The setting is a well designed bungalow in a rural area just outside a small Mexican beach town. The bungalow has sliding folding walls on two sides so it can be wide open with a view to the ocean or closed up like a conventional room.
Imagine, you and the one you love are returning along the dirt lane to the bungalow by flashlight after a splendid evening out. There awaits a stone patio with comfortable chairs, cups of mezcal, a moon orange and setting and a star loaded sky. The air temperature is perfect, shirt, no shirt, not important, an ocean breeze. Quiet.
Before sitting, you offer to go and open the bungalow and allow the ocean air in the room. You unlock the door, flip on the light and what you see causes you to catch your breathe and fall back. In front of you, in every square inch of the room, highlighted against the white walls, white bedding and soft tones of the floor are thousands of large, black ants. A huge swat team focused, intent. Different units with different tasks. A long line of ants like a thick rope entering the bungalow making their way in and out of closets with shirts, underwear and personal belongings, a unit of ants spreading all over the bed, investigating sheets, pillows, mattress, climbing up and into the mosquitero, a systematic pattern of single scouting ants geometrically spread out on the floor, walls and ceiling, up and down the legs of table, chairs. Everything exposed, literally nothing untouched, no signs of it ending, the room overtaken.
The Quiz
After taking a deep breath, what do you do?
- Go to the caretakers cabana and say “what the hell do we do”?
- Tell your loved one what you witnessed and that you have it under control and launch a counter attack with a herbal pesticide.
- Say nothing, Do nothing,, drink the mezcal, chat and enjoy the night sky.
- Go to the internet and type in something intelligent and follow instructions.
- Freak out and move out.
- Boil water and let them have it..
The correct answer, of course, is #3. This is a swat team deployed by the Master Ant, they received a bad tip, no wrong doing on anyone’s part, no cookies, no crumbs.
The stone patio is the place to be, sip some mezcal, do it right with salt, chili peppers, and ground worm larvae, compare notes about the dinner, lean back, look up, take in the night sky brilliant and loaded. Then return to the room, no trace of an ant, nothing, like it never happened. The bungalow is ready for the night to continue..