scottsemegran.com

This is a work of fiction, even though names, characters, incidents, and places are similar to real life. There really is a Mia Ryan and there really is a cat named Angel-Boy, though we actually call him Angey-Butt since he doesn't have a tail and all you see is his... well, you get the picture. I'm not aware of any ant named Anthony, though, and any resemblance to any ants with that name, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 S. E. Semegran
Illustrations by Scott

For Mia

Mia Ryan was a precocious little girl, with big brown eyes and curly brown hair, who lived in the heart of Austin in the middle of the big state of Texas. And Angel-Boy was her fearless companion, a little black cat with magic mittens and a stumpy tail. Mia and Angel-Boy liked to throw quaint tea parties, using her mother's fine china to serve the tea and baking miniature cupcakes to feed her guests. And her guest list always included her illustrious court of multi-colored bears. Everyone would sit around Mia's roundtable, wearing bibs and pointy party hats, telling stories and sipping sweet tea.

Angel-Boy, looking a little bewildered, asked Mia, "Can I have my four-morsels cat food instead of cupcakes? I do not like sweets. They make my paws sticky and my fur fall out."

"How rude, Angel-Boy," Mia replied.

"My mama spent an hour making these cupcakes. Well, if you really don't want it, pass it to Grumpy the Bear. He loves cupcakes and will be glad to eat it," Mia said.

Angel-Boy raised his paw to pass the cake when suddenly, the cupcake moved all by itself. Slowly, it made its way off his plate and across the table. Angel-Boy, being the fearless cat that he was, dropped to the floor and concealed himself from the escaping cake, peaking just above the edge of the table to observe its escape, ready to pounce on it before it reached the edge of the table. And then, suddenly, it stopped.

Angel-Boy stood up, confused. "Mee-ow? Did you see that?" he asked. "That cake moved 12 inches, maybe 13 inches."

Then they heard the tiniest of noises. Mia leaned over the cake, listening with her hand cupped around her ear. "What's that noise?" she asked. "It sounds like the cake is... breathing?"

The cupcake sprouted six, thin black legs and hopped off the table to the floor. The cake made its way out of Mia's room, with Mia and Angel-Boy following close behind. It climbed up the door to the garage and out Angel-Boy's cat-door. Mia watched through the cat-door as the cake walked across the garage floor.

"My cake is trying to escape," she said.

Angel-Boy leapt through his cat-door and chased after the escaping cake. The cupcake slipped under the slightly raised garage door out to the front yard and Angel-Boy followed close behind.

Mia, knowing that she couldn't go outside without permission from her parents, called to her mother.

"Mama, can I go out front, please?" she asked.

"Yes, you may. But remember to stay in the grass. I'll be out shortly to watch you," her mother said from the back room.

With permission granted, Mia opened the door to the garage and followed Angel-Boy to the front yard. The cupcake marched intently toward the old tree stump at the side of the house. The stump was the remains of a once-tall ash tree that was the victim of tornado earlier in the year.

"Look, Angel-Boy. It's heading for the tree stump!" Mia said.

Mia thought that was strange indeed. So she lunged for the cake and picked it up and flipped it over, only to discover that the six legs were attached to a little black ant, who was carrying the cupcake on his back. When the ant saw that Mia was holding his sweet treat, he became frightened.

"You're not going to hurt me, are you?" the ant asked, very frightened and shaken, covering his face with his two front legs. "Or worse, you're not going to eat me, are you? Some creatures consider ants a delicacy, you know?"

"First of all," Mia said, "I am not a creature, I'm a little girl. And second, I wouldn't eat you. That's gross!"

"Well, how rude," the ant said. "Why wouldn't you want to eat me? Birds like to eat ants. Spiders like to eat ants. So why wouldn't you?"

"Because you're a bug," Mia said. "And I don't like to eat bugs. I like to eat cupcakes. Which, by the way, you stole from my cat, Angel-Boy."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the ant said. "I was just hungry, very hungry." The ant covered his face and began to cry.

Mia looked at Angel-Boy and Angel-Boy looked at Mia and they felt just awful watching the little ant cry. Mia and Angel-Boy sat in the grass and placed the ant on the tree stump. The ant pulled the tiniest handkerchief they had ever seen from his pocket and blew his nose, making a tiny honking noise as he blew.

"What is your name?" Mia asked.

"My name is Anthony," he replied.

"Why are you hungry, Anthony? Don't you have any food? Doesn't your mamma go to the grocery store and buy you peanut butter and jelly and cheese and popsicles and whatever your little heart desires?"

"No, this tree used to be our food," Anthony said, pointing to the dry tree stump. "We would pick the leaves and carry them down to our queen, who would then divide the leaves into little pieces and pass the portions out to everyone. We were very happy and never hungry back then."

"And when the storm knocked the tree down, all your food disappeared?" Mia asked.

"That is correct," Anthony replied. A little ant tear rolled down his little ant cheek.

Then Mia had an idea. She jumped up and said, "Angel-Boy, wait here with Anthony. I'll be right back."

Mia ran inside the house and Angel-Boy and Anthony stared at each other. Angel-Boy, giving Anthony a good look with his cat eyes, began to lick his cat lips. Angel-Boy had grown very hungry from not eating his cupcake or his four-morsel cat food.

"Please don't eat me, Angel-Boy," Anthony pleaded.

"I sure am hungry," Angel-Boy said.

"I am too," Anthony said, rubbing his little ant tummy.

Just then, Mia came running back outside with her tea set in hand. She sat the tea set down in the grass and motioned for Anthony and Angel-Boy to sit down with her. She handed out napkins and tea cups and divided up the cupcake and served the cake and tea to her two friends. As Anthony ate, his hungry stomach became filled with joy and happiness, so much so that he began to hum a beautiful song.

The beautiful song filled the air. After a few moments, the rest of Anthony's ant friends heard him humming and emerged from the tree stump, each one with his or her own napkin. They heard Anthony's song and smelled the delicious cake and came out to see if they could eat some too. Pretty soon, there were thousands of ants with their tiny napkins in hand, surrounding the tree stump.

"Can my friends have some cake too?" Anthony asked. "They are very hungry."

"I don't know if I have enough cake for everyone," Mia said.

"Ants don't eat much. Just a little crumb for each will do."

So, Mia divided the cake into thousands of little pieces and the ants lined up in a single-file line, each getting his or her own cake crumb. Soon, all the ants had eaten their little ant portion of cake and they were all humming the same little ant tune that Anthony was humming. The ants' tune filled the air with happiness.

But Anthony quickly realized that Mia did not have a piece of cake for herself. She had given it out to all the ants. Anthony felt terrible about the situation and expressed his dismay to Mia.

"It's OK, Anthony. There's more cupcakes inside. My mamma always makes me cupcakes so I never have to worry about running out. I'm just glad that I can share them with my new friends. And with you, my newest little friend."

Anthony kissed Mia Ryan on the cheek. He was happy to have found a new friend too.

The next day, after Mia and Angel-Boy were finished with their tea party in her room, she and her cat went out to the front yard. With her shovel, Mia dug a small hole in the grass. Angel-Boy carried an ash tree sapling in his mouth and dropped the sapling in the newly dug hole. Mia filled the hole with dirt and sprinkled the tree sapling with water. Eventually, Anthony came out of the old dry tree stump and watched Mia watering the new tree.

"What are you doing?" Anthony asked.

"I'm planting you and your friends a new tree, one to take the place of the one that fell down," Mia said. "Maybe by this time next year, you and your friends will have your food again. We'll see. But it doesn't hurt to try."

Anthony danced for joy because he knew that the Great Ant Famine would soon be over. He danced and danced and sang his little ant tune. Watching Anthony dance and sing made Mia smile. She knew she had just done a very good thing.

THE END

Mia and her daddy. August 2003.

I wrote and illustrated this story for my daughter Mia when she was 3 because I was disappointed in a lot of the books she had at the time. I thought I could do a better job myself. When I finished writing it, I had it bound and the pages laminated so she could color the illustrations.

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