Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 21

***
I call the other ants to me. ‘A few of us must listen to the thieves, spy on them. According to ant-map, we
are heading eastwards as it is just the crackle of dawn where the human vehicle is heading to. We must
return at evening to the place where we came from.’ I explain. ‘What if that doesn’t work? What is the
other ant-plan?’ A young ant asked. The human vehicle came to a stop. ‘There is no other ant-plan. This
one must work. Do as I said!’ I encourage and take a step about to leave before returning and adding ‘We
leave at evening.’ The shoe is picked up again by the thieves. The angry ant hushes us all and brings us into
a huddle. ‘This is the time for us to spy on the thieves. We must know of their every move.’ He explains.
Ant- Intelligence begins now!
The other ants return huffing and puffing from their mission. They look like they have just seen
something terrible. As if they remember death after waking back up. They saw death. ‘How many dead?’ I
asked with tremor. ‘None, they killed one of their own, they said he knew to much.’ They replied shook
and trembling. ‘What else? What are they going to do? How can we stop them?’ I ask quickly. ‘What is
their strategy?’ I add. They flinch. ‘What is it?’ I yell at them. ‘They are doing it to get something. They call
it money. I think it means power. We must stop them. They even said that they would kill anyone in the
way.’ They said shivering. ‘Also something about the shoe. Called it Michael Jordan.’ They added. ‘Right
now, w e are out of the human vehicle. The sun is beginning to set meaning that we are leaving right now
towards the sun. Everyone gather strength. We may fail at first, but we must get up and try again until we
succeed. That is the meaning of us ants. Put the shoe on your backs and start walking towards the place
where the sun is setting.’ I say.
We walk at evening. We sleep when the night is black and the owls are howling. We then wake
up at dawn, walking in the opposite direction of the sun - Westwards. Then at noon, we rest again as the
sun is the centre of our world. There is no knowing where to go. Then when the sun has moved we walk
towards it until it is dark again.
That has been our routine for months on end. Sooner or later we will get there and I know it. We
will walk until we get there.
***
I stand up to give my speech. The crowd full of both people, and ants. All silent waiting for me to speak in
anticipation. I spot Michael Jordan who smiles at me. I start. ‘Hello everyone. It may seem very odd for you
all to see an ant on such an important stage dedicated and which was built for human kind. I locked away an
organization of very bad people. An organization that in fact kidnapped my friends and I on the bottom of a
shoe. They took us far into another world, a scary one. One which was unknown yet we escaped. We learnt
from our failures not cried to the moon and back. We escaped the thieves not by feeling sorry for ourselves.
We escaped because we wanted to prove that we can. You can do anything you want as long as you learn
from failure. I sit back down.
And that, that is the reason you, people stopped stomping on us, ants.