With the roof temporarily dealt with, the family of five finally stopped looking up at the ceiling every few minutes.
Whether Arthur had actually fixed it would have to wait until the next rain to find out, but at least the obviously loose boards had been secured again, and the largest gaps had been dealt with.
Arthur had originally planned to check the land behind the house again that afternoon.
Unfortunately, before they even started preparing lunch, another problem appeared in the kitchen.
Helena was the first to notice it.
She had only gone in to get some oats.
They didn’t have much food to begin with.
The flour, oats, and dried beans were stored separately in cloth sacks and kept against the kitchen wall for the time being.
Over the past few days, one thing after another had kept them busy.
They simply took what they needed each day and had never carefully checked underneath the sacks.
Today, when Helena lifted the sack of oats, she noticed some crumbs scattered underneath it.
Her hands paused.
At first, she thought the sack hadn’t been tied properly and some oats had spilled out when they moved it.
But after looking more closely, her expression slowly changed.
Those weren’t just pieces of oats.
There were tiny scraps of cloth mixed in with them.
Helena turned the sack over.
It didn’t take long for her to find a small hole near the bottom.
The hole itself wasn’t large, but the edges were rough and frayed.
It definitely didn’t look as though the cloth had simply been caught on something sharp.
Helena stared at the hole for several seconds before turning toward the door.
“Arthur,” Helena called.
Arthur was outside sorting through the old nails left over from yesterday’s roof repair.
When he heard his wife, he quickly came into the kitchen.
“What’s wrong?” Arthur asked.
Helena didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she turned the sack around and showed him the hole.
Arthur looked down.
His expression changed too.
He crouched and touched the damaged cloth.
“When did this happen?” Arthur asked.
“I don’t know,” Helena replied, shaking her head.
“I only noticed it when I picked up the sack just now.”
Arthur looked down at the crumbs on the floor.
“It doesn’t look like it happened today,” he said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Helena agreed.
The two of them fell silent.
Arthur was about to reach down and move some of the crumbs aside when Theo’s voice suddenly came from behind him.
“Dad.”
Arthur’s hand stopped in midair.
He turned around.
At some point, Theo had appeared in the kitchen doorway.
The little boy was already frowning.
Theo stared at Arthur’s hand, which was still hovering above the floor.
“Are you going to touch that with your hand?” Theo asked.
Arthur looked at his hand.
Then at the floor.
“I was just going to take a look,” Arthur explained.
Theo frowned even harder.
“But the floor is dirty,” he pointed out.
Arthur fell silent.
He quietly pulled his hand back.
Helena saw the exchange and couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from lifting.
Only then did Theo walk into the kitchen.
Even so, he stopped several steps away from the crumbs and refused to go any closer.
Clara and Lucas arrived soon after.
The moment Clara entered the kitchen, she noticed that something was wrong.
She looked at her parents first, then at the crumbs scattered across the floor.
“What happened?” Clara asked.
“The oat sack is torn,” Helena explained, pointing out the damaged spot.
Clara moved closer and looked down at it.
“Did something bite through it?” she asked.
“It looks like it,” Arthur replied with a nod.
Lucas crouched down too, but before he could get any closer, Theo immediately stopped him.
“Lucas, don’t touch it,” Theo warned.
Lucas paused and looked at his younger brother.
“I wasn’t going to,” Lucas replied.
“And don’t kneel down either,” Theo added.
Lucas looked at his knees.
He actually had been about to crouch lower.
In the end, he straightened slightly.
Clara looked at Theo.
“How do you know it was a mouse?” she asked.
Theo immediately turned toward her.
“I didn’t say it was a mouse,” he replied.
Clara paused.
Come to think of it, he really hadn’t.
Arthur looked at the three children and gave them his own guess.
“It was probably a mouse,” Arthur said.
Theo’s expression changed instantly.
Not to fear.
Disgust.
He looked at the crumbs on the floor.
Then at the damaged oat sack.
“A mouse bit it?” Theo asked.
“Probably,” Arthur replied.
Theo immediately took a small step backward.
“Can we still eat the oats?”
“We need to check what it looks like inside first,” Helena answered.
Theo clearly wasn’t convinced.
“But the mouse touched the sack.”
“Only the outside of the sack,” Helena explained.
“It bit it,” Theo pointed out.
“Yes,” Helena admitted.
Theo’s little face scrunched up.
“Its mouth touched it.”
Arthur watched his younger son grow increasingly disgusted.
“Try not to think about it in that much detail,” Arthur suggested.
Theo looked up at his father.
“But it really did touch it.”
Arthur found himself completely unable to argue with that.
Lucas, meanwhile, was concerned about something entirely different.
He looked at the hole in the sack.
“Dad, how much did it eat?” Lucas asked.
That question immediately brought everyone’s attention back to the food.
The trace of amusement on Arthur’s face disappeared.
That was the real problem.
They barely had enough food as it was.
If their stores had been full, losing a little to a mouse might not have mattered much.
But right now, they were keeping track of how much food they used every day.
Under these circumstances, even a small loss mattered.
“We should check the other sacks too,” Helena said immediately.
Arthur nodded.
“One at a time.”
They had originally been preparing to make lunch.
Instead, all five of them gathered around their food stores.
Arthur lifted the flour sack first.
“Don’t put it there,” Theo warned immediately.
Arthur looked down at him.
Theo pointed at the spot where the crumbs had been scattered.
“The mouse walked there.”
Arthur paused.
Then he put the flour sack down somewhere else.
“Here?” Arthur asked.
Theo inspected the spot.
“That’s fine,” he decided.
Clara couldn’t help laughing.
Arthur ignored her and continued checking the flour sack.
The top was fine.
There were no holes underneath either.
He ran his hands carefully around the edges and found no damage.
Only then did Helena set the flour aside.
Next came the dried beans.
No problem there either.
The few onions they had left were even easier to inspect.
By the time they finished, they confirmed that only the oat sack had been bitten.
Clara visibly relaxed.
“Good.
It was only one,” she said.
Lucas, however, wasn’t completely reassured.
He looked around the kitchen.
“If it got in once, it can get in again,” Lucas pointed out.
Arthur nodded in agreement.
“Which means we need to find out where it came in.”
Theo immediately looked at his father.
“When we find it, do we have to touch it?” Theo asked.
Arthur paused.
“Touch what?”
“The mouse,” Theo clarified.
Arthur stared at him.
“We’re looking for a hole, not catching the mouse,” he explained.
Theo visibly relaxed.
“That’s better.”
Clara turned toward her younger brother.
“Are you scared of mice?” she asked.
“I’m not scared,” Theo denied immediately.
“Then why did you look so relieved?” Clara asked.
Theo frowned at the damaged oat sack.
“Because they’re dirty.”
Clara fell silent.
Theo added, “And we don’t know where they’ve been walking.”
Lucas heard that and instinctively glanced down at the kitchen floor.
Theo noticed immediately.
“Don’t think about it,” Theo warned him.
Lucas looked up.
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“You were looking at the floor,” Theo replied seriously.
Lucas had nothing to say.
This time, even Helena laughed.
Arthur quickly brought the conversation back on track.
“Let’s find the hole first,” he said.
The kitchen wasn’t large.
There weren’t that many places they needed to check.
The most obvious places were the corners, underneath the cabinet, and the gaps near the stove that they normally wouldn’t pay much attention to.
Arthur started near the place where the food had been stored.
The wall was old, but there were no obvious holes.
He moved the food sacks aside and prepared to check behind them.
Lucas came over as well.
Being so small was usually inconvenient, but right now his height actually made it easier for him to look underneath the cabinet.
Lucas was just about to crouch lower when Theo warned him again.
“There’s dust on the floor,” Theo said.
Lucas looked back at him.
“I know.”
“And there might be a mouse.”
“Maybe.”
Theo’s expression immediately became even worse.
Lucas looked at his younger brother.
“Why don’t you go outside?” he suggested.
“No,” Theo refused immediately.
“Why not?” Lucas asked.
“I need to make sure none of you touch anything you shouldn’t,” Theo replied.
Lucas fell silent.
Clara burst out laughing.
Even Arthur didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh.
“Fine,” Arthur said.
“Our hygiene inspector can stand farther back.”
Theo seemed perfectly happy with that arrangement.
He actually took another step backward.
Arthur spread an old cloth on the floor so Lucas wouldn’t have to touch the ground directly.
Only then did Lucas lower himself and peer beneath the cabinet.
It was dark underneath.
“What do you see?” Arthur asked his son.
“A lot of dust,” Lucas answered.
Theo immediately frowned behind them.
Lucas continued looking.
“And some wood shavings.”
“Any holes?” Arthur asked.
“Not on this side,” Lucas replied.
Lucas was about to push himself back up when Theo spoke again.
“Lucas, your hand.”
Lucas stopped.
There was a cloth underneath him, but he had still picked up some dust when he touched the cabinet.
Theo had already noticed.
“You need to wash your hands later,” Theo reminded him.
“I know,” Lucas replied helplessly.
Theo then looked at Arthur.
“Dad, you have to wash yours too.”
Arthur blinked.
“What did I do?”
“You touched the hole in the food sack earlier,” Theo reminded him.
Arthur fell silent.
His son had an excellent memory when it came to things like this.
“I know,” Arthur said.
Only after receiving that promise did Theo finally stop talking.
They continued searching.
Clara slowly checked along the other wall.
Her height might normally have been inconvenient, but in this situation, it actually gave her an advantage.
It didn’t take long before she stopped.
“Dad,” Clara called.
Arthur immediately turned.
“Did you find something?” he asked.
Clara didn’t answer directly.
Instead, she pointed near the bottom of the wall.
“Look here.”
Arthur walked over and crouched down.
There really was a narrow gap in the corner.
It didn’t look very large.
But there were a few wood shavings around the edges, along with some crumbs that looked very similar to what they had found beneath the oat sack.
Arthur instinctively reached out.
“Dad.”
Theo’s voice came from behind him immediately.
Arthur’s hand stopped in midair again.
He didn’t even turn around this time.
“I know,” Arthur said.
“It’s dirty,” Theo reminded him seriously.
Arthur silently found a small piece of wood and used that to move the debris around the gap instead.
“Is this acceptable?” Arthur asked.
Theo watched for a moment.
“Yes,” he decided.
Arthur suddenly had the distinct feeling that he was being inspected.
Lucas came closer too, though this time he didn’t touch anything.
He studied the narrow gap.
“Can a mouse really get through there?” Lucas asked.
Arthur used the piece of wood to judge the size.
“Possibly,” he replied.
Clara looked down.
“That small?”
“Mice can squeeze through much narrower spaces than you’d expect,” Arthur explained.
Theo heard that and instinctively stepped back again.
Clara noticed immediately.
“I thought you weren’t scared,” she said.
Theo looked at his sister.
“I just don’t want it touching me.”
“Why?” Clara asked.
Theo looked as though the answer should have been obvious.
“Because it’s dirty.”
Clara had no response.
Arthur stood up.
“I’m going outside to check the other side of this wall,” he said.
“I’ll come with you,” Helena replied immediately.
Before leaving, Arthur looked at the three children.
“You stay inside.”
Theo was the first to nod.
“Okay.”
Arthur looked mildly surprised.
Usually, whenever the children were told they couldn’t follow, at least one of them would ask why.
Today, Theo had agreed far too quickly.
Before Arthur could say anything, Theo added,
“It’s muddy outside.”
Arthur fell silent.
Fair enough.
That was a very Theo reason.
After Arthur and Helena went outside, the three children remained in the kitchen.
Clara continued examining the gap they had found.
Lucas stood beside the damaged oat sack, though this time he didn’t touch it.
Theo stood between them.
After a while, he suddenly spoke.
“Do you think the mouse is still inside the house?” Theo asked.
Clara turned toward him.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
Theo began scanning the kitchen.
Clara noticed.
“Are you looking for it?” she asked.
Theo shook his head.
“I’m checking whether it suddenly comes out.”
“And if it does?” Clara asked.
“Move away,” Theo answered without hesitation.
Lucas turned toward him too.
“And then?”
“Call Dad.”
“Dad’s outside,” Lucas reminded him.
Theo stopped.
All three children fell silent.
After a moment, Theo seriously revised the plan.
“Then don’t touch it first,” he said.
Clara tried not to laugh.
“And then?” she asked.
“Wait for Dad to come back.”
Lucas nodded.
“That works.”
“And we have to wipe wherever it runs,” Theo added.
Clara finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Theo, are you scared of the mouse, or are you scared it’ll make the house dirty?”
“Make the house dirty,” Theo answered without hesitation.
Clara burst out laughing.
Lucas lowered his head, smiling too.
Fortunately, no mouse actually appeared before Arthur and Helena returned.
As soon as Arthur came back inside, Lucas looked at him.
“Was there a hole outside?” Lucas asked.
Arthur nodded.
“Yes.”
He walked to the corner where they had found the gap and pointed it out to the children.
“There’s a cracked board on the outside wall here, and there’s a gap underneath it too,” Arthur explained.
“That’s probably where it got in.”
“Can you block it?” Clara asked immediately.
“Yes,” Arthur replied.
Then he paused.
After everything that had happened over the past few days, he had learned not to make promises too quickly.
“At least this hole can be blocked,” Arthur added.
Helena laughed.
“Progress,” she said.
Arthur turned toward her.
“What progress?”
“You’ve learned not to guarantee things too quickly,” Helena replied.
Arthur fell silent.
What exactly had happened to his credibility in this family over the last few days?
Still, the hole needed to be dealt with immediately.
Arthur brought out the old boards they had kept and chose one of the thinner pieces.
Clara saw the board and suddenly remembered something from her list.
“Dad,” she called.
Arthur looked back.
“What?”
Clara pointed at the board.
“That really did become useful.”
Arthur immediately remembered what he had said when they first found it.
Old boards.
Might be useful.
He looked at his daughter.
“You’re not about to take out the list and update it, are you?”
Clara actually had been considering exactly that.
She paused.
“There isn’t enough paper,” she replied.
Arthur looked unexpectedly pleased.
“Good.”
Clara stared at him.
“What’s good?”
“You’re learning to save paper.”
Clara had nothing to say.
Arthur held the board against the wall several times until he found the right position.
They didn’t have many old nails left from yesterday.
He brought out all of them and checked each one carefully.
Theo stood a little farther away and watched.
After a while, he suddenly patted his pockets.
Arthur noticed.
“Theo, what are you looking for?” he asked.
“I’m checking for nails,” Theo replied.
Arthur immediately remembered the nail that had mysteriously appeared in Theo’s pocket during yesterday’s roof repair.
“There shouldn’t be any today,” Arthur said.
Theo checked both pockets anyway.
“There really aren’t.”
Arthur nodded.
“Good.”
Theo looked confused.
“Why is that good?”
“Because nails aren’t supposed to be in a three-year-old’s pockets,” Arthur answered seriously.
Theo thought about it.
“That’s true.”
Arthur secured the board against the wall with two of the straighter old nails.
Then he used smaller pieces of wood to block the thinner gaps beside it as well as he could.
Theo kept his distance throughout the entire process.
Only after Arthur finished did he move a little closer.
Even then, he only looked.
Lucas crouched to inspect the repair.
“It looks like there aren’t any gaps anymore,” he said.
Arthur nodded.
“At least not here.”
Clara looked at her father.
“So the mouse can’t come in anymore?” she asked.
This time, Arthur didn’t immediately promise anything.
“Not necessarily,” he replied.
“We found this hole, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others.”
Helena agreed.
“Which means we can’t keep the food on the floor anymore,” she said.
Theo nodded immediately.
“Right.”
Everyone looked at him.
Theo pointed at the damaged oat sack.
“The mouse already touched it once.”
His face scrunched up again.
Clearly, he still hadn’t gotten over that.
Helena started thinking about where they could store the food instead.
“We need to put it somewhere higher.”
Arthur followed her gaze toward the old kitchen cabinet.
There was a higher shelf inside, but it was currently filled with miscellaneous things.
“We’ll clear it out first,” Arthur decided.
The family started reorganizing the cabinet.
Arthur and Helena took the things down from the upper shelf.
Clara sat nearby and sorted them.
Anything they could still use went to one side.
Anything they didn’t recognize or didn’t know the purpose of stayed for now.
Lucas checked the inside of the cabinet for any additional damage.
As for Theo—
Arthur looked at his younger son.
“You can stand there,” Arthur told him.
Theo frowned.
“Why?”
“Because there’s a lot of dust in there,” Arthur replied naturally.
Theo immediately looked at the cabinet.
There really was a layer of dust on the wooden boards.
His expression became conflicted.
He wanted to help.
But he also genuinely didn’t want to touch it.
After thinking for a while, Theo went to find an old cloth.
Instead of picking it up immediately, he looked at Helena first.
Helena glanced at it.
“Yes, but that one is for cleaning,” she replied.
“I know,” Theo said.
He folded the cloth several times and wrapped it around his hand before touching the edge of the cabinet.
Arthur watched him and found the whole thing rather amusing.
“How are you supposed to clean like that?” Arthur asked.
“My hand won’t touch the dust,” Theo explained seriously.
Arthur fell silent.
Perfectly reasonable.
Theo only cleaned the parts he could reach.
And every time he wiped a small section, he stopped to inspect the cloth covering his hand.
Once a visible layer of dust appeared on it, his entire face scrunched up.
“So dirty,” Theo complained.
Clara was sorting things nearby.
She looked up when she heard him.
“That’s why we’re cleaning it,” she pointed out.
Theo knew that.
Knowing it and accepting it were two completely different things.
He wiped a few more times before finally looking at Helena.
“Mom, can I wash my hands as soon as I’m done?” he asked.
Helena looked at his expression, which suggested he had nearly reached his limit, and smiled.
“Yes.”
Only then did Theo continue.
Arthur tried not to laugh.
“Your hand hasn’t even touched anything directly,” he reminded him.
Theo looked down at the old cloth wrapped around his hand.
“But it’s very close.”
Arthur had no response to that.
The moment the cabinet was finally clean, Theo was the first person to run off and wash his hands.
Lucas saw him leave and started to follow.
Theo took two steps, then suddenly stopped and turned around.
“You need to wash yours too,” Theo reminded him.
Lucas nodded helplessly.
“I know.”
Theo then looked toward Arthur.
Arthur was organizing the food sacks.
Father and son stared at each other.
Arthur was silent for a second.
“I’ll wash mine too,” he said.
Only then did Theo look satisfied.
Clara laughed from beside them.
Once everyone who needed to wash their hands had done so, they finally put the food away again.
The flour, dried beans, and remaining oats were all moved to the higher shelf of the cabinet.
The damaged oat sack couldn’t simply be left as it was.
Helena found a clean piece of cloth that was still usable, wrapped it carefully around the torn section, and tied it securely.
Theo watched the entire process.
Even after Helena finished, he still didn’t look convinced.
“Mom,” Theo called.
Helena looked down at him.
“What is it?”
Theo pointed at the oat sack.
“Can we really still eat that?”
Helena understood exactly what was bothering him.
“We didn’t find anything dirty inside,” she explained.
“I already removed the oats around the torn part.
We’ll cook the rest properly before we eat them.”
Theo thought about it.
He still looked conflicted.
But their food supply was nowhere near large enough for them to throw away an entire sack because of one small hole.
Theo understood that too.
In the end, he reluctantly accepted it.
“Then cook it longer,” he said.
Helena held back a laugh.
“All right.”
At last, all the food was stored on the upper shelf.
Arthur reached for the cabinet door.
He pushed it closed.
The door shut.
One second later—
It slowly swung open again.
Arthur stared at it.
The entire family looked at the gap that had reappeared.
The kitchen fell silent for two seconds.
Theo was the first to frown.
“That won’t work,” he said.
Arthur looked down at him.
“I know.”
Theo pointed at the cabinet door.
“The mouse can get inside.”
“I know,” Arthur repeated.
Clara came over and tried pushing it closed herself.
The door shut.
She let go.
It opened again.
Clara looked up at her father.
“Dad, this really needs to be fixed now.”
Arthur took a deep breath.
“I know.”
Lucas watched for a moment before adding,
“And probably today.”
Arthur turned toward his older son.
“Why?”
Before Lucas could answer, Theo spoke first.
“Because the food is inside.”
Arthur fell silent.
Fine.
All three of them had perfectly good reasons.
A few days ago, they had thought the cabinet door could wait.
Other than popping open every day as if to remind them it existed, it hadn’t caused any real trouble.
Now things were different.
The food needed to be stored higher.
The food had to go inside the cabinet.
And the cabinet door refused to stay shut.
Something that had been near the bottom of their list had somehow moved itself straight to the top.
Arthur stared at the stubborn cabinet door and suddenly felt that there was no need for them to arrange their household problems by priority.
Whichever problem was most urgent would apparently come forward and announce itself.
Clara glanced down at her nearly full list.
Arthur noticed.
“Are you going to write it down?” he asked.
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
Arthur looked surprised.
“Why not?”
Clara pointed at the cabinet door.
“I don’t think we’re going to forget this one.”
The door remained stubbornly open by a narrow gap.
Arthur stared at it for two seconds.
“That’s true.”
Theo was still glaring at the gap.
He clearly wasn’t satisfied.
Finally, he walked over and pushed the cabinet door shut with both hands.
The door closed.
Theo didn’t let go.
Arthur looked at him.
“Theo?”
Theo kept both hands firmly against the door.
“The mouse can’t get in like this.”
Arthur stared at him.
“Are you planning to stand there forever?”
Theo fell silent.
Apparently, that part hadn’t occurred to him.
Clara was already laughing beside him.
Theo reluctantly removed his hands.
The cabinet door immediately swung open again.
His entire little face fell.
“Why does it insist on opening?”
Arthur finally laughed.
“I’ll fix it tomorrow.”
Theo immediately looked up.
“Can’t you fix it today?”
Arthur glanced outside.
After everything they had done, it was already getting late.
“We’ll tie it shut for today,” he said.
Arthur brought over the short piece of rope they had found earlier.
At last, the rope that none of them had known what to do with had found a purpose.
He tied the cabinet door shut temporarily, then gave it a tug to test it.
This time, it stayed closed.
Theo stood beside him and inspected it for quite a while.
Arthur looked down at his son.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Theo looked at the door.
Then at the gap.
Only after checking both did he finally nod.
“For now.”
Arthur stared at him.
His three-year-old son had apparently reached the point where he could look at Arthur’s repair work and say for now.
That evening, after dinner, Arthur went back to the kitchen to check everything one more time.
There was no sign of movement around the newly blocked gap in the wall.
The crumbs on the floor had been cleaned up.
All the food sacks were stored higher.
The cabinet door was still tied shut.
The kitchen finally looked a little safer.
Theo followed his father inside.
He stopped in the doorway instead of walking in immediately.
Arthur turned and noticed him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Theo looked at the floor.
“Did someone wipe it today?”
Arthur nodded.
“Your mother did.”
Only then did Theo walk inside.
First, he checked the corner of the wall.
Then the cabinet.
Finally, he looked up at the shelf where the food was stored.
Arthur stood nearby and watched his younger son carry out his inspection.
“Are you inspecting me or the mouse?” Arthur asked.
Theo thought about it seriously.
“Both.”
Arthur fell silent.
Fine.
Theo checked the entire kitchen and found no new crumbs.
At last, he seemed slightly reassured.
Before leaving, however, he looked back at the kitchen one more time.
Arthur noticed.
“Still worried?” he asked.
Theo shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what are you looking at?” Arthur asked.
Theo frowned.
“I’m wondering where it walked yesterday.”
Arthur stared at him.
That was probably a question they were all better off not thinking about.
Arthur put his hands on his son’s shoulders and physically turned him toward the door.
“Come on.
Bedtime.”
Theo let his father guide him out, though he still tried to look back.
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Did you wash your hands?”
Arthur stopped walking.
He looked down at his hands.
When he had checked the corner just now, he might have touched the newly nailed board again.
Theo had already stopped and was waiting for an answer.
Arthur was silent for two seconds.
“…I’ll wash them now.”
Theo immediately turned around.
“I’ll go with you.”
Arthur watched his son’s small back and could only follow in resignation.
After everything they had dealt with that day, they had at least confirmed one thing.
Before the five of them moved into this run-down farmhouse, there had apparently been another resident living here too.
As for whether that particular resident—who paid no rent and helped itself to their oats—would come back again tonight…
They would probably find out when they checked the kitchen tomorrow morning.