Ant Eaters by Lola Lariscy

Today, I want to share a short story by Lola Lariscy.

Lola loves to write about Science Fiction and is a former podcaster. Like me, Lola is a big fan of all things involving movies, tv shows and books. Lola lives in Jacksonville, FL with her beloved kitties and dogs. Oh and she is also an online notary so be sure to contact her for all of your notarizing needs! 😊

You find this short story and many others on her website. Here is Ant Eaters!

She was sitting on the bench, watching the currents of the river churn in different directions. She noticed a very small ant on the bench beside her. She began thinking about perspective. We must seem like giants to them, she thought. Yet, they don’t seem to notice us. They crawl on us like we’re another part of the bench. We could squash them like they’re nothing. For a moment she felt smugness rise and get stuck in her throat like yesterday’s barbeque. Just as quickly she felt remorse for the feeling. Why should she feel superior because she’s bigger? Would she feel the same next to an elephant?

The ant looked like it was about to crawl on her. She felt guilty for thinking about squashing it, but she didn’t want it on her. Without thinking about it, she blew on the ant, causing it to flit off the bench. She thought about perspective again; she wondered if falling off the bench to an ant would be like a human falling off a building. Now she felt awful. What if she’d accidently killed it?
She shrugged. Nothing she could do about it. She wondered if it would get mad and seek
revenge on her. Perhaps it would call its brothers to war on its behalf. She laughed. Yeah right, she though the ant is going to come back and, what? Ant-bite me to death?

She began to get up, and as she did, she felt something crawl up her leg. Hmm…maybe it’s
back. Nah, probably a different one. They’re all over the place.

…

The police cars were lined up in the park near the river. The latest to arrive, Officer Conroy, got out of his car and walked up to the detective standing near the body. The detective very much seemed to be avoiding looking at the body.

“Do they know at all what happened?” The officer asked as he got near the detective.

“It’s the damnedest thing; no one has come yet to examine the body, but a guy from the science museum – an entomologist…” He struggled with the word. “Whatever, you know what I mean–he came to look at it.”

The officer nodded. “Yeah?”

“He said it looks like thousands of ordinary ants came out of the woodwork and bit her to death. We’re quarantining the whole area…”