It was a Friday night. Not a Friday the 13th. Just a regular old Friday night. The boys and I had been out shopping. So far a great Friday night. For me. Maybe not so much for the boys. I need a girl to go shopping with :) So back to my Friday night. It was a Friday night. An ordinary Friday night. No rain. No snow. Maybe not even clouds. I wouldn't know. We pull into the driveway. Everything is ordinary. We get out of the van with our mega bags from shopping. Everything was ordinary. We walked to the front porch. THEN - All of the sudden - I noticed... I noticed our porch light was not on. It was off. Not on at all. Just off.
I NEVER EVER EVER turn my porch light off. So one might say - well maybe it was burnt out. But.... (de de de dunnnnn) it was one of those never burn out lights (or it takes like 5 yrs and I have only lived here a year and 4 months and 19 days and 2 hours and 26 min and 34 seconds). The only logical reason for this is that something was terribly wrong inside the house. Someone had to have broken in and turned out the light so no one would know what was going on. Someone had to have gotten into my house wrecked havoc upon my house, stolen all of my most precious valuables and my hamster and my alley cat. That was the only logical reason for the light to have been off.
What is a single mom to do? First - I panicked. Second - I panicked my kids. Third - I called the bf so he could at least be on the phone for when I went in and kicked butt. He wasn't answering. Fourth - I had Noah go to the neighbors next door. The big black man neighbor next door. Next thing I know I had three BIG black men with flashlights tearing through my house looking for the person that turned my front porch light off.
They ran into my front door like a SWAT team. They each had the others back. In through the living room, then the dining room and into the kitchen (I rearranged my house). They hollered out - "The backdoor is closed and locked." I hollered back "Great - please check the basement and upstairs!" Two went to the basement and the other up the stairs. All of my lights were off. All you could see were flashlights quickly flashing around each corner. Back up the stairs the two ran. Back down the stairs the other ran.
"All clear" they announced.
Nothing was missing. Nothing was destroyed. Alley Cat was safe. Chubbs the hamster was MISSING. (de de de dunnnnnnnn) Had they kidnapped Chubbs?!!! No. He has been missing since Wednesday. But I forgot until I got to this point in the story so I had to add the suspense in there.
I thanked the three big huge black men. They said NO PROBLEM. Anytime. They left and I locked the doors. I turned the porch light back on. APPARENTLY, it had been turned off. Everything was back to normal. We were safe. My house was safe. My precious valuables were safe. Alley Cat was safe. Chubbs would have been safe. So all was good. It was back to a normal, ordinary, safe Friday night.
Or so we thought. (de de de dunnnn) I wish I could record Noah's voice doing that and you could hear it on here. It would make for a much more suspenseful story.
I was in the kitchen - alone. All alone - or at least I thought I was. Suddenly I started hearing noises. These weren't just noises inside my crazy head... they were real noises. REAL NOISES.
It was like scratching. Scratching inside a wall. Like something was trying to get to me. SOMETHING or.... someone. It was loud. Very loud. I could tell it was coming from the pantry/refrigerator wall. CHUBBS!!! Chubbs was in the wall. He was ALIVE!!!
Before I go on... I have to backtrack a little to Wednesday night when he escaped for the 16th time in his short life of one year and one month of living with us. Chubbs has gone for almost six months without escaping. It had been a very quiet and undramatic six months for Chubbs. All was going as planned. Then he decided he was bored. He needed some action. Some drama. Some excitement. So he escaped.
It was a Wednesday night. I was in bed. The boys should have been but weren't. Noah was coming up the stairs. He saw Chubbs run across the hallway. At this point I need to tell you that his cage is downstairs, in the furthest corner of the house from the stairs. In order to be in the hallway he had to climb out of his cage, across the dining room, across the living room, up the three stairs to the the landing, turn to his left, go up the 12 steep stairs to get upstairs and to the hallway.
Noah tried to grab him but he ran. Ran fast. He was not finished with his excitement, his drama, his action. He was still looking for trouble. He ran into the bathroom. Into the linen closet, in the trap area under the bathtub. Under the bathtub is all open and unfinished. We knew at that point he was gone. Never would return. He was a goner.
Now back to Friday. CHUBBS IS ALIVE! CHUBBS IS IN THE WALL! I start screaming for the boys. Jonah is so excited. All smiles. Then.... then we realize he's in the wall. How the heck are we going to get him out? Jonah starts crying. Crying out - Mommy please get Chubbs. Please save him.
I didn't know what to do. So Jonah says call ****** (the bf). But I am thinking - what the heck is he going to do. He lives almost an hour away and has hid kids with him. At this point it was like 10 at night. But I called him. He didn't answer (what good is he anyway? didn't answer when someone logically probably robbed my house, now not answering when we are in the middle of a hamster crisis). So I called three or four more times. Still no answer. So I texted him and said "we need you. please call" Still no call.
The only logical next step is to call Mom. Mom - two hours away. But she is my hero. She knows how to do anything and everything. Mom knows it all. I call her. She chuckles. Can you believe that? She thinks Chubbs being stuck in the wall and her favorite grandchild under 9yrs crying hysterically is chuckable. After she pulls it together she tells me to see if there is an electric outlet that I can take off the wall and try to get him that way.
As I start to pull out the refrigerator to do this ****** (the bf) calls. FINALLY. It is about time. I calmly, hysterically explain to him the situation. Jonah is still hysterical in the background. He knows how serious the situation is and is on his way.
My job - listen for Chubbs to scratch and mark the wall EXACTLY where he is. This is a lot harder than what you think. But I did my best.
6 hours and 23 min later he shows up. Not really that long but he is slow and it felt like that. Seriously - after a lifetime of waiting he shows up. He comes in with nothing. Where is his plaster wall hole cutter outer? Where is his hamster rescue equipment? Where is his plaster to replaster and fix the wall? Where is it? He can't just drive here and do nothing. He is here to save a hamster's life for heavens sake!!!!
He whips out a multi-tool pocket knife. I GASP. What exactly does he think he is here for?!! We are not killing the hamster! We are saving him. He assures me it is only to cut a hole in the wall and he will do it slowly and meticulously (I so had to use spell check on that word!) so he would not stab Chubbs to death as he cut into the wall.
He began to cut - with every cut into the wall I Gasped with fear for Chubbs little life. After 15 painstaking minutes the hole was cut, the plaster dust was everywhere and there Chubbs was. Stuck in the wall. Jonah came in and rescued him from the wall. Jonah rescued his hamster. He was so so so excited. He held Chubbs for ever - well like 15 sec and then he was off
to his computer... but I know he meant well. :)
All was back to normal. We were safe. My house was safe. My precious valuables were safe. Alley Cat was safe. CHUBBS was safe... until Sunday - when he escaped again. Luckily - ****** (the bf) did not patch the hole in the wall yet. This time when we found Chubbs in the wall we just got him right out.
It has been two weeks since the incident and he has only escaped two more times. Both times we got him back. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
An ordinary Friday night at the Odom house.
