No story about WalMart would be complete without an unusual event. As I was leaving there was a flash of motion. A mouse went careening down the mostly empty aisle. I hopped to the side as the mouse zipped past, banked around the corner, and accelerated out of view.
“Did you see a mouse?” The checkout girl asked.
“Did you see it bank?” I asked.
“Yeah, it was really moving.” She agreed.
“How does one bank like that on a flat floor?” I pondered.
Suddenly the truth dawned on both of us. The checkout girl reacted first. She grabbed a radio and barked into it “Jeff! The damn bat is back!”
I started to laugh. Some guy (presumably Jeff) came charging in from the cart racks. He stormed down the aisle, yellow vest and all, on a bat containment mission. The bat, unconcerned by Jeff, circled around and flew by in the opposite direction. It was 6″ off the ground and moving deliberately back and forth. It appeared to think the flat cement floor was a body of water and Wal Mart checkout lines were good places to hunt mosquitoes. It presumably considered Jeff nothing more than an obstacle like the cash registers and no matter how fast Jeff was moving the bat avoided him. The bat was an ace flier and poor Jeff was hopelessly out gunned.
The checkout girl and I enjoyed the antics of Jeff and the bat for a while. I couldn’t help but root for the bat. The checkout girl reported that yesterday’s chase had lasted an hour. (The bat won!) I didn’t have time to watch the whole show so I left. I hope Jeff and the bat both had a fine evening.