Bat Dreams

The music was on, the bedroom was ready to accept coats. Everything was in order, but only one coworker had shown up. I was starting to get nervous–this was, after all, a work Christmas party.

My sister threw open the door and flashed on the lights. I woke with a start.

Oh no–I was late for work. I’d overslept.

I glanced at the clock.

4 am.

No I hadn’t overslept.

“How long have you been awake?” Anna asked.

I was absolutely bewildered. I hadn’t been awake. I’d been dreaming of Christmas parties.

“Can you help me catch a bat?”

The story spilled out. Apparently, Anna had been awakened some time earlier by a whirring sound in her bedroom. I guess she’d started yelling when she realized it was a bat–which is why she’d assumed I’d be awake.

At any rate, I threw on some clothing (extra covering necessary lest said bat be rabid and attempting to bite) and went to catch a bat.

By then, the bat had ceased flying about–and we had a difficult time finding it.

I’d searched the entirety of Anna’s bedroom floor before Anna found it curled up in the track on which the windows slid. It was a motionless ball smaller than a mouse.

Perhaps it was dead, I thought. Which was rather a frightening proposition. If so, we’d have to save it and take it in for rabies testing.

My hands clad in oven mitts, I draped a towel over the semi-prone figure. A whirr of movement I could barely feel beneath the towel and my oven mitts indicated that the bat was still alive.

Now to extract the creature for its cubby.

This was the hard part. I couldn’t feel much through the clumsy oven mitts–and even the towel by itself was difficult to maneuver. The bat was snuggled in between two little runners. How could I get it out without squeezing it to death?

I sent Anna out for a ruler. When she returned, I slid the thin metal ruler under the bat and gently lifted it up, enfolding the ruler and all into my towel.

Outside, some distance from the house, I laid down my package and unwrapped it, standing ready for the animal to fly away.

A few moments and it took off. I dropped my used towels and oven mitts into the washing machine, checked my sister for bite marks (there were none) and made my way back into the world of dreams.