A Rat Is A Rat Is A Rat

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This husband of mine said…

Let’s go to Hardee’s and try out the strawberry lemon biscuits…and so we did…on the other side of town…drove around a bit after eating…

Saw the car wash he used to manage…the parks near the grain processing plant…the school that’s now closed due to toxins from the plant…and a grassy patch…where the house of little him used to be…

The house that came after the fire and the trailer that followed…a house he lived in for a few years…a house he calls…the rat house…

Because there were rats around due to the grain processing plant…city slicker me pictured the rat…she’d seen one once…that terrier of ours plopping it on the farm sidewalk back in the day…small…pointy…dead…

Yea…she knew rats…

The rat house had rats…he said…city slicker me had had a rat in the house once…on the farm…could hear it in the walls…got rid of it somehow…it never came back…

Yea…she knew about rats in a house…

Little him and his dad and brother slept on a mattress on the floor…had to completely cover with a blanket as the minute the lights were out the rats would run around and over…

And they were huge…huge like dogs…and the minute Papo would turn on the light they’d be gone…and they were smart…once one died by the trap…the others knew to avoid it…

That daughter of mine came to mind…those preteen years…filled with preteen angst would often retaliate with…

You don’t know my life…

And no we don’t know someone else's life...we think we do…based on OUR experiences…we question…we judge…based only on what WE know…what WE’VE seen…

A rat is a rat is a rat…or is it?…

Thought maybe one of us was stretching the truth a bit in regards to rat size but then there it was on community chat…validation…

And sometimes in life…that just might be…all you need…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…