I went to do some laundry around 5:00 yesterday afternoon. I put the wash in, then went over to get a bagel sandwich. Got back to the laundromat with about 10 minutes left in the wash cycle. I walked back toward the front of the laundromat, where there was a small bench underneath the front window, where I could sit for a few minutes, listen to some music, and eventually put my clothes in the dryer.

I looked over to my left and without registering what I saw, I thought to myself:

“That’s a pretty big mouse.”

And then:

“That rat is brown. Most rats are black, or gray.”

The significant, missing part, was that there was a RAT hopping towards me where I sat. I stood up, to fend it off (i.e. to hop onto the bench, if need be). It bounced past me, then tried to hang a right toward the end of the bench. I guess it was looking for a hole to crawl into, perhaps even one of those perfect arches seen in Garfield strips. Who knows. But he was a stupid rat and ran right into the wall, and I laughed at it. How dumb!

Then the rat ran towards the people who worked there, who all laughed (either to calm themselves, like I did, or to calm me, their customer of the moment. In no way, I fervently hope, did they find this purely humorous).

The strange thing was this: I had been listening to Tonic, but threw on Queen’s “Great King Rat,” and THAT made me laugh. So maybe I was or remain wrong about those rat-celebrating freaks. Maybe there’s space for them, too. Underground. Out of my sight.

**Clarification**

I put on the Queen song (written by Freddie Mercury) after seeing the rat, not just before seeing it or even simultaneously. This was not an episode of synchronicity. If it were, I’d have shoved that word into your every orifice four times over by now.