You Could Have Fooled Me - Joyce Roschinger

The mouse stopped in to see his friend, the mosquito, on Wednesday evening. He found his friend quite sad.

"What has happened to you, my friend", said the mouse as he sat down on the green couch. The mosquito lifted his head and stared directly at the mouse. His big eyes were moist.

"I can't do it anymore. Keep going out on these blood sucking night runs".

"But why ever not?" The mouse wiped his glasses with a freshly pressed monogrammed handkerchief.

"I don't understand, after all, this is your life's work, what you have always done."

The mosquito stood up, walked across the room, and placed his hands behind his back.

"I can't keep losing my friends. We all go out together every night but some of us don't get to come back. Citronella candles and repellent often keep us from getting what we need. Humans are now wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants. Do you know how difficult it is to fly in under all those clothes?"

"No, I can't say that I do". The mouse was beginning to think that his friend needed a beer.

"But the bad part is that some of us are killed out there, " said the mosquito as he turned his back on the mouse.

"And one day, it is going to be me. That will be it. Do you know that I have never been in love? "

"You know, you could have fooled me, " said the mouse to his friend. " I have always thought you were happy because you do what you are meant to do, your life's work".

The mosquito flipped his wings back and forth. " I have to get ready to go out now."

The mouse walked back to his home in a Victorian house on a very steep hill in San Francisco.

The night was warm and clear. The moon cast a silver light over streets and sidewalks . From a distance, the mouse heard laughter and the clinking of glasses. He thought about his friend, the mosquito gliding over backyards. How could he have been fooled into thinking that his friend was happy?