Little Things

I was out have a stretch in a welcome bit of sun the other morning when a family of ants came by and were in a  hurry to go somewhere. I recognised the male straight away and greeted him in my usual friendly manner.

"Hello Ant" I said fairly softly. Ants have very acute hearing and don't like it if you shout at them as it hurts their eardrums so I am always softly spoken with them.

"I'm not Ant, stupid" he replied in his funny accent. "I'm Dec. Can't you tell the difference between us?"

"Well to be honest - no. You see you all look alike to me. No offence or anything but there are rather a lot of you."

"Typical. An ant is an ant to you. No personality. No feelings just an ant. Bet you put your great big paws on us and crush us without another thought. We have rights too you know. How would you like it if we came strolling along and walked on you just when you were off to feed the family. There's 40,000 of us living in out house and you can't be bothered to know who we are"

His antennae waved in disgust and his family came surging by and I could feel them all tutting and tossing their heads as they passed me. I felt very bad.

I asked Max later if he knew all the names of the ants in the garden and he just said he knew the names of those he was friendly with and didn't bother with the rest. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing but it seemed to suit Max.

Sebastian said he didn't know anyone's name any more and he didn't mind what anyone called him so long as they didn't call him late for dinner. I said that would be a very silly name to call anyone and he just went back to sleep.

There are times when I think I have to do everything by myself, so I have asked every ant that comes by to leave a picture of himself or herself along with their name and I will memorise it so I don't make that mistake again.

I'm away studying now.