The Storage Space was appalled…simply appalled. It would have stormed off in a huff, if only a building could storm off in a huff.
If only, the Storage Space thought sadly, a building could storm off at all…or walk off…or even somehow manage to crawl away, no matter how deplorably undignified, rather than suffer one more second of all this.
If a building could have shuddered, the Storage Space would have shuddered.
Still, it finally conceded, all buildings…even those who were, unlike the Storage Space, still grand,…had rats. But the size of this one!
Most unfortunately, the Storage Space had noticed Le Grand Rat before, but chose not to think about it. Really it was beneath its dignity to even notice, let alone recognize the existence of, such a creature.
But this time was different. Because of the woman who was so close to Le Grand Rat and in real danger.
If it had been The Snibbler, that horrible twenty-something named Jennifer, or her ex-lover, The Mannequin Martin, the Storage Space wouldn’t have cared one bit.
But this woman was different. Not only had she seen, but she had caressed the once-grand carvings around the once-grand entrance from when the Storage Space had been a magnificent old theatre till, if a building could cry, it would have cried with gratitude. This Karen knew it hadn’t always been a storage space!
Suddenly Le Grand Rat touched Karen.
Again the Storage Space would have shuddered if it only could.
Karen jumped back.
The rat spoke: “I just wanted to give you the keys to your new storage unit. I can’t help it if I have this disability.”
But the Storage Space wasn’t really paying attention to it anymore. Because when Le Grand Rat touched Karen and the Storage Unit had wanted to shudder…something else had shuddered, something left over from long, long ago.
The Storage Space could see him now, resplendent in his Elizabethan finery, the consummate Shakespearean actor. Until…
Karen had a lot more to worry about than Le Grand Rat.
