The hungry ant and the big bean

It has been very tough for me. I thought I wouldn't make it. There is a point when things happen that you say, "what's wrong." I am an ant and Tobey is my name. This is the story of my adventurous journey in search of food. Food was not actually the only problem I needed to solve. Laid on a dusty ground, I was lost. I have been hungry for three days and then, I was too weak to do anything. This was what happened. I lived happily beneath the earth with my parents and only brother. Like other ants we worked tirelessly to provide food and utilities. There was nothing to lack as a result. I and my dad would go to his workplace and make furnitures for people. Other times we went to the farm and tended our crops. My dad was loving and at the same time a strict instructor. He taught me to be strong. I preferred being with my mum who was more loving and caring. She was very intelligent and spoke in words of wisdom. But, despite being intelligent, she had a high sense of superstition. She had many superstitious beliefs and she warned us on them. Her most popular belief was that looking extremely into the face of a very beautiful stranger (person or animal) caused bad luck. For a long time now, we never knew why it was so. Well what happened to my family or may I say, my home? That fateful day, I was sent on an errand to a place a bit far from my home on the outside world. When I had gone far, an emergency struck. The ground on which I was marching began to shake. I couldn't tell if it was an earthquake or a landslide as my mum have been telling me down there. Then, The soil began to move as though it had come to life. I had no time to watch the bizarre happening, I took to my heels and ran as fast as my legs could carry me back to my home. Before I could ever reach the hole leading to my home, it had been covered by thick soil. I couldn't locate it anymore. What stared at me was the heap of sand which I was laying on.           I began to wonder; did the earth crash on my family down there? Have They been killed alongside with every living beings inside the soil?  Why should my family members and friends be killed and I was the only one surviving? It would have been better if I were killed alongside with them. What on Earth was I surviving fo? What could I do all alone? And I was too little. Also, that moment, I was terribly hungry and there was no food nearby. I didn't have the energy to dig out another hole and locate my family. I was stuck in a dilemma. I didn't know if I should dig with all my strength or use that energy to search for food. Digging might be a bad idea because I might not find them. The ground must have crushed them. Going to search for food was also not imaginable. I had not gone far into the world above our home before and I might not make it on the journey. But thinking would do me no good. I had to do some thing or I die.            I bit my lips and decided to take on the dangerous journey in search of food. I was going to make it alone and I was already missing my parents especially my mum. Naturally, I don't cry for a dead relative until I've seen the body. For instance, if someone just run to me and tell me that my uncle is dead, I would only panick but I won't be touched as though the news meant nothing. But when I see the body, I will begin to cry as though my world has ended. Then, I have been hit by the reality of the misfortune.  That was why I never cried when I missed my family members and friends because I have not yet seen their dead bodies. For instance, my mom. I remembered when she would replace her meat with my meat, how she would peacefully separate a quarrel between I and my brother. She would say to me, "you must be cold" and would cover my body with a wrapper. I remembered her food and her sweet, musical voice singing me a lullaby. Oh, how quickly that did put me to sleep. I remembered all her words of wisdom and inspiration. She was just the best. But in all these memories, I never cried.          I had only one path now, to find food and if I was going to find them later, it depended on my fate. I had to get to the village square which was very far from here to get food. . I didn't know how to start but I had to. My mum once told me that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. She also told me that Rome was not built in a day which means that I still would not make that brave journey as quickly as I had expected it. I kept wondering what Rome was. Was it a kind of an ant Hill or a gigantic yam barn or food Mill. My mum told me that it was the capital city of Italy and it was a kind of a Paradise. How did she know that it was a Paradise? The only place that I know my mum had gone to was the ground above our home and our home. She told me that she traveled there through a book and that explained how intelligent she was.    But about the Paradise, Rome, it was worth not building in a day. But my journey was just to find food that I would eat in a day and perhaps face another hunger so what was the point? Then I remembered my mum's other quote which she told me was spoken by humans, "never give up; ants don't rest." And I an ant. If human beings could use us as an example with which to encourage themselves not to give up, why should I who was an ant to give up hope? I left for my journey.