonder: Is she trying to understand me?

The day came when he chanced up on an article about the rats “taking over” New York, and now there was a drive to poison them all by tossing dry ice into their burrows and sealing them in to kill them with carbon dioxide. After he closed the article, his mind kept returning to it. At some point, he realized a change had come over him., for the article evoked pity in him and then anger.

“Nobody would poison you, Ginger. You’re different, aren’t you?” he said to her. “The world of humans to which I belong may be at war with you, but you and I have made a separate peace.”

Albert was discharged a week later on a bright, sunny morning. Tony came to pick him up in Albert’s own Tesla.

“I’m surprised to see it’s still on the road with all those rats running around my property.”

“Of course, it is.”

“Where’s Joanna? She’s at your place. You know, we have to leave tomorrow. She wants to spend time with our guests one last time.”

“What guests? I told you two not to have any parties. So what are you doing with guests in my home?”

“Don’t worry. You already know them. And they know you.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“You’ll see.”

The father and son didn’t talk much on the way home. Albert stared out the window of the car. Everything looked different today. He noticed details of the dense city environment that he hadn’t noticed before, such as the colors of the buildings. Indeed, he’d passed the same buildings a thousand times before, and yet somehow he hadn’t noticed their varied color and the way the sunlight made shadows on their surfaces.

Albert was pleased to finally pull into the driveway of his home. After the long stay in the cold, sterile atmosphere of the hospital, the familiarity of it comforted him. When they entered the house, he half expected to see Joanna somewhere, but she wasn’t there.

“Where’s Joanna?”

“Somewhere around here. We have to get going soon. I’ve got to get back to work on Monday, and it’s a long drive back.”

Albert went into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water from the carafe he kept in the refrigerator. Sipping the water, he ambled over to the sliding glass doors that led to the porch. He almost dropped his glass of water when he looked out. There was Joanna sitting on the wooden floor of the patio, surrounded by wild rats—perhaps a dozen of them. In her lap was a bowl of Froot Loops. The rats would run up and take a few, and then run off. Sometimes they would even run along her extended leg to get to the bowl.

“What the hell!”

Just as shocking to him, there in the yard, instead of the piles of bricks, was the completed waterfall, creek, and pond that Marianne had wanted him to build. The pump had even been set up, and now a tiny brook trickled from one end of the yard to the other in a series of tiny waterfalls. On the other side of the fountain, created from leftover bricks, cubbyholes had been constructed that served as miniature shelters for the rats. The rats ran back and forth from Joanna to the cubbyholes, storing away the Froot Loops. Joanna noticed Albert standing at the glass door and waved to him. Albert waved back.

“She’s been doing this every morning for a few weeks now,” came Tony’s voice from behind him.

“Don’t they bite her?”

“Bite her? Why should they do that? She’s giving them Froot Loops.”

Albert watched rats hop up on her knee. It stood up on its hind legs, looking up at her expectantly. Joanna handed the rat a Froot Loop. The rat took it and then ran off. Another took its place.

Albert gasped. “Are those the wild rats from my yard?”

“Yep.”

“But they’re not afraid of her at all. Look at that one! He’s standing on her leg!”

“That’s because they understand kindness. By the way, how do you like the waterfall?”

“It’s beautiful. I have no words to describe it.” He wiped his eyes. “Your mother would have loved it.”

“You want to go out and have a better look?”

Tony nudged his father to open the siding glass door. Albert resisted.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid.”

“Why?”

“They might bite me.”

“They’re not biting Joanna.”

“Because I’ve killed a lot of them in the past.”

“Rats are very perceptive. Just think about how much you like them and want their company, and they will sense it. No matter what you have done, they hold no grudges. They’re very forgiving of us humans, far more than we are of them.”

He opened the door. As soon as he did, the rats ran from the balcony.

“Hey, Albert! Welcome home,” Joanna said. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine, but I see a lot of wild rats running loose in my yard.”

“We thought you wouldn’t mind. Do you like the waterfall?”

“I’m speechless, to be honest.”

“It has a nice sound, doesn’t it? It’s very relaxing. I could sit out here all day.”

To Albert, it seemed that all the rats were watching him. Particularly alarming to him was a big one drinking from the brook by scooping up water from the stream to its mouth with its paw. This rat, too, kept its eyes fixedly on him while it drank.

“Albert, come sit with me,” Joanna said.

“You want me to sit out here with all these rats?”

She patted the wooden deck next to her. “Yeah. Right here.”

“I don’t know if I should do that.”

“Go on, dad,” Tony said. “They won’t hurt you.”

Reluctantly, Albert went over to where Joanna was sitting and sat down next to her on the floor of the deck. The rats continued watching them. None approached.

“Now what?”

“Just sit still. They’ll come back once they realize you’re not a threat.”

“And what if they think I’m a threat?”

“Think of something pleasant when you sit here. If you can’t think of how much you like them, think about how much you loved Marianne. They’ll sense your positive emotions and approach.”

“What if I can’t make positive emotions?”

“Oh, they might come to you anyway. It’s hard for rats to resist Froot Loops.”

After a few minutes, a medium-sized rat tentatively approached Joanna. She handed it a Froot Loop. The rat snatched it from her hand and ran off. Moments later, two more approached, and she did the same. Soon, the rats were back, running along Joanna’s leg to get to the bowl of Froot Loops in her lap. Suddenly, one of the rats jumped onto Albert’s leg. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the rat did this. The rat looked up at him.

“What should I do?” he asked with a quaver in his voice.

“Don’t worry! He’s not going to hurt you.” She put the bowl on his lap. “Here. Give him a Froot Loop.”

Albert gingerly reached into the bowl and handed the rat on his knee a Froot Loop. The rat ran off. Three more took his place. After a while, the rats were freely taking the cereal from the bowl on his lap, just as they’d done with Joanna. Soon, Albert was able to relax. He’d never before seen a wild rat in such proximity, and he was amazed to see that their brown color was actually a mixture of different colored hairs. They were actually quite beautiful up close. He wanted to reach out and stroke one with his hand. When he tried to do so, they shied away from his touch.

“It’s a little too soon to try that,” Joanna said to him. “But give it time. This morning, a few of them let me pet them.”

A wiry young female rat approached the glass of water he’d set down on the deck next to him. After sniffing the rim of the glass, she began eagerly lapping up the ice-cold water within. Another one joined the first. Now two of them were lapping up the water. A third one approached.

“I can’t believe these are wild rats,” he said.

“That’s what they are. I certainly didn’t train them to do this.”

“By the way, I wanted to talk to you about Ginger. You know, I wouldn’t mind—”

“The answer is ‘no.’”

“Wait, you don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

“The answer is still ‘no.’ She’s my rat, and she’s going home with Tony and me.”

“I felt as though we bonded while I was at the hospital.”

“Why would you want Ginger when you have all these rats? You can bond with them if you give them a chance. You’re doing it now, in fact. Don’t you know that?”

Tony and Joanna left about a half hour later. Albert stood on the driveway, waving to them as they drove off. Afterward, Albert found himself feeling acutely alone in the house. It somehow seemed emptier than it had before they’d arrived. He looked out into the yard. There were hardly any rats visible. He guessed that most of them had retired to wherever rats went to escape the light and heat of the day.

Then he spotted a few of them on the patio deck, sniffing around for leftover Froot Loops. On seeing them, he retrieved the empty bowl from the sink, refilled it with the cereal, and went onto the patio. He sat down in the same spot where Joanne had been sitting earlier and waited. A few rats lapping up water from the pond watched him warily, and a few more watched him from the area of the waterfall, but none came to him. The ones that had been searching for morsels on the patio shied away from him and never ventured close to him before they ran off. Eventually, nearly all the rats disappeared from view, and he didn’t see any for a long time.

“I guess you all can’t forgive me for being mean to you,” he said aloud after a while. “I can’t blame you for that, but if you’re listening to me now, I’m sorry for what I did. I have no excuse. I hope you find it in your hearts to someday forgive me.”

So he sat alone on the patio. A breeze picked up. He could not tell from which direction it blew, but it felt cool across his face. He closed his eyes and took in the feeling.

A short while later, a young female rat scampered up to him from seemingly out of nowhere. He’d noticed this particular rat earlier; she was one of the bolder ones. She looked up at him expectantly, only inches from his knee, her eyes like black pearls, her fine whiskers twitching. He gazed down at her and instantly noticed the intelligence in her dark eyes. She had the same eyes as Ginger, who’d been by his side while he recovered from his surgery.

His thoughts then turned to his Marianne, and he felt sad. He wondered what she would think of him sitting out on the patio feeding a bunch of wild rats. It occurred to him that she wouldn’t mind and might even look favorably on him for it. After all, she’d always loved animals. At once, his heart swelled with joy, realizing he’d been gifted with a way to express the love he still felt for her.

“Hey, little girl,” he said to the rat by his knee. “Would you like a Froot Loop?”

Evidently knowing he was addressing her, the rat stood up on her hind legs, revealing her striking white belly.

“You’re so smart, aren’t you?”

And with those words, he reached into the bowl and handed her a Froot Loop.