The Badger In The Corner, a freewrite

A badger was in the speaker's corner. Just sitting there, looking out at the crowd knowingly, ready to jump in and explain what the speaker was saying, sort of translating because the speaker was known to slip into Mandarin now and then. The Badger could speak a great many languages, and was engaged to translate at events like this one all the time.

The last event was a kicker. He'd had to translate Serbo-Croatian (I hope that's a language) for the crowd, because one tiny woman with a shmata on her head asked a question about mice and rats in the garbage bin outside the village hall. When she had gone to pay her taxes, a rat ran round and round her ankles, reminding her of her hometown in Serbia long long ago when everyone was dying off from water that had been poisoned by a deranged politician with a dire need to be re-elected (he was in terrible debt). He had concocted a public emergency so that he could look like a hero.

She was worried the mayor was up to no good with the sudden appearance of rats right outside his office window.

The mayor took off running.

This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is speaker's corner.

I used the e.ggtimer set for five minutes.