The Aunt and the Ants

Last Saturday my oldest niece (She’s three now and lives quite nearby) was showing me how to arrange her mud kitchen. “This is the counter” she told me. “And here is the sink. Can you get that plant out of the way?” I couldn’t tell which plant she was pointing to because there were two empty plant pots. One of them was carefully tied up to the bush with a long string and several intricate knots. “I don’t think I can get that plant out” I said. “Can we leave it there for decoration?”

“Yes you need to get it out” she explained patiently. “It’s sitting in the sink.” She reached out and lifted the other cracked pot–the one that had been sitting on top of a stump—and moved it to a flat place on the bank. “I did it” she grinned at me triumphantly. I congratulated her.

“Look at that.” She exclaimed. “What are they doing?” We both looked at the top of the stump. A crowd of ants was running around frantically where the plant pot had been. On the left corner of the stump was a pile of tiny white blobs. When I looked closer, I realized that the ants were carrying their pupae and larvae to a new location. “They must have had a nest where that plant was,” I told her.

Although ants bring horror and disgust in kitchens, among dirt, leaves and sticks they are inspiring. They’re so tiny but determined enough to carry objects as big as they are and sometimes bigger. They would move mountains to protect their children.  As I watched these ants with my niece, I thought how fun it would be if I could write a children’s story from an ant’s perspective–similar to the stories my hero EB White wrote about Stuart Little, Wilbur and Charlotte.

I’m not very good at fiction, but I’ll share the story here in case anyone has time to read it and give me feedback:

Anarchist Ants (working title)

Allison crawled around in circles, flapping her wings nervously. Today was her first day as a nurse ant. “Let me know if you have any problems.” Queen Ariana had said that morning. “I’ll be nearby, and I am always available if you need help. But I know you’re going to do just great. If anyone misbehaves just tell them that they won’t get to watch the mating flight next week.” Then Queen Ariana had walked away to an important conversation with the two soldier ants.

Ever since she came out of her cocoon Allison had wondered why their Queen chose to start her colony here. The round green roof  seemed so precarious, as though the combined energy of all her sisters might accidentally lift it up and carry it away with them one day as they marched out to work.  When she was very young and didn’t have to work every minute of every day, she’d had some time to go exploring and walked around and around the edge of their nest. She was fascinated by the way rays of light slanted in with different patterns around the roof edges and couldn’t wait for the day she would be allowed to crawl out there and look for food with the others and get out from under this dark green roof.

As she watched the squirming larvae and pupae, Allison used one omatidia to glance furtively at the drones sprawled in a corner of the nest, eating and drinking. She would have liked to go talk to them and find out what they were always laughing about. There was one drone, Albert, who talked the most and laughed the loudest. She wanted so much to meet him. But she knew there was no hope of that. The only female any of them would ever meet was Queen Ariana. They would fly up with her hundreds of feet into the air and then…But it was too sad. Allison didn’t want to think about it.

After six minutes, it was time to regurgitate food into the larvae again. Allison’s anger rose. This was so disgusting. Why did she have to do this? She shifted her weight from her left three legs to her right. There’s got to be something else I can do with my life, she thought.

Then suddenly between one second and the next, the roof was gone. Light streamed down on her, on the larvae and the pupae and on all  her sisters who hadn’t yet left for work. Queen Ariana screamed. “We’re going to be crushed! We’ll be eaten. The pupae! What should we do!”

“I knew this would happen.” Allison muttered angrily. “I could have told you this would happen the minute I saw this nest. You’re so dumb Ariana. Why would you start a nest here.”  All the other ants were fluttering, trembling and weeping helplessly but Allison got right to work. She lifted the first pupae and hauled it on her back across the wooden board and down the side of the stump.

She had already carried three pupae before anyone came to their senses enough to help her. All the worker ants began carrying pupae and larvae. When any of them couldn’t manage they helped each other and carried the biggest pupae between two of them. Pretty soon the squirming white pile of their nest’s future had disappeared from the board. The pupae and larvae were all safe

“Allison” Queen Ariana approached her, gasping, her antennae still trembling with fear. “What can we do to thank you? I don’t know what we would have done without you. Our whole future would have been lost.” Allison stared at her coldly out of all her eyes.

“You are a failure” Allison said. Queen Ariana gasped. “Excuse me Allison? What did you just say?” All the worker ants milling around stopped to listen. “You are a failure” Allison went on. “I resign from this nest. I’m tired of working for you and I won’t do it anymore. I have better things to do with my life.”

All the ants were absolutely silent, stunned as Allison slowly turned around and began walking away, through the tunnel of dead leaves. She had only walked three steps when she heard a voice behind her. It was a loud male voice that she recognized. “Allison, my darling. Wait for me.” She looked around. Albert had left the crowd of ants and was walking toward her. He looked behind him and said loud enough for everyone to hear “I have not waited for love my whole life only to sacrifice myself for a few seconds in the air with this queen who is not even strong enough to protect the offspring she creates. I too, have one life to live and I will choose how I want to spend it!”

Allison felt a warmth spread from her thorax to her abdomen. She knew that although she would never lay eggs and her life would be short, she and Albert would experience more happiness in each moment than Ariana would experience in thirty years as the queen mother. Now Albert was beside her and gently touched one of his antennae to hers. They walked in silence beneath the leaves until they reached a half-eaten apple someone had thrown away, still fragrant and dripping its juice. They looked at each other and smiled.

Before they could take their first bites however, they heard a noise behind them. There stood Queen Ariana, and behind her was everyone else from the nest. “Allison, we’d like to elect you as Queen,” Ariana said humbly. “Not possible” Allison said. “For one thing, I can’t lay eggs.”

“That doesn’t matter, said Ariana. “We have decided unanimously that although I will continue to lay eggs, you will be the commander in chief, organizing this nest. The soldiers, workers, nurses and drones will take their orders from you. And Albert, you will be exempted from the mating flight. You are free to support Allison however you can.”

After a few minutes of silence Allison smiled. “I accept this appointment” she said. “I am ready to give my first orders: Let’s eat this apple!” All the ants cheered and crawled in behind Allison and Albert.