William the Mouse and the Ant
By
Mark Krawczyk
In the really old house,
on top of the very large hill,
just outside of town lives William.
William is a mouse and this is a his tail…I mean tale.
William the mouse, Wendy the Mouse, and Larry the Locust were all sitting on the warm concrete patio that was in the back of the really old house. The stones were cracked and had various weeds growing between them. There were also a variety of ant hills that rose up from the cracks. The large piles of sand and dirt were built around a hole which the ants used to move in and out of the ant colony. The ants would leave to go get food which could be dead leaves, grass, even dead insects, yuck.
Larry spoke between bites of the large green leaf he had brought for the day on the Patio.
“This is really good you sure you don’t want to try some
“No that’s ok I think I will stick with my cracker piece today. Green leaves make my tummy upset.” Wendy said as she took a bite of her cracker.
Larry nodded and kept munching. That’s when he felt something tug at his leg.
He looked down and screamed as he jumped in the air.
“AHHHHHH ANT!!”
The scream seemed to scare the ant as much as it scared Larry. As larry landed he scurried behind William.
“Get him out of here dear friend. Yes please, so ugly and scary.”
Wendy looked at the ant and jumped back as well. It was a Carpenter ant and it was the largest ant she had ever seen. It had long antenna and big pincers that were on either side of its mouth. Wendy hid behind Larry who was still behind William.
“Make him go away William. Please. I hear they will eat anything, even mice. I heard a story of a bunch of ants attacking and eating animals way bigger than them. Make him go away before he brings his friends and they make us their next dinner.” William continued to munch his cracker as he looked at the Ant. The Ant looked back with its little beady eyes that sat on either side of its large head. He didn’t look mean or ugly at all. In fact he looked kinda sad.
“Hello Mr. Ant. How are you today?” William asked. The Ant ran over and grabbed a dead leaf. He used his pincers and cut out a small word in the leaf. He held it up to William. The word said ‘Good’.
“Really, well I am happy to hear it. I am William. “ William held out his paw towards the ant. As the ant went the grab William’s hand with its pincers, Wendy pulled his arm away.
“What are you doing William? You trying to lose a paw. He will eat you” She yelled. The Ant looked even sadder than before and slowly started to walk away.
“Wendy that’s no way to treat anyone. He maybe was just trying to be friendly. He doesn’t have paw or anything else to hold my hand with. How else is he going to shake my paw but with his pincers.” William turned to the Ant.
“Please do not go sir. My friend is just a little scared. Would you like a piece of leaf? “ William asked as he pulled off a small piece from the leaf Larry dropped.
“William don’t give that thing my leaf. He tried to eat me,” Larry yelled.
“Maybe he was just trying to get your attention Larry.”
“Yeah attention to the inside of his belly.”
William just shook his head and held out the piece of leaf. The Ant paused and then slowly grabbed the piece of leaf in its pincers. Then he moved his mouth over the leaf, nibbling as he went. He seemed to smile at the taste of it.
“See he likes the same food you do Larry. Just because he looks different and talks different than you doesn’t mean you two can’t get along.” William tore off another small leaf piece and handed it to the Ant. The Ants antenna seem to move with joy as he ate. Larry slowly moved out from behind William and took a step toward the ant. The ant took a step back in fear.
“I think he is scared of you as much as you are of him Larry.”
Larry took his leaf and ripped into two pieces and moved it toward the ant.
“Well you do seem to have good taste in food my dear Ant. “
The ant carved out a word in the piece of leaf that he was eating. It said ‘Thank You’. This made Larry feel more relaxed around the Ant.
“I am sorry my ant friend.” Larry realized that even though the Ant talked differently with people and looked different in a lot of ways, he and Larry were also a lot alike. Wendy still seemed a bit scared.
“Come on Wendy give him a chance.” William whispered to her. She looked back at William and took a deep breath. She then tip toed quickly over to the ant and sat next to him with her eyes closed as if she was expecting him to attack her. The Ant looked at Larry and William and the two just shrugged their shoulders back at the Ant. Then the Ant walked over to a near by leaf and started to cut into it swiftly with is pincers. After a short time of doing this he then pulled the leaf next to Wendy and tapped her with his antenna. They kinda tickled and Wendy laughed. The laugh made her open her eyes and when she did she could not believe what she saw. The Ant had carved a small picture of a rose. She now felt bad for judging the Ant just because of what she had heard from other people about Ants. She promised herself never to make that mistake again.
“Thank you Ant. I am also sorry.” Wendy apologized.
The ant carved the words ‘its ok.’ Then he wrote the word ‘Friends?’
William nodded at the ant.
“Yes I think you could consider us friends Ant.”
The Insect spun around in a circle with joy. Another ant appeared near the group. The group’s new friend ant stopped and after a second or two he turned to his leaf and wrote ‘have to go work.’
“Well you guys don’t get a lot of time to rest do you, my ant friend. Maybe we can meet tomorrow and we can share a big maple leaf together.” Larry said. The Ant did another spin in a circle and then wrote ‘yes’. The ant wrote the words ‘thank you’ and started to walk away towards the other ant.
“Wait we never got your name” Wendy yelled out. The Ant ran back over to the leaf he was writing on. He had just enough room to write his name. He then handed it to William and ran off with the other ant into the grass.
“Well what’s his name William?” Wendy asked.
William said with a smile. “Adam” .
2 comments:
'Adam Ant' Ha!
Ah a little in joke for the grown ups doesn't hurt
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