I woke up this morning, leaned over and reached down to pick up my iPad, glasses and my hearing aid – just the one. The iPad and the glasses were there but not the hearing aid. As I had gone to bed after a wine and dinner out, I thought may be I was mistaken, microelectronic amplifiers don’t usually develop legs. I spent ages looking, studying the carpet in minutiae and shining lights under the bed. I must be losing it, I thought dementia is finally come upon me!
I took a lesson from Sherlock Holmes that when you exclude the possible then the improbable is what actually happened. I said to Jennifer I think a mouse or rat took it. Jennifer treated this with considerable skepticism which is reasonable given my past record of tall stories and far out excuses. 

We went to the Desert Park, enjoyed the outing but the thought of what could have happened to the hearing aid nagged at me. 
Not long before dinner, I saw a mouse blur across the kitchen floor from oven to washing machine. I told Jennifer there was a mouse. She believed me, but checked for droppings or a nest and finding none, wasn’t too concerned. Then after dinner she saw it too. It was dawdling on the kitchen linoleum, just sniffing the air and enjoying the ambience or what ever it is mice do when terrorising humans.

We sat together on the sofa watching a program about Orkney and to my horror I saw the mouse climb up onto the cushion and walk along Jennifer’s trousers and over her chocolate wrapper. I said oh Look at that! Jennifer said she felt something but did not actually wonder what it might be. It was the mouse. It ran off, leaping to the floor and dashed back into the kitchen and under the fridge.

Jennifer went to get some mouse traps while the mouse and I watched Tele on the sofa together.