I dropped my light on the floor when seeing him in the corner, startling me. A white rat with brown in his coloring now, unlike Pansy who was pure light. Vanilla *and* chocolate. And he was just a big rat which differed from Pansy too, who had human qualities to his makeup, anthropomorphic as mentioned before. “Tell us your story,” he hissed in his rat way, “oh golden gloved one.” I knew what he meant. They had the general idea about what was going on with me, what I represented. Rodentia had a right to know?
So I stood behind the podium illuminated by the repositioned light, told my story, what the heck. Beginning with the new hair. Fabulous! Talk about the Hills, the big white and brown rat requested early on. So I explained that too. It was long winded, starting with 6’8 Grant Hill of the 1990s Duke basketball team who played with another Hill named Thomas standing 3 inches shorter. “Some say that he was merely Hill’s Hill,” I said about the latter, who was a good and decent player in his own right but not the star Grant was. “This naturally led to Missouri and the Thomas Hill (village) there, and also Taum Sauk Mt., the highest in the state. Obvious synchromystic reference to famed fictional character Tom Sawyer who also came from that state. And Pat and Mike in the middle — that indicated Mike, that indicated Coach (K.).” Rodentius, for that is what he said his name was somewhere along the way, nodded with this, seeming to be pleased with the revelations so far. “There’s also Denver’s variant name of Grant’s Hill up in the northern part of Missouri, another way to say to Hill’s Hill. Then there’s Siloam but I can’t speak fully about that. Gays Mill.”
“Gays Mill?” questioned Rodentius from the side. His tone was patient still, like he understood; was putting himself in my black canvas shoes made for tennis matches.



























