The Strange One

Eileen Lageer

            Once there was a colony of ants with only five legs. Whenever they walked they went one-two-hitch, one-two-hitch, all along the path.

            These ants lived on decayed banana leaves and nothing else. I shouldn't say lived, for many of them died. Banana leaves, you know, especially in their rotten state, are rather hard to find and so these ants had a very hard life. Many died young from overexertion and starvation.

            Now it happened that one day a very strange ant was born among them. This ant had six legs. Everyone clicked his tongue in consternation. Many tried the best they could to console the parents on their child's deformity. Some suggested that for the good of the community they ought to kill him in infancy. But the mother begged hard, so they let him live.

            Strangely enough, the little ant was soon rushing around faster than his elders. This was ominous. And worse than that, he had a very awkward way of walking.

            "Look," they tried to tell him, "you don't know how to walk right. You have to go one-two-hitch, one-two-hitch. Now try it properly."

            So the little ant would try to put a little hitch in his step, but every time he tried, that sixth foot would come down and he'd leave his teachers far behind. They gave up in disgust.

            When he was half grown, the elders noticed another peculiarity. He was eating bread crumbs.

            "Stop!" they cried. "They're poison. You mustn't do that. If you eat even two little mouthfuls, you'll die!"

            But the little ant continued eating. They waited to see him fall over dead, but nothing happened. Instead, as the days went on, he grew strong and big, bigger even than the biggest of the grown-ups. This was outrageous.

            But the real crisis didn't come until he was fully grown. The colony had been told to move quickly from their home to another place, for dreaded driver ants were marching against them.

            The job of moving was very slow, for in order to move the nest an egg had to be loaded onto the back of an ant. Then two other ants climbed on his back and rode along, holding the egg in place. They had to keep it from rolling off at every hitch, you see. So the egg was carried along, and the ant under the egg would be more dead than alive when they arrived.

            They had just started moving their eggs in this way when they noticed the six-legged monstrosity coming toward them at a rapid clip.

            "Hurry up, you lazy thing," they cried between puffs. "You have to work too."

            They had barely gotten the words out of their mouths when he passed them on the double and was back again carrying an egg, of all places, in his two front feet.

            "You can't do that!" they screamed. "You'll break it. And anyway, you'll never get there."

"I've already been there and back twice," he replied, "and I haven't broken one yet. Let me show you how to do it."

            That was the last straw. Rage came up in their throats and choked them. They dropped their eggs in a heap and rushed at him.

            "He has a devil!" cried his enemies.

            "He is beside himself!" cried his friends.

            "He perverteth the people!"

            "He is spoiling our nation!"

            "He is teaching others this perfidy! "

            "Away with him!"

            "Kill him!"

            "There!" they growled in grim satisfaction sometime later. "He'll never try to teach us again. We'll solve our own problems, thank you."

            Then they went back to work.

            One-two-hitch. One-two-hitch. One-two-hitch.