(Wo)Man versus Nature

It all began at 2am.

Tap…tap-tap…tap-tap, tap.

Odd, because 2am isn’t the usual time that Michael practices his tap-dancing routine. These were different taps. They had no rhythm, and they were close. Very close.

The wind outside was howling like I’ve never experienced before in Harbin. The students said that more snow was coming, they didn’t say that it was a winter storm. As I steadily awoke from my sleep and listened more intently I realized that the sounds were coming from above my head, not from Michael’s apartment. I soon realized that the sounds were not coming from the wind, but coming from something that was…alive.

With flashbacks of every horror film running through my mind I threw off the covers and turned on a light. Moments of silence, then tap, tap-tap-tap.

It was in the AC unit. Claws on plastic, continuous shuffling and scurrying. I had stood up too fast for my sleepy brain to really put together what was going on. I stared at the AC unit for a solid 5 minutes, listening, triple-checking that this was real life.

I was alone. It was dark and windy. And there was no way that I was going to wake any of my teammates up from their precious slumber. I flashed forward to a {possible} time in my life where I could simply roll over and say “honey, I heard a noise, do you think you could go check it out?” However that {possible} time & security of life is no where in sight, SO… I had to conquer this beast alone. I closed all the doors, creating a trap, and I grabbed my handy-dandy cell phone {with a built-in flashlight} and peered up the unit.

Grates. There’s grates all up inside, making it impossible for me to see what was causing all the ruckus. So I did what any sleepy female would do….I grabbed my pillows and comforter and made myself cozy on the couch.

Our make-shift animal trap.

Now please, hear me out. I know I’m a girl, but I’m not a wuss. I can hold my own. There was a time in my life where we had a mouse in our house, and every morning before school my mom would send me to check all the traps before she would enter the room. There is a massive difference between checking a mouse trap and the possibility of a mouse falling on your head while you sleep.

Just like a kid who’s scared of the monsters in the closet, I too became super attuned to any noise that my apartment decided to make, the refrigerator actually getting a ‘jump’ out of me. I listened as my water filter did its thing, as my windows creaked, and as the fridge hummed along in the night. But throughout the noises, there was still one that remained…the scratching of something alive.

Laying on the couch my mind flew back to the bird fiasco in the office [no pun intended]. Oh God, what if it’s a bird that wiggles itself through the grate and poops on all of my stuff? I threw off the covers yet again and charged back in the bedroom, hiding away all of my valuables from the potential of poop. I then thought about what it would look like to chase a bird out of my room with a broom, or to sleep with the windows open, just in case. I decided against it, as I didn’t want to end up with a pyramid of snow on my windowsill in the morning.

I laid back down and sang to myself “I’ve got peace like a river” over and over and over again. After about an hour of playing the “what-if” game, and having childhood J---s songs on ‘repeat’ in the iTunes of my mind, I was able to calm myself down and sleep for a couple hours.

Things are less scary in the day-time, even if the sun is covered by a gray snowstorm. I was awakened at the break of day by noises. Those noises. I got in contact with the males of my team. Wes was the only member who was available, so down to my apartment he came, armed with rubber gloves and a box for trapping “it”. My plan of attack was to assemble a huge garbage bag over the apparatus and disassemble it until the animal was freed.

Turns out, there are too many grates inside for the booger to be trapped in that we didn’t have access to, so on and on it scrambled. Within hours we told our Aiyi (dorm mother) about the situation. She defended that it was merely a bug [yea, right], but after some more drawings and persuasion, she agreed to call pest control and said that they would be by later in the afternoon.

How does this story end? I don’t really know the answer to that. As of now, there is no more clawing. After talking to Aiyi, I left to teach class. Upon arriving back to my apartment, there was no evidence that anyone arrived to take care of the situation [culture note: Chinese maintenance men are known to leave a mess anywhere they go]. SO!

Hypothesis 1: “Animal” managed to escape [doubtful, but possible].

Hypothesis 2: Pest control came and took care of everything.

Hypothesis 3: The thing is dead in my air conditioning unit.

…I guess we’ll find out in a few days, won’t we??