The SOS Rat

SOS - Shiny Object Syndrome (Defined as the attraction to objects that exhibit a glassy, polished, gleamy and shiny appearance. Once the shininess fades away or something which is more shiny comes into view, the attention to the previous shiny object fades. It is a tendency for someone to constantly chase something new, lose focus and abandon important tasks in the process, never quite achieving anything.)

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There was once a rat called Rattie. Rattie was a rat who was obsessed with shiny things. And that got him into trouble all the time.

There was the incident where he lunged across the dining table when he was just 1 year old as Uncle Remy smiled. Uncle Remy on that day had gotten himself a shiny, gold tooth and had decided to pick his teeth at the time when Rattie’s mom was laying out the dessert on the dining table.

And then there was the yearly Christmas incidents where he went into every shop that had those glittery snowballs and also the stars right on the top of Christmas trees and tried to take them all home.

Women with shiny earrings walking along the sewer were jumped on. Children with shiny toys were jumped on. Men with jewelled coats were jumped on. The police station was like Rattie’s second home.

Rattie had no self control where shiny things were involved. He would bring back whatever shiny thing he could. The compulsion was too great.

The last straw was when he jumped on a woman who had shiny, green jewelled earrings. They glistened extra shiny because the sun at that precise time, shone through the holes of the sewage cover. She was bathed in sunlight. As Rattie jumped on her, they both fell into the sewer river which had little boats ferrying passengers. The boats swerved to avoid smashing into them. As a results the boats either smashed into each other or onto the banks of the sewer river throwing their passengers off the boats. Many were seriously injured that day.

His parents decided that enough was enough. They threw out every single shiny thing in the house and locked Rattie up in his room. Some of Rattie’s uncles who were doctors had advised his parents to get him some professional help since the time he started to show an obsession with shiny things. They said Rattie had Objectivius Shinium Syndromus (SOS - Shiny Object Syndrome). But they refused to do so. They believed he would ‘outgrow’ it as he grew up.

Rattie being a rat could squeeze into any tiny hole and escape. And that was what he did the moment he noticed the tiny crack in the ceiling of his room.

As he snuck away, he bumped into his little brother Roddy.

“I’ll rat you out!” Roddy exclaimed.

“If you let me go, I’ll get you HUGE bag of cheesy chips,” Rattie replied.

“DEAL!” And they sealed the deal with a shake of their tails.

Rattie crept in the dark corners of the street until he was out of sight from the peering eyes of his nosy neighbours. He jumped gleefully and headed towards his favourite hang-out place - the dumpster.

He felt at ease the moment his feet touched the familiar ground of crushed wrappers and rotting garbage. His nose couldn’t stop twitching with excitement of finding some new shiny stuff. He got to work straightaway. His rumbling stomach could wait. He had much to do since his parents threw away all things being shiny.

Rattie was so engrossed in looking for shiny things that he did not feel the evil lurking nearby. A silver coated snake had tasted Rattie in the air with its forked tongue. Slowly but surely, it slithered nearer and nearer.

Rattie was mighty pleased with himself. He had found more shiny stuff today than any other day. He thought to himself that this was his lucky day.

Suddenly, Rattie gasped. He froze. In front of him was the shiniest penny he had ever seen. He couldn’t believe his luck. This was a hundred times way better than all the shiny stuff that he had found. He lifted the penny up with both his arms above his head and jumped for joy. At the very same time, the silver snake attacked Rattie.

Perhaps it was Rattie’s lucky day indeed as the snake’s fangs pierced the penny instead of Rattie. Even though Rattie was horrified at what was happening, he did not let go of his penny. The snake and Rattie struggled. In a desperate attempt to force swallow the struggling Rattie and the penny which was still stuck to its fangs, it did the unthinkable. It banged its head on the ground several times to loosen the penny from its fangs. It was the snake’s unlucky day as a sharp nail was protruding out from the ground. The snake was dead the moment the nail entered its head.

Rattie could have gotten out of the situation safely. But no, he had to have that shiny penny. So he tugged and pulled with all his might to loosen the penny from the snake’s fangs. But it was to no avail.

Suddenly he got smacked on the head from behind. As he was about to shout in anger, he was hushed to be silent. It was his sister Rita.

“Make no sound and move quickly,” said Rita in an urgent voice. “There is another huge snake about 100 meters from here,” she continued.

“I must have this penny,” whined Rattie.

“I didn’t come here to die!” whispered Rita in an angry tone.

She pulled Rattie close to her as she prepared to jump away from the dead snake’s mouth. Rattie gave the penny one last hard yank as his sister jumped. Cracked! The fangs broke and the penny was free!

The force of the fangs breaking caused them to stumble. They almost became a meal for the huge snake. They both scampered into the sewers and ran as fast as they could. As they ran, Rattie started to feel very ill. His legs were becoming heavier. His heart felt like it was going into a cardiac arrest. He looked down on his arm and saw that he had a cut and noticed that one of the fangs stuck to the coin had some blood.

“Rit-“, he mumbled before he collapsed into darkness.

It was a month later that Rattie woke up from the coma. Everyone was happy. They thought that he would be comatose for life. When he tried to rub his eye, he found that he couldn’t do so. When he looked down at his arms, he realised that he had none anymore. His mother who was by his bedside started to weep.

“The doctors had to cut them to keep you alive Rattie,” his mother sobbed.

Rattie’s recuperation took almost a year. His parents finally accepted the fact that Rattie needed help. Rattie also did not need to go looking for shiny stuff anymore as his prosthetic arms were so shiny he could use them as mirrors. And the ‘lucky penny’ with the snake’s fangs was hung on the wall of the family hall.