Of Sleepy Ants and Crickets

by by Madeleine Kando

A Children's Story

Once upon a time there was a cricket and an ant. The cricket was really happy. He was so happy that you might wonder if it wasn’t too tiring for him to be so happy all the time. I mean, he was always dancing and singing and he didn’t even have to carry an instrument to accompany himself, since he could make music just by rubbing his legs together.

The ant was not really that happy. She didn’t have much time to dance or sing, because her mother had told her that ants have to work hard to be good ants. So she worked and worked, built her nest, gathered food, even in the dead of winter when the ground was frozen and all the other insects were either not born yet, or hybernating. She didn’t smile a lot, only when she fell asleep and dreamt of feasting on an especially large bowl of sugar, because ants like sugar as much as you like chocolate chip cookies.

One cold winter day, the cricket knocked on the ant's door. 'Little ant, little ant, will you let me in? No matter how much I dance and sing, I cannot stop shivering, I am soooo cold.' he said. 'I will clean your nest if you give me some food and shelter.' But of course the ant's nest was super clean. Ants hate making a mess almost as much as you do.

'I'll tell you what' said the ant. 'I'll let you in if you promise to help me. Soon, I'll start getting very sleepy. I won't be able to move around a lot. I'll be as slow as a snail, so you'll have to feed me, take me to the bathroom and take out the garbage. I have a pantry stashed with goodies and I won't be eating a lot, just sleeping most of the time and you can play music while I sleep' (The ant had never told anyone that she secretly liked music and dancing). 'Do we have a deal?'

The cricket was more than happy to comply and this went on for the rest of the winter. The ant and the cricket became quite fond of each other and in the evening, when a slow fire was illuminating the nest, they looked at each other and smiled. Life was good. They were both happy and being happy together is a lot more fun that being happy alone.

Spring came and things began to change. One day, when the smell of flowers and fresh earth was in the air, there was a loud knock at the door.

'Who is it?' said the cricket. The ant was still snoozing away and didn't even hear the knocking, dreaming of sugar as usual. 'It's Lady Mildred' said a voice. 'I have come to escort her Highness to her new home. Open the door, I have come a long way and I am tired and hungry.'

'Just a minute' said the cricket as he was desperately trying to shake the ant awake. But the ant turned over under the soft leaves and started to snore again. It was time for drastic measures. The cricket filled a bucket with water and dumped it on the sleeping ant. 'Aaargh. What are you doing? You are diluting my pheromones!' the ant said and fell out of bed.

The cricket knew from reading a book on biology that water would terminate the diapause stage that the ant had put herself in to survive the winter.

The ant picked herself up, frantically wiping her antennae back and forth with her front legs and snapping her mandibles to make sure they still worked. 'Who did you say was at the door?'

'A lady called Mildred' said the cricket. 'She called you her Highness'.

The ant who had been drinking her dose of glycerol the night before, staggered slightly as she walked to the door. As soon as the door opened, Lady Mildred prostrated herself and kissed the ant's many feet. 'I am your humble servant, your Highness. Please forgive my appearance, the journey was long and arduous and it made my sweat glands work overtime.'

The ant, whom we finally will call Esther, still groggy from having slept so long, didn't know what all the fuss was about and why this other ant was licking her feet.

Lady Mildred finally got up, looked around and spotted Jim in the corner. Eyes blazing and saliva drooling from her powerful mandibles, she slowly approached the cricket. Crickets were a delicacy back where she came from, only served on very special occasions. She was so hungry she could have eaten an old shoe, but a cricket would do just fine.

'Stay away from my friend!' Esther shouted. 'He is not your dinner' and she kicked Lady Mildred in her tibia and was ready to throw her out the door, when something happened.

She felt a strange itch on her back and as she examined herself in a dew drop, she saw two shiny wings starting to sprout out of her thorax. The cricket, whom we finally shall call Jim, was fairly well read and suddenly realized that Esther was not an ordinary ant; she was a queen ant, and her wings had started to grow so she could go on her nuptial flight and start an ant colony of her own.

'Your Highness, we must hurry. The soldier ants are waiting for us outside. If we do not join them soon, they will enter your nest and make mince meat out of your friend.' said Lady Mildred.

Poor Esther. She knew she had no choice. She could still hear her mother's voice: 'One day you will know who you are. Be it soldier, worker or queen, whatever you are, you have to accept your fate.' Well, at least she wasn't a sterile worker ant, the ones the colony sends out to fight when they are too old to clean the toilets.

'Go to the ants, my friend' Jim said. 'I will dance and sing all summer and when winter comes again, I will come and find you, I promise'.

And so it was that Esther became the queen and mother of many many ants. She was cleaned and fed by workers, protected by soldiers and made love to by drones. But when she was alone, she often thought of Jim. She missed her friend.

The winters came and went, but Jim did not keep his promise: he did not come and find Esther. She thought of leaving and finding him wherever he was, singing and dancing, but her wings had fallen off. So she stayed. She was a good queen and made many babies. Until finally the winter approached once more.

Esther was now old. She had started to use a cane because of the gout in one of back legs. The workers had allowed her to sit on a little stool outside her room, now that she no longer made babies. Light fell through a small opening in the ceiling and if she craned her neck, which was a bit painful at her age, she could see the clouds drift by. She was glad she had been a queen, but she was sad that Jim had forgotten about her. Or maybe he had ended up on a dinner plate in another ant colony?

'Let me through, she is expecting me!' A loud voice shattered her reverie. And before she knew it, Jim was standing in front of her, not as youthfully green as she remembered, but still strong enough to wrestle the soldier ant on duty, to the ground.

They talked for a long long time and Jim stayed with her until the light in Esther's eyes slowly dimmed and she was no longer of this world. Jim was sad but also glad because they had been happier together than alone.

How do I know so much about ants and crickets, you might wonder. Well, I happened to go in my attic one day, armed with a flash light, looking for an old book, and rummaging through a desk, I found a strange looking dried out mushroom. You know me, I couldn't resist licking it just a tiny bit and guess what? It miniaturized me into the size of an ant. I was lucky I had a flash light, because it's dark in those subterranean ant tunnels. I would have stubbed my toes on tree roots and rocks.

But if you don't have a mushroom on hand, you can always go to the bookstore, because there amongst the books in the biology section, you will find many many stories about ants and crickets. They are all waiting there, patiently, for you to come and pay them a visit.  leave comment here