….. ……. ………… …… ………
“Come on, Cash, you’re always fooling around,” said Ray. “We have to get these tunnels finished before nightfall.” They dug into dry dirt because the sun had been shining for over two weeks. The air smelled of summer meadows, black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers.
“Can’t you see me talking with this lovely female?” Cash said.
“I can also see the bed isn’t being tended to properly. If she helps us, you two can talk all you want,” Ray responded. “Who are you anyway?” Ray asked the female. “I have never seen you before.”
“My name is Desire. And I don’t dig tunnels. I work inside the Queen Lovely layer.”
Ray wanted to respond with a smart remark but saw that this female was too pretty and sexy to be belittled. “Oh you’re a ‘top ant,’” said Ray. “Well it’s ok, I have just as much respect as you do.”
“Who said you didn’t,” Desire responded, wiggling her antennas.
“Okay, okay, that’s enough, you two,” said Cash. “We’re a colony, don’t you two never forget that.”
“Trust me, I know that,” said Ray. “But what you seem to not have knowledge of is that we’ve been gathering dirt and adding it to the bed for almost an hour now. And we still haven’t attached the tunnels. The sun is out, you know.” Ray lay on his back from exhaustion as he watched the birds fly up ahead.
Just then, ants within the colony went crawling in massive numbers towards the Queen Layer where her throne sat. “Wh-whats going on?” Red asked.
“I don’t know,” Desire responded as she stroked her antennas.
Cash yelled to the ongoing ants, “What’s happening?!”
An ant yelled back, “It’s the Queen! She’s shaking and unable to stand.”
Cash, Ray, Red, and Desire took off in the direction of the Queen’s Layer. Once making it to the Throne Room, they were unable to get close enough to the Queen to say anything to her. Soldier ants were crowded on the dais of the Queen’s throne. This made Cash angry, because he was quite a distance from the dais and there were too many ants in the crowd for him to get to her quickly enough. There was loud chattering and cries amongst the crowd. “My Queen, are you alright?!” “What’s happening to the Queen?!” “Save our Queen!” Queen Lovely was now in view, as she was raised into the air by soldier ants before being carried off into the personal tunnel that led to the Queen Room.
“DANG IT!” Cash yelled. “I need to see if the Queen’s okay.”
Desire whispered to Cash, “I know the secret passageway to the Queen Room.”
“You do?” Cash responded. “Well what are we waiting for?” Desire and Cash scurried off. The noise from the crowd made their absence unnoticed by Ray and Red.
“What should we do?” Red asked Ray.
“I don’t know,” Ray said. “Cash, what do you think we shou—” Ray cut off his sentence as he noticed Cash was gone. “Where the heck is Cash at?” Ray yelled.
“I don’t know,” Red responded. “Desire is gone too.”
Ray shook his antennas before asking, “Why would they leave without saying anything?”
“Should we go look for them?” Red asked.
“Uh, yes, let’s go,” Ray said. They wandered off.
Outside of the ant bed, Cash and Desire had come to a rock that sat in place a few inches from the entrance. “We’ll never get this rock moved, we’re not strong enough,” Desire said. The rock was on the opposite side of the ant bed, about 12 inches from the entrance; it hid the secret passageway.
Cash responded, “We gotta think of something.”
Just then, they heard a clicking sound getting louder and louder. “There’s a beetle,” Desire said. “Maybe it can help us.”
Cash looked. “Absolutely! it’s from the Lucanidae family, the strongest in our meadow.”
“But what if it refuses to help?” asked Desire.
“Well, we can’t do anything but ask,” Cash said. The beetle got bigger as it approached. Each leg moved in different motions as it walked. Cash and Desire seemed small as it came up to them. As Cash looked up at the beetle’s big black eyes, he introduced himself. “Hi, my name is Cash, and this is Desire. We were wondering if you could assist us.”
“Assist you with what?” asked the beetle.
“With moving this rock.”
“Sure, no problem.” The beetle grabbed the rock with its large pinchers and moved it with ease.
As the beetle dropped the rock and kept going, Desire stated, “Thank you, Mr Beetle.”
“The name’s Bulldozer,” he responded.
Desire and Cash stared at one another. “Bulldozer?” That was awkward for a name, but beetles were known for naming their young strangely.
“Anyway, let’s go,” Cash said.
“Hold up,” said Desire. “Let me lead the way.”
“After you, princess,” Cash said and smiled.
Desire looked at Cash before wiggling her antennas. “Don’t push it.” She crawled into the tunnel with Cash behind her. They came upon a section where the tunnel split in three different directions, leading down three different tunnels. “Which way do we go?” asked Desire, looking confused.
“How am I supposed to know?” Cash responded. “You the one who said you knew the secret passageway.”
“This is the secret passageway,” Desire blurted. “But I didn’t know it came to this. It even smells different down here,” Desire said aloud. “Like oak.”
“It really does smell like oak,” Cash said. “Well we are here now, so which way do you think we should go?”
“I say we should keep going straight,” Desire responded.
“Well… let’s do it,” Cash said. As they continued to walk straight through the tunnel, they came to a soldier standing guard.
“What is your purpose here?” the soldier ant asked.
Desire spoke before Cash could get his words out. “We’re here to check on Queen Lovely’s well being.”
The soldier ant was twice their size. “My duty is to guard this passageway and not let anyone through unless instructed to do so.”
“I work in the Queen Layer,” said Desire.
“How did you two even get within this passageway?” asked the soldier ant. “This is a restricted area to everyone. How did you know of this passageway?”
Desire responded, “I told you I work in the Queen Layer.”
“Well I’m sorry, I can’t let you through. That would be a breach of security, and I’m not being held responsible for it. So, could you two please go back the way you came,” the soldier ant stated.
“You’re such an ab-hole!” Cash blurted.
“I’ll be what you want me to be, but you’re not passing me,” the soldier said.
Cash turned and started to walk off. Desire said to the soldier ant, “You will regret this. My father will see to it that you are STRIPPED of your title!”
The soldier laughed, then asked, “Who are you to make such a threat?”
“I’m the daughter of General Red-Rum. And I’m going to make sure I tell him how you denied my entrance.”
Cash stopped in his tracks, looking on in disbelief. The face on the soldier ant turned serious. “Desire?” he asked.
“Yes, this is me.”
“My dear, I knew not of your presence. Why didn’t you announce who you were at first?”
“You never asked who I was,” Desire responded. “But now that you know, let us go so we can check on the Queen.”
“Most certainly,” said the soldier as he stepped aside and let them both pass.
