Coming back to her dusty apartment, Miyoko did a big clean-up. Miyoko found a clothes pin with Banana’s tooth marks on it. A few months before going to the island, Banana’s teeth changed from kitten’s teeth to permanent adult teeth. Perhaps he was itchy, Banana was chewing his favorite clothes pin every day.

    Miyoko returned to high school. During the summer recess, all the faculty staff goes to work every day except those on vacation.  Other teachers wanted to know in detail what Miyoko did on the island. They seemed that foreigners are really weird living on a deserted island by choice. Miyoko talked over and over again about how she had lost Banana.

    The principal of the high school, Remy, always says that the school has no money. However, when Miyoko talked about wanting to make two volumes of textbooks, he immediately got permission and money from the Ministry of Education. Miyoko concentrated on her textbook making day and night.  In her classroom at school during the day and at home at night, she focused on the work. There was no Banana to play with. Palau has a small TV station which sometimes broadcasts old American movies  but Miyoko doesn't have a TV. Miyoko never got tired of listening to her music cassette tapes she had brought from Japan. These tapes slowly got out of tune due to the hot weather of Palau. She just worked hard. (These years were before CDs and other technology came out.) Michael occasionally visited her.

    One night, Miyoko was working hard as usual in the light of her table stand. Outside the window was jet-black darkness.  Only the living room, where Miyoko was, floated brightly in the darkness like a small spaceship.

    A gecko’s singing voice filled the apartment. Miyoko heard a mysterious laughing sound of geckos for the first time in Palau. A gecko has a surprisingly big, high-pitched voice similar to that of Japanese cicadas. Miyoko has never bothered the geckos because they catch flies and mosquitos. Sometimes a gecko surprises Miyoko by falling from the ceiling onto Miyoko’s table or bed. Geckos lay pearl-size shiny eggs all over the house.

    Something moved at the edge of Miyoko's sight. The cord of the desk lamp was moving. Miyoko stretched her neck and followed the cord hanging from the edge of the table. She found a small mouse hanging on the cord. This mouse was hanging with its back down, grasping the cord firmly with its pink hands, and was gradually climbing up the cord to the desk. The size of the mouse is only about 2-3 inches with gray fur. Miyoko was so amused that she watched it for a while.  It seemed that, with the efforts of this mouse, it will soon reach the table.  Miyoko snapped the cord with her pencil. The little mouse fell to the floor, ran behind the furniture, and disappeared.

    Miyoko doesn't necessarily dislike mice, but as she learned at school when she was a child, mice may carry diseases. Recently, she found bite marks on her wood chopsticks.  Miyoko thought a cockroach might have done it, but it makes sense if it was the work of a mouse. The bite marks were bigger than what you might expect from a cockroach.  Miyoko thought she had to go to Leo's supermarket tomorrow to buy some mousetraps. If Banana were in the house, mice wouldn't have been so fearlessly occupying the house.