If you saw the film, The Revenant, you know the character is mauled by a bear and left for dead.

And then returns.

The word revenant comes from the French, for return: I will return–je reviens.

In my case, the mouse has returned.

La souris est revenue.

I found evidence this morning.

A tiny bottle of face oil had been unscrewed and left on the fuzzy mat underneath the bathroom sink.

The bottle is so tiny it could pass as a milk container in a small house that belongs to a wee doll. A doll’s doll.

Just a few drops of oil fill the bottle, which is a freebie given to folks like me who buy face products.

This morning I found the open bottle on its side, next to its lid, along with three itty-bitty mouse droppings—the size of miniature black rice—on the fuzzy mat at 5 a.m.

There’s a mouse in the house.

Not only had the mouse gotten into my lotions and oils: she pawed at the toilet paper, leaving a trail of fluff in her wake.

She found the paper pleasing, especially the piece I used to blow my nose.

Seems the mouse recovered a used tissue I left in the wake of a nasty allergy attack yesterday.

Pollen had reduced me to a vessel of mucus with swollen eyes, pupils the size of pin-heads, and a prickly disposition to match.

Truth is, my tissues never meet the dustbin.

They sit in piles around my shoes—wherever I leave them.

I got into the habit of husbanding used tissue because my pup, Romeo, used to raid the trash for my cast-off Kleenex.

Romeo would excavate the wastebasket for Kleenex—my Kleenex—which he would chew and nuzzle, leaving paper clouds in his wake.

Instead of throwing away my used tissue, I keep a pile beyond Romeo’s reach to discard later.

My pup had an unconditional love of snot that is … endearing.

After he died, I toss used Kleenex into a pile, far away from the recycled paper–usually near my feet.

And yesterday, a mouse showed up, who has taken my pup’s place.

She searches the room for used Kleenex and tries on my makeup.

She leaves paper-puffs in her wake, just like Romeo.

Perhaps the wee rodent is a revenant—Romeo returned in mouse-form.

Revenant redux.

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20 August 2019

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