vacation (1)

16 SABINE HILDING
By good luck, his favorite science teacher was being promoted to teach the next
grade up. He was looking forward to having him for science class again and raising
his hand and answering questions—“Good job!”
Black ants crawled in and out of the gaping hole to the hive. They struggled with
leaves. They teetered and tottered. He dropped a small stick on the hole and
watched the workers swarm out and instantly move it aside.
As he sat on his haunches, observing, he noticed that a large reddish ant, maybe a
scout from a neighboring colony, had wandered into the black ants’ sphere. It was
really russet-brown with long feelers. When it ran into a black ant from the colony,
the larger red ant instantly turned the black ant over by tripping up the worker ant
as it scurried down the path.
He thought of his computer games. The russet-brown one had initiated combat!
Then, the big red stranger acquired a grip on the smaller black ant’s abdomen and
they wrestled across the pebbles.