Sleepless Night

Crunch, crunch, rip. I sit up in bed and peer through the darkness. A second later Jason sits up beside me. "What was that?" I ask, and at the sound of my voice quiet prevails. "I don't know." Jason replies, also peering through the darkness. I lean over and fumble in the dark till I find the light switch from my night light and a second later the room is filled with a cozy glow. Having difficulty seeing, I grab my glasses off my night stand and now together we look around the room. Nothing. "Hmm, it must be some kind of rat or mouse." I tell Jason and he nods. I lean over the edge of the bed feeling for my flip flops and then ease out of bed. Jason gets out too and finds his biggest, heaviest shoe. I make my way over to the main light switch and it makes quick work of dissipating the shadows. Since our room is fairly empty it doesn't take long to check the corners and the few hiding spots. Several minutes later we come up empty. "What was it ripping?" I wonder aloud, and Jason points to the door. "It sounded like it came from there. Maybe it was on the outside trying to get in." We examine the outside of the door but notice nothing unusual. "Maybe it was on the inside trying to get out." I reply, pointing at the inside of our bedroom door. "Look at this!" Jason comes closer and together we examine the door. Large strips of wood have been ripped right off, which now litter the floor. "Wow, this is crazy!" I exclaim, and when one more thorough search of the room comes up empty we both crawl back into bed. Unable to sleep now, I imagine the beaver size rat that can do that much damage to our door. As darkness and quiet descends the ripping and tearing starts again! I flick on the light again, but still see nothing. "The sound came from our bathroom door this time." Jason says pointing. "He must have ran in there and you shut the door before we crawled back in bed." I grumpily slip my flip flops back on and turn on the bathroom light. Sure enough, sharp pieces of wood now litter the bathroom floor. I search the bathroom and the adjacent closet, but still can't find the culprit. "Well, at least he's not in our bedroom any more." I tell Jason as I close the bathroom door with a resounding thunk. I crawl back in bed and wait. Less then five minutes later the ripping and tearing starts again. "It's going to destroy our bathroom door!" I complain, and Jason gets up this time and turns the light on in the bathroom. "Maybe if it's light in there it will stop." He reasons. "I sure hope so." I reply, covering my ears with my pillow. A few minutes later, not hearing a thing, I mentally congratulate Jason on his good idea. Just then I hear a loud crash and bang as my vase of flowers sitting on my bathroom counter tips over. "That's it!" I decide. "I'm going to look for the trap." I search the kitchen and try to remember where we put it, but since it's been over a year since we used it last, I can' t find it. In the kitchen, the clock tells me it's only 3:00 a.m. "It's going to be a long night." I sigh. I go back and check the bathroom again, hoping to a least get a glimpse of the rat or mouse and this time I notice that half my soap bar is missing. "What kind of crazy animal steals soap?" I wonder aloud, and once again not seeing any hide or hair of our thief, I close the door. The rest of the night is filled with crunching, ripping and banging as the rat/beaver/mouse continues to destroy our bathroom door. Several times, I begin to doze off only to be rudely awakened by another bang or rip. By the time the first sun we've seen in days shines through the curtains, I've worked myself in a tizzy. "I am so going to buy a big trap today." I growl.