Rahul and John were close friends. In fact, they were next-door neighbors.
One morning, Rahul sat in the garden, intently peering over something.
‘John, see what I got!’ said Rahul. John, who had been waiting for his friend’s call, crawled through the gap in the hedge. He looked at the tiny silver globules lying in a small box on Rahul’s palm, wonderstruck.
‘Aren’t they beautiful? Dad’s new invention! It’s a metal that can be stretched like a wire. It’s soft and glistening like glass, but strong as steel!’ said Rahul, whose dad was an ingenious scientist credited with inventing a myriad of gadgets and gizmos. Rahul loved scouring his dad’s lab for these gadgets, fidgeting and tinkering with whatever contrivance he could get his hands on.
‘Here, let me hold them for a while,’ said John.
‘Make it fast! I need to put them back in place before Dad returns from is walk,’ said Rahul, carefully picking up two globules with a pair of tiny forceps. Just then, he heard his dad wish a good morning to Uncle Vikram.
‘Cling! Cling!’ The two globules slipped from the forceps, onto the ground.
‘Oh no! Dad will skin me alive!’ said Rahul, scared out of his wits.
‘Don’t panic! Let’s first put the box back in its place. We’ll look for the globules after that. They must be here somewhere.’
‘But they are so tiny. How on earth will we find them?’
‘I have a magnifying glass. Let’s use that,’ John ran in to get his glass. He returned to find Rahul sweating profusely and trembling all over. ‘Don’t worry, Rahul. We’ll find the globules.’
John began searching with the glass. Suddenly, he yelled, ‘Hey, look! Two ants are carrying the globules away!’
However, before he could do anything about it, the ants entered an anthill.
‘Oh no! What do we do now? We can’t destroy the anthill. That will actually make it more difficult to find the globules!’
‘I have an idea. Let’s use Dad’s special gun – the one that helps us change our sizes. We can become tiny and actually enter the anthill!’ quipped Rahul. The special laser gun was another one of his dad’s brilliant inventions.
Soon, they were as diminutive as ants. They walked up to the anthill. They could see an army of ants guarding it. Just then, dozens of ants approached the anthill, carrying leaves over their heads like parasols.
‘Quick! Pluck some leaves. Let’s join them,’ said Rahul.
♦♦♦
The anthill felt like a city from within! There were umpteen chambers and galleries connected by corridors.
‘Don’t they look like the Ajanta Caves?’ said John.
Ants were scurrying around.
‘How are we going to find two tiny globules in this maze?’ Rahul asked despairingly.
They followed the ants into a large chamber. The ants began to chop and store the leaves.
‘Why aren’t you cutting yours?’ asked one ant, seemingly annoyed.
Rahul and John were stumped. The moment they cut the leaves, the ants would know that they were intruders. They tried to escape, but were soon captured.
‘Take them to the Queen!’ ordered the commander ant.
♦♦♦
‘Who are they?’ inquired the Queen, peering at them curiously. She seemed haughty and high-handed.
‘Thieves, Your Majesty. They came to steal the compost,’ said the guards accompanying them.
‘No, we didn’t!’ protested Rahul. However, the Queen cut him off.
‘Let them be our slaves,’ she commanded. ‘Get them to clean out the nursery.’
The nursery was a surprise. It was full of tiny beds containing eggs. Lots of nurses were washing, cleaning, and feeding the grubs.
As they began cleaning the chamber, Rahul suddenly pointed. ‘Look!’
‘Where?’ asked John.
Before Rahul could reply, they overheard a nurse saying, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with these two eggs. They just won’t hatch!’
She pointed to the ‘eggs’. And there lay the globules, in the middle of the other eggs!
‘Take them with the cocoons for some sunlight. They might hatch then,’ replied the matron ant.
‘Will do,’ chorused Rahul and John.
‘Be careful,’ said the matron.
This was their only chance to make off with the globules. They held them tightly in their palms. They were led through a maze of corridors to the entrance. How lovely it felt to feel the sunlight again!
‘Quick, run as fast as you can!’ said Rahul as he and John took to their heels. They sprinted as fast as their tiny legs could manage on that massive anthill.
‘They’re running away! Catch them!’ shouted the commander. Soldier ants chased them with their weapons. The duo somehow made it to the bottom of the anthill. Rahul’s special laser gun lay on the grass nearby.
‘John, quick! Use it on us!’ exclaimed Rahul. John obliged.
In a second, Rahul and John were back to their normal sizes, the globules tightly clasped in their arms.
Rahul and John were finally out of the anthill! They could now heave a sigh of relief. What a roller-coaster ride this had been!
‘Safe at last!’ gasped Rahul. ‘Now let’s put them back in Dad’s box!’
♦♦♦
Dad had just returned and saw the two boys poker-faced. ‘Not up to any mischief, were you?’
Rahul and John couldn’t stop giggling. They had just returned from the most amazing adventure of their lives – the anthill adventure!
As fond of writing a good story as he is of reading one, Pravin is one of the most promising writers at Ameya. He can be contacted at pravinkumar2788@gmail.com.