ANT-icipation 2

As we run south, Ann holds my hand to signal me to stop, she points up and there it is, huge, enormous, gigantic, massive, vast, GARGANTUAN. What in the world could this be? As we stand there in amazement, we see other animals, small, big, tinny, flying ones, crawling ones, slimy ones. Two chickens pass by they do not seem to notice us. ‘That is a first,’ I think to myself. Ann’s hand and mine feel like they are glued together due to how tight we are holding each other. Then it finally dawns on me that the wood from the forest was used to make this huge thingy, and whatever it was, it was attracting so many animals not just Ann and I. so we decide to follow the other animals, avoiding the huge ones lest we get smashed, avoiding the pecking ones lest we become dinner and the slimy ones lest we get glued to the ground.

The horn keeps blowing and the man who seems to be 100 years older than the first time I saw him in the forest seems to be talking to a group of people. They are not listening but he keeps talking. The other sons are packing food in to the thingy, they seem to be planning a long journey, maybe for 50 Ant-weeks, maybe more. The old man seems to be talking about a flood and rain from heaven, he is so convincing. As we follow in line with the other animals, we do not realise how far we have gone into this thingy. We were only here to take a closer look and now we are stepping on it. Ann is so exhilarated she cannot believe. She gives me a big hug, one that says thank you for asking me to come on this journey. She goes on and on about how she cannot wait to tell her family what an adventure she had. Something inside me tell me that we might not see our families again but I brush it off. This seems like a good thing for me to be worried about home. I try to tell myself that they will be fine but that thought is not so convincing either.

As we stand at the door, we watch as the female companions we had last seen by the fire the night before guide the animals to what seems to be chambers, places for them to sleep. The stables are packed with food and the animals walk in two by two, some are seven and at that point, I wish we had made the journey with my parents so at least we would receive a stable, maybe a table full of crumbs. The old man stops talking to the crown of people who by now are jeering at him, some are laughing and rolling to the ground. As he walk toward the door of the thingy, there is a creek, so loud it brings Ann back to reality. The doors are shutting; we need to run lest we are trapped in this thingy, maybe forever. The door rises, we run for dear life, a swift wind blows and we are blown up in the air, trying to get back onto the ground, we land on the old man’s shirt. In a panic, we try to jump off so we are not locked up but the man is rather too fast for his age, by the time we make it to the ground, he is inside the thingy already.

A little light shines just before the door shuts completely, we make for the dash, and right in front of our faces, the door shuts. The darkness confuses us as we turn around to fine where to go next, there is definitely a crack somewhere that can let us out. We rush up and down in desperate need to leave. And then the news that makes us stop on our track, “THE LORD HIMSELF HAS SHUT THE DOOR,” the old man was telling his wife. When we finally found ourselves a confortable spot, we caught our breath to what had just happened. Apparently, we had been saved so that we would later reproduce and fill the earth. And so because of our need for adventure the ANT family was saved.