Little Life

Sunbeam of the midday transmitted through the window, gleamed the yellow color of the bed sheet. Breezes blew slowly, entered my room through the window, swaying the dark-green curtains. There, beside the trace of sunlight on the surface of the cotton sheet, laid myself in the relaxing bed, facing the area where the yellow shimmered. My eyes were only half-opened, my mind was about to floating into the state of peace, ready to drown in my serenely wanna-be rest. The atmosphere felt so warm. That trace of sunlight was still there. I reached for it, felt the sunlight caress my hand and its little warmth penetrate my skin into my sensory nerves, lulling me into drowsiness. That was when my eyes caught something that moved. Something small, black, and had six tiny little legs.

An ant.

An ant crossed my sight, walked on the bed sheet as if it had already known its way back home. Even that, its steps were a little shambled. Sometimes, it moved to my direction, and another time it went back to its track. At that little time, my mind wandered around the life walking in front of my eyes.

Yes, a life, a little life. Its life cycle might only last for some days. Today, it would travel to the places I had never imagined. The other day, it would probably die. But, no one, or nothing, would mourn for its death, because of its huge populations in its nest. A dead soldier would be utterly replaced by another, no need to feel loss.

But, for today, that diminutive life breathed. And just for this moment, I wanted to cherish its life.

Little life, if you would tell me, what kind of life you had been endured since the day you were born? Hatched deep in the cold soil, you met your mother, which became your queen promptly. Then, you were settled to be a soldier, a fate you could never escape. And here you were, with me, being on the same place, under the same warmth of sunrays.

You were now intruding the zone of humans, didn’t you feel afraid of them, of me? Your size indeed were a hundred times smaller than me, but weren’t you scared of me? I could easily get rid of you in seconds, and you would be none other than a lump of exoskeleton in no time. Why wouldn’t you escape soon, little life?

My free hand reached you, prevented you from walking closer to me. I didn’t want to be concerned by a small creature stepping its tiny little legs on my face. But, of course, whenever I considered you as a threat, I could always nip you and you would be nothing but a small ball of mass, like a piece of sand between my fingers. That would brought me soon the concord I wanted for my snug nap. And you would be forgotten by the world, little life.

Still, little life, why did you try to climb my hand, breaking the boundary of my region? As if you defied me to obliterate you, I guessed that you didn’t get my message to ignore me, no? Maybe, you would never do with your tiny size of brain, or the nerve system of yours.

Taking a life away was not my hobby, and not something I enjoyed to do. But, for this time, I felt that I had to. Having my body limp in a placid noon with a small ant on my face was not something I could tolerate. Who knows that it could bite the skin of my face and I had to scratch it for the rest of the day?

Based on that ludicrous reason of mine, I decided to efface it, which meant killing it. Yes, killing. That lowly act sometimes, or often, made me feel like a monster. A little life in front of me might not be significant for others’ lives, but it always had a right to reside in this cruel world. If I took its life, it meant that I killed it. That thought made me feel no different that the other killers who also took the lives of other living creatures, such as humans, animals, or small organisms like this little ant.

I felt bad, and my feelings got worse when I threw away its tiny dead body like it never had any life before. No one would search for that little ant, for no one might remember its existence.

However, as someone whom you met in your last moment, little life, let me weep for you for some seconds before I drifted to sleep. And in a flash of sunshine, little life, your life’s remnants were gone.

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My drabble about an ant I met for some minutes. Okay, actually I made this to try my English… I still suck at this yknow. Critics and grammar corrections are opened if you would give them kindly, thanks!

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