Old bat conquers baby bat

A spooky slice of life from 512’s B Hall

It was close to 9 p.m. on Oct. 13 and Building 512 at Central California Women’s Facility was being recalled for the night. I was already in bed, ready to go to sleep. The room was quite still and dark, brightened only by the light from the hallway.

Suddenly, my roommate, Sarah Mitchell, announced that there was something flying in the hallway, creating a “strobe light” effect.

I listened as the voices of my three roommates, Mitchell included, became increasingly animated. They gathered at the window to see if they could find the cause of the disturbance.

I don’t think any of them were prepared for what they discovered.

Our roommate Maria De Lopez had decorated the hallway window with Halloween décor about a week earlier. Black and orange streamers made of crepe paper draped the top sides of the window. Paper bats and ghosts in different shapes and sizes were affixed to the streamers. There, hiding amongst the paper bats, huddled a live baby bat.

I could hear the excitement, disbelief, and alarm in my roommates’ voices as they realized what exactly had found its way into 512’s B Hall.

Mitchell, a 75-year-old woman, is no stranger to catching animals, having grown up in the mountains. She did not want the bat to get hurt nor did she want it to hurt anyone, including the officer who would be working the overnight shift.

“I could just see the officer walking down the hallway in the middle of the night,” Mitchell said. “That poor person would probably be terrified if a bat flew out at them.”

Mitchell spoke with the housing unit officers to advise them that a bat was in the hallway so they could relay the information to the overnight staff.

However, one of the officers working that shift was also assigned to work overnight, and the woman looked uneasy at the thought of a bat being loose in the building.

Mitchell went back to the hallway to better assess the situation. As she stood in front of the window, facing our room, one of our roommates pointed towards her left: the baby bat was splayed out behind a paper bat, seemingly settling in for the night.

Mitchell came back in the room looking for something that she could use to catch the bat and settled on a towel.

She used the towel as a barrier between her and the bat and gently removed it from behind the paper bat and crepe paper where it was hiding. The crepe paper came along with the bat, and Mitchell had to tug the paper off the window while making sure the bat was not harmed.

Her mission was successful. Mitch- ell carried the bat outside the unit and released it. The baby bat flew away, into the warmth of the night air.

When Mitchell came back in the room, she said, “Well, the old bat conquered the baby bat.”