Farmers

Written 54-E20 [2022-11-29], Edited 54-F27 [2023-01-03]

Image credit: Twitter Twemoji

The ants crawled across the sand, carrying their cargo in their mandibles. Some had leaves, others miniscule cuts of fruit. Some had the corpses of flies and spiders.

But it was the living cargo that Tom was excitedly pointing out to me. “Aphids!” he said. “They are taking the aphids back to their colony!”

“Okay so if your ant farm breaks,” I said, “does that mean there will be aphids everywhere along with the ants?”

“No, don’t you see? Look at the lower chambers of their colony,” said Tom. He pointed to a subterranean cave built by the ants. Well, the cave was subterranean from the ants' perspective, we could easily see it at torso level through the glass.

In the chamber Tom was pointing to was a mess of aphids. Ants crawled in and out, quickly and orderly as if they were mechanical.

Notes

This was written in 15 minutes during a Joy of Writing meetup.

Feedback from The Joy of Writing group

• planet of insects
• chives for aphids