ant farm one-by-one

it starts small, the size of an ant

then there is a trail of ants, leading to a faucet or a crumb

then there is nothing

then, one day, a line of ants appears. they march in a dotted line above the door trim, from door, to door, to door. you connect the dots, follow the line from kitchen to hall to other side of hall to hall closet to extra pillows.

some ants are on the pillows. Hmmm.

you move a box or two to try to see where they are going, and suddenly they are covering your arm and planning to hike all over you. you've found it, the ant farm.

Ours was a keyboard box, with an extra and unneeded keyboard stored quietly in the hall closet for about a month. The perfectly round holes in the box must have seemed to the ants like it was built just for them by Frank Lloyd Wright. They had found their mecca.

Too bad the spot they had chosen contained a delete button. Some premonition caused a few of the army use the escape button instead, so we will meet again.