Sohorr the Invisible
Rat – Part Two
By Baba Galleh Jallow
Sohorr the invisible rat was a very miserable creature. His
heart was always full of envy, jealousy and malice and because of this, he
always felt as if red hot coals were sizzling in his chest or as if a bag of
red hot pepper had been poured into his heart. He was always in a fit of rage
he could never explain or get rid of. Hence his unprovoked angry tirades and
vile squeals against some innocent animals in our little town.
Sohorr’s misery was partly born of the fact that in his new
life, he had been cursed with invisibility. However much he tried, he remained
invisible and thus of no consequence in the larger scheme of things within
which he found himself so helplessly trapped. If he was cursed with poverty or
some other misfortune, Sohorr the rat stood a chance of overcoming it. But the
curse of invisibility was visited only upon the meanest of creatures and was
totally irreversible; so that in life and in death, Sohorr the rat was
condemned to remain small and invisible, a fact that enraged him to no end.
In an effort to overcome his invisibility, Sohorr the rat would sadly crawl out of his hole every morning and stand in the middle of our little town. Then he would take a deep breath and squeal at the top of his tiny voice “I want to be seeeeen!! I want to be s – e – e – e – e – e – n!! I want to be s – e – e – e – e – e – n!!” And then he would crawl back into his hole. Passers by who hear the shrill squeal would look around and say to themselves and to each other, “ah, that’s Sohorr the invisible rat. It’s so sad that he is cursed with invisibility.” They would shake their heads and go about their business as Sohorr relapsed into helpless absence and irrelevance. Those who knew Sohorr the rat did not sympathize with him but rather said that the mean rat deserved his ugly fate. A few minutes later, Sohorr would crawl out of his hole again and using his other voice, he would say “yeah, Sohorr deserves to be seen man. He’s a good rat.” And then he would disappear and repeat the whole process again the next morning.
The only other thing that enraged Sohorr as much as his
invisibility was his smallness. He hated that he was just a rat and not say, an
elephant or a lion or even a cat. Why were some animals larger than him and why
were they so proud that they were large? Were not all animals equal and had
equal rights no gentle or not gentle? Who was to say that because he was a rat
he was therefore smaller than a horse? What was bigness anyway and who says who
is bigger than whom? Yeah, he did not care about any so-called elephants and
lions or even giraffes. He was Sohorr the rat and no animal was bigger than him
and if any animal pretended to be bigger than him, he was the small small rat
with the big big axe that would cut down the mighty mighty tree! Hah, mo mang
fesah nteti! Kenn genu ma fii! Yeah, I can buy them all with my disposable
property! I pay my own fees!, he would angrily grunt as he slouched back into
his hole or crept out to make some more angry noises in our little town.
One day, Sohorr the rat thought he had discovered an ingenious way of overcoming his smallness. He would pretend that he was a large animal. He started hiding behind trees and buildings or creeping alongside large animals like the elephant or lion and bellowing like an elephant or roaring like a lion. But because his voice was so tiny squeaky, he just succeeded in making funny squeals that made passers by turn around with surprised looks and shake their heads saying, “ah, that’s Sohorr the invisible rat trying to make big noises,” and go about their business. Seeing the absurd futility of this method, Sohorr the invisible rat gave up his failed idea and crawled angrily back into his hole to think of other ways of making himself big. He had to make himself as big as any other animals. He did not care if it was said that some animals were more equal than others. He, Sohorr, was equal to any animals and he hated it when they thought they were bigger than him. That was totally unacceptable and he would make them see!
For days on end, Sohorr the invisible rat scratched his dry and tiny brain for some ideas on how to become as big if not bigger than all the animals of our little town. Then he hit a treasure trove of an idea! He was going to appoint himself Chief Justice of our little town because he was the most just of all the animals in the world! He was now Chief Justice Sohorr and he did not care if wicked animals said he was small or invisible! Yeah, he was going to make them see! And so every morning, Sohorr the angry rat would crawl out of his hole and walk around our little town squealing over and over again: “I declare all injustice banned in this town! I condemn all unjust animals to life imprisonment without possibility of parole! You have the right to remain silent! No injustice in this town! All unjust animals will taste my anger! My life mission is to condemn all injustice and all unjust animals! I don’t care whether you think you are an elephant or a horse or even a cat! I don’t care whether you pretend to be wise or gentle or rough! I am the Chief Justice of this town and I condemn you all to life imprisonment with hard labor!” He would repeat this angry mantra over and over again and then crawl back into his hole to wait for another day of war against injustice and all unjust animals. A few moments later, he would crawl back outside and start patrolling the streets saying in his other voice, “Yeah, Sohorr is right! No more injustice in this town! All unjust animals are condemned to life imprisonment without parole! Sohorr is the Chief Justice and we all have to accept that! No more injustice in this town!”
Those animals that heard the strange pronouncements merely laughed at Sohorr the invisible rat and reminded each other of the little bird that grew so arrogant that he challenged the wind to a race with the result that he flew so long and so hard that he fell out of the sky, dead as a piece of dry wood in a hot summer! Poor Sohorr, would that he just accepted himself for who he was and others for who they were! But no, his boiling envy and green jealousy would not let him think such commonsensical thoughts! He had been cursed not only with invisibility, but with a meanness of heart that kept him perpetually blind at heart and enraged at he knew not what! In spite of himself, Sohorr the invisible rat provided much food for creative thought for some of the saner animals of our little town. And so they watched him and chronicled his silly antics for the unborn generations of our little town.