Ratatouille in Reality

It was just another normal Sunday where all men from my company booked into camp, except timing was no longer the usual 2200. We have been given an extra hour to hang around outside in the civilian world. Even though we were tired because it is already way pass bed time, we were still upbeat and joke around and poke fun at one another. Well, perhaps it just a way to conceal the fact that we are stuck in camp for the next 5 days.

Lights off! time to hit the deck and doze off to a very cold night as the sky began to pitter patter and rain through the night. All were like spring rolls, wrap in our "thick" blankets. Night time do really fly pass really fast and soon phones and alarm clock began to rang. Wakie Wakie! Droopy eyes, slowly one by one drag themselves off the bed, grab toothbrushes and toothpaste and walk towards the toilet. The walk seems so long but soon, we reached!

Back in Bunk, we prepared to fall in. In our t-shirt, shorts and shoes. But wait, something gone missing. A good buddy began to shine his torch in the mist of darkness so as not to wake the others up who are trying to catch that extra minutes of sleep in search of that something. One by one, we started to do the same and all looking for a common item. Socks! Our socks mysteriously gone missing. Time and tide waits for no man, quickly we grab another pair of socks, cutting short our early morning discussion.

The whole day left us puzzled... Who stole our socks? Was it a prank? I concluded that it could have been a rat though, and its looking for something comfortable and able to keep him warm. It was a cold night after all. The day went passed, night falls, lights off, hit the deck!

The next morning, as I dragged myself out of bed, i saw a little creature running acrossing the room, it was a mouse i concluded. The same situation happen again! Oh no! if its a prank, it was a nasty one. This time round, we were rushing for outfield and we were preparing our gear to move out. Until a fellow platoon mate came in to investigate, well, he was curious. Silently, he squeeze in to a tight corner of our bunk, were we stored extra beds and mattress. And hit Jackpot! we found the pile of socks. Our missing socks! we swept the pile out to clearly identify it, and within that pile we found 3 baby mices. Poor mices, wonder where is their mummy? Sorry that we have to destroy the nest, it was a nest nicely stack with socks and roof made of a running vest.

To be continued....

Auf Wiedersehen!