Friday, June 19, 2009

A Quiet Friday Night at Home

Life has been, busy. Full of work, school, friends, travel. Last night was my first quiet night in, my first Friday to relax by myself, in a couple of months. I stayed home, read, and around 11pm was lying on my bed thinking about sleep when I heard a flutter and a screech and saw something fly by.

There was a bat.

I quickly ran out of the room, book in hand, closed the door and went into the living room. What do I do? How do I say 'bat' in Chinese? (The last time I dealt with bats was in the Dominican Republic in 2005; I didn't know the Spanish word but when I said 'vampiro' my friend immediately knew that I meant the black things flying in the air all around us as I pulled her out of the ruins we had been exploring.)

My clothes, my computer and my phone were all in my bedroom, on the side of the door where the bat was flying around. I wasn't about to walk the streets of Beijing in my nightgown to look for animal contral. My flatmate and my best friend here are both out of the country right now. Even if I called the local version of 911 I wouldn't be able to tell them my emergency. Oops.

Using my towel as a shield, I carefully cracked open my bedroom door to peak in and watched as the bat flew in circles, apparently trying to find an exit. I'm not sure how it got into my room in the first place but suspect it's entrance would also be the best exit. I slipped my hand in through the crack in the door and turned the ceiling light off.

I settled in on the sofa for the night with my book (a collection of classic short stories by European and American writers), my towel as a cover, and a fresh glass of water from the kitchen. This morning my room was quiet. I'm sitting on my bed now. There's no evidence of the bat. I hope it found an escape. Tonight I'll put my computer in the living room, just in case my visitor is still here.