A Chat and a Rat

Story Sent in by Arnold:

I took Dawn out to dinner, and it went well enough. She seemed a bit jittery and quiet, although I did my best to keep her smiling and laughing. I paid for dinner, she thanked me, and we took a walk.

As we strolled down the sidewalk, Dawn took a strange sort of hop-step, and I at first thought that she had tripped.

"You okay?" I asked her, then followed her gaze to the ground.

A dead rat lay by her feet, right on the sidewalk.

Dawn screamed, broke away from me, and tore down the sidewalk as if 50 ferocious dogs were after her.

"Dawn!" I called, and ran to catch up.

She rounded corners and doubled back enough to make me wonder if she was deliberately trying to lose me. Finally, I caught up with her and I put my hand on her shoulder.

"You're the rat!" she screamed, "Get off me! You're the rat! You're the rat!"

"I'm not a rat!" I yelled, still chasing her, "Calm down!"

She kept running. I didn't understand it. We were several blocks away from the rat at this point. I repeated, "It's okay! It's okay! It's not following us! Calm down!"

She kept going. I became conscious of the fact that I was chasing a woman in public, a woman who didn't seem to want me to catch her. I slowed down and tried a different tactic. "Dawn," I called, "I'm going to head back!"

She didn't stop. I did. I walked back to my car, near the restaurant, hoping that she'd come back. She didn't.

I called her. She picked up, but she didn't say "Hello" or any other greeting.

"Hello?" I asked.

She asked, "Is… are you the rat?"

"No. I'm Arnold. Are you coming back?"

The longest pause, then she replied, "Tomorrow. Maybe." She hung up. I went home and never heard from her again.