The Dreamer

Since the dry season arrived and the pond began to dry out, the tension heightened considerably,

The patient became irritable and quick to snap, the usually grumpy became walking or flying self-contained thermonuclear units.

The optimists with their bright plumage lay sprawled in the shade grooming and consoling each other, “Don’t worry, it will rain soon, you'll see.”

But the ants knew. They knew the summer had bad intentions and would smite the land like a biblical plague. You see they got their weather forecasts straight from the source and if Terra said build your anthills, you built your anthills. Terra was never wrong, a first for a weatherman. He would sit all day, antenna buried in the roots of the old baobab tree and listen. Still, so very still that one would believe he had been digested by the root he tapped into and indeed they had once tried to bury him thinking he was dead. On this day he had come running, yes running, as scary as seeing a statue suddenly animate, his disposition struck terror in the hearts of the brave and he threw himself down in the Queens' Chamber and moaned one word, "Build".

"Build what? Where? Has the Queen’s Office cleared this structure?", "Specifications please?” questions poured in from the Engineers Guild. These are ants that are used to +-.001fm clearance so he needed to specify but he did not speak their language. He only spoke the general nest tongue which was understood by all ants and was not suitable for technical instruction.

“Give me your eyes/antenna and see what Earth Mama told me.”, he began to draw.

He first drew the universal water glyph, three horizontal squiggly lines and then above that honeycomb interlinked structures from the water up to the surface. He then divided the entire structure into four quadrants;

Residential (Consisting of the Queens’ Quarters, Nurseries, Staff Housing, Recreational and Lifestyle),

Military (Barracks, Armoury, Training Facilities, Chemical Installations, Tactical, Logistics and Intelligence),

Industrial (Food, Warehousing, Distribution, Agriculture, Research and Development) and

Waste Management/Recycling.

He drew rough sketches of how the water, piped through buried hollow reeds, out of the underground aquifer would be channelled Into and out of each quadrant with emphasis on recycling and prudent water usage, sprinkler systems for the recreational parks, irrigation for the Sweet Moss and Aphid plantations, household use and finally out to the surface to replenish the dry almost dead pond.

When he was done, the silence could have been sliced up and passed around like a birthday cake.

The Engineer Prime shuffled forward. Bleached, wrinkled and completely blind, he sniffed the drawing done in scent and asked Terra, “Son, this drawing is too complex for someant of your social status to understand yet alone draw and present. How did you? Who taught you?”

“How I learnt it is immaterial, what this schematic drawing stands for is the line between extinction and preservation of the species. If we do not build this structure we will die before the rains come.” Replied Terra, his antenna conducting an orchestra with the force of his conviction.

The Eminent Engineer, bloated and rounded by years of excess and gluttony rose to the full height that his groaning two hind limbs would allow and thundered from a towering height, “I put it to you, Young Terra that you are a charlatan and a fraud! You run into this great and noble chamber with your shabby self, proclaiming the end of the world and expect us to jump to your commands in panic! We, The Guild, built this glorious structure in which you reside according to the ways of our Father’s Fathers before us, who are you inconsequential little insect, to dictate to us when and how to change our ways? Begone or your carcass will feed the birds aboveground.”

Terra looked around the room and saw no support or empathy. His gaze finally locked with Her Majesty’s and he saw compassion which gave him the courage to ask, “Your Majesty, Most Beautiful and Wise Queen, if my idea is considered folly then let me prove it or disprove it with results. Give me the chance to recruit a few good ants and start this idea one quadrant at a time. If my project does not show positive results in the first three months, I will throw myself at your feet and accept whatever judgement Your Majesty deems fit.”

TO BE CONTINUED