Written & Illustrated by: Laurie Trotman

There are times when I start to daydream. Do you ever daydream? My name is Timmy and I am an ant. Unlike most ants, I am very curious. I am pretty small but I have a huge curiosity for the world around me. Do you? Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue; or why you are an ant? What? You aren’t an ant? Wow, now I’m even more curious to learn about creatures that are NOT like me.

Last week, when I was on my way to school, I had not finished my homework, so I tried to finish it while I was on the school-beetle. The school beetle is what we ride to school.

I didn’t finish my homework because it rained a lot last night so we all had to help clean the tunnels in our colony. It is important to me to complete my homework because I enjoy learning new things at school. If we don’t complete our homework, then my teacher, Mr. Eaglebud, will not teach us something new until the next day.

So I was on the school beetle finishing my homework and when I finished, I looked up to get off the beetle and was surprised to find myself near a place that I had never seen before.

I jumped off the school beetle and asked the beetle where I was. It was rather loud there, so the beetle, Mr. Beetlelegs, said loudly, “I believe we are at something called a playground or park. It has been said that small people play here. Now I have to go, but I will be back by here later today if you need a ride home.” Then he just crawled away leaving me in this strange new place.

I suppose it was up to me to explore it on my own, which made me sad, scared, and happy at the same time. I was sad that I was going to miss school today and scared to be on my own in a strange place. Yet, since I’m very curious about things, I was also happy to start exploring. I looked around and saw a little person sitting nearby in the sand. “This might be a good place to start exploring,” I thought, “because I know a lot about sand.”

I walked over to the sand and said, “Hello, my name is Timmy. What’s yours?”

“Did you just talk?” she asked me.

I removed my hat and bowed towards her and said, “Yes ma’am. I said hello and told you that my name is Timmy. What’s your name?” I asked again.

Shyly she stuttered, “M-M-My name is Mae. I’ve never met an ant that could talk before.” She looked at me funny and asked, “How is it that you can talk?”

I didn’t know that ants didn’t talk. Maybe ants don’t usually talk to people, so I said, “I’ve always been able to talk, but I’ve never met a person before, so this is my first time talking to a person. I guess you are the lucky one to be the first to hear an ant talk!” I then stood up tall and asked her politely, “Miss Mae, will you show me around this place? I’ve never been to a place like this before.”

Mae was so excited that she jumped up and put her hand down for me to crawl up onto. She ran to the swings and explained that people sit on these and go back and forth, then higher and higher! She let me sit on the chains while she sat and pushed herself until we started getting higher.

Then she put me on my own swing and pushed me very high! Mae started squealing with joy and loudly cried, “Isn’t this fun, Timmy?” I was excited but also very frightened because I’m so small. I thought I was going to fly off the swing.

Mae must have seen how afraid I was so she stopped the swing and helped me off and back onto her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said sweetly, “I didn’t know that would be so scary for an ant!”

She thought for a moment and then said, “Would you like to meet my sister?”

“You have a sister too?” I asked. “I have almost a thousand sisters. Do you have that many?”

Mae giggled and giggled; then said, “No silly, I only have one. Her name is Winter.” Mae carried me over to the slide and called out to her sister, “Winter, come down here, I want you to meet Timmy!”

All of the sudden, someone swooshed by us as they slid down the slide and then came running over to us. “Winter, this is my friend Timmy the ant!” Mae explained. Now, because I didn’t say anything right away, Winter just stared at me and then started to go back to the slide. Mae said, “Wait, Winter, don’t you want to talk with him?”

Winter seemed shy, or maybe she just thought that Mae was pretending that I could talk, so I removed my hat and bowed to Winter and said, “Good day Winter. It is a pleasure to meet you!”

Winter’s eyes lit up and asked if she could hold me. She asked me if I wanted to go down the slide with her. I was a bit frightened after the swing incident, but she convinced me that I would be okay. I sat on Winter’s shoulder while she climbed up a very high ladder and then she sat down at the top. I had never been so high up before. I wondered if I could see my home from there. Home? Oh my goodness, I had forgotten all about school, my home, and the school beetle!

“Winter, I just remembered that I need to go home soon. Can we go down the slide quickly?” I asked.

“Sure!” she said. “Hold on tightly. Here we go!” We slid around and around until we were finally on the ground! Whew! It was better than the swing, but still very scary for a tiny ant.

“Winter, can you ask Mae to take me back to the place in the sand where we first met?” I asked. We had to look around for a while before we found Mae. Finally, we found her. She took me back to the sand and set me down gently. “Are you coming back here tomorrow?” Mae asked me.

“Well,” I replied, “I got here by accident today. I was supposed to be in school but I missed the stop on the school beetle.”

“What’s a school beetle?” Mae and Winter asked in unison.

“Well, it’s like a school bus that people take to school, but we ride on beetles, so they are called school beetles!” I answered. Just then, I saw my school-beetle, Mr. Beetlelegs, crawling nearby so I said goodbye to Mae and Winter, ran over, and climbed up onto the beetle.

Mae and Winter waved goodbye to me. It seemed like an awfully long ride home today, but perhaps it was because it was so far past my school.

When I got home, I had to explain to Queen Sally why I was late and why I didn’t go to school today. I told her the truth and about my adventure with Mae and Winter at the playground. Queen Sally was rather upset, but mostly she had been worried about me being out on my own.

I apologized to Queen Sally and then went to do my chores before eating dinner and going to bed.

Playing with children was exhausting, but also very fun. I hope that I get to meet Mae, Winter, and other children again soon!