Earth Rat

Lunar New Year fell on Jan 25. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Pig).

People born under the Rat tend to read a strange room before they speak: where the exit is, what is sitting on the table, who is pretending to be comfortable. They rarely talk over anyone, then replay the whole evening on the way home, keeping a private ledger of who is annoyed with whom. Give them a blocked door and they will find the side entrance rather than stand in the queue. The part few people see is that all that scanning is tiring. Shutting the door at night, eating cold leftovers straight from the fridge, is its own kind of relief.

Damp climbs the wall at this hour, and the wall says nothing, taking the moisture on its own face. Such people tend to stand where they shield someone, the one others bring a problem to, and they do go and deal with it. Their heads are quick, their ideas many; they think at night, patch by day. Everyone sees the wall still standing, not the marks inside. It goes mouldy in time. They mention nothing, air out their corner, and go back to plugging.