A mouse broke into a house and stood before the kitchen refrigerator.

“I must have cheese! I must have cheese!” he said out loud.

Noticing that the refrigerator door was open a crack, he immediately tried to open it.

Placing his front paws on the bottom of the door he pushed with all his might.

Finally able to open it, he stood there feeling excited and hopeful.

Starting with the first shelf he saw a carton of milk, a cabbage, a bowl of cherries, a package of ham, and a couple of diet cokes– but no cheese.

Inspecting the second shelf he found some yogurt, half a loaf of bread, a bottle of pickles, a bottle of ketchup, and a cucumber– but no cheese.

On the third shelf there were three lemons, a few ears of corn, half a pineapple, an avocado, a turnip, and a fruit salad— but no cheese.

Looking up at the top shelf, he immediately gasped in horror.

Sitting there was a huge black cat looking down at him with mean green eyes.

“Hello my friend!” said the cat. “Welcome to my humble refrigerator!”

Frozen with fear the mouse stared up at the cat who now had a grin on his face.

Pouncing upon the mouse, he devoured him, tail and all.

“Who could ever imagine finding a cat inside a refrigerator!” he laughed to himself.

After licking his paws, he hopped back up onto the top shelf, reached out with his right forepaw, caught the top metal strip on the door, and pulled it toward him, careful to leave it open just a crack.

“Hopefully another mouse will come by around dinnertime!” he said to himself, as he closed his eyes to take a little nap.

Jeffrey Zable is a teacher and conga drummer who plays Afro Cuban Folkloric music for dance classes and Rumbas around the San Francisco Bay Area. His poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies. Recent writing in Tigershark, Ink In Thirds, Alba, Corvus, Cacti Fur, Uppagus, Defuncted, Spelk, The Mark, Lucent Dreaming, Chrome Baby, and many others. In 2017 he was nominated for both The Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.