Aye stood on the girl’s hairline now. He stuck his head out through the tangles and looked down. The girl was somewhere outdoors; a wind hit his face. The sea? Aye strained to get a look atwhat lay in front of him, or rather in front of the giant. And there it was again, more and more food. The girl was at it again. She sat in front of a table; food crowding around her. Crumbs lay seductivelt all over the white table. Soups glistened invitingly. Aye’s head spun a little. He forgot all about the spider for a moment as food engulfed his thoughts. . But soon dreadful noises of laughter bore into Aye’s ears and brought him back to reality and the smelly scalp. The girl was surrounded by four or five others. The head rocked as she laughed. Aye held on fast. He realized with shock that the rest of the giants were even bigger than the one he was on ( the one he was stuck on was nothing, pooh!). It was no wonder the way these things ate. "How do they find so much food?" Aye wondered; an ant would call it a lottery if he ever chanced up on on even one crumb as big as the ones that were scattered all over in front of him. Oh, to be dropped on to the table in front, to bite into something other than hair again! Ah what was the use... Aye sighed and turned.
He heart skipped a beat as YooHoo’s big fat eager face was thrust on to him, reminding him of what he was supposed to be doing. The spider stood right behind him, following Aye’s every movement;“FOOD” written on every twinkling eye of his.
“YooHoo, there you are! Now come look, look down there, do you see that?” Aye asked the spider and moved aside to give him a view.
YooHoo looked down and nodded.
“ I’m hungree…”
The stupid spider was evidently not getting Aye’s drift. The connection was lost on his his dumb head. YooHoo looked askance at Aye; a "whats your point?" expression on his face.
“YooHoo that’s food! everything down there!" Aye said in exasperation. "You and I can jump into one of those shiny things and eat all we want. What do you say?”
YooHoo looked down and inspected the table again. His brain slowly comprehended Aye’s words as his face broke into a wide smile. Aye’s relaxed.
“Alright now, come one”
Aye crept back in and walked in the direction of the girl’s ear through the dense hair; he didn’t want to be spotted by one of the giants and then smashed into a paste. YooHoo followed close behind, even with all his legs obstructing his walk. Aye’s face was screwed up; strategies forming inside his thick skull, his heart beat racing. He could only hope that the spider will refrain from eating him up until his plan could be carried up. And with all the damn hair, it was taking him forever to reach the desired spot.
After almost an hour( Ant hours, yes) of trudging thorugh treacherous knots and tangles, Aye and YooHoo safely crept down onto the girl’s earlobe and hid behind it, out of anybody’s view.
Aye sighed with relief. YooHoo waited for orders.
“Now YooHoo, here's what we will do. We’ll jump from here right into that shiny surface there” said Aye, pointing his head towards a bowl of soup. “I’ll say one, two, three and at three we jump, okay?”
YooHoo nodded. “wonetoothreee”
“When do we jump?” Aye asked again. “One two…
“Threee” YooHoo said smiling widely, the expectation of food lighting up his eyes and warming his innards.
"Okay". Aye called on the all the Ant gods he knew and took his position on the upper tip of the ear lobe, with YooHoo standing nearby, alert.
“Okay. One, Two….Three!” Aye thrust forward.
YooHoo jumped down screaming, his greedy mouth wide open to catch all the food waiting for him in the soup bowl underneath. Aye stood waving from the girl’s ear, laughing in spite of himself and wiping his antennae. Phew! There goes that idiot!
Aye watched as YooHoo landed on the soup, his puny legs propping him upon the thin film on its surface. For a minute, Aye wished he had jumped along with the dumb spider. The food. All that food. His stomach was rusting with disuse, his once shiny body was slowly shriveling. But no, it was too much of a risk. The giant was his only hope of getting back to the colony. “if only she’d get up and walk back..”
Aye looked down a again to see how YooHoo was faring.
Uh Oh.
A spoon now descended into the soup; scooping a spoonful of it, laced with pepper, herbs and a tiny YooHoo, and carrying them into the giant’s mouth.
A strain of regret of entered Aye’s mind. That poor dope, a tragic end to his first day.
Oh well, what could he have done anyway? The kid’s dumb, he would have killed himself before reaching maturity one way or the other. Too bad though.
Aye shook his head from side to side; “tch ,tch” , and then walked back into the girl’s head, thinking. He was not sure how long he’d last this way. Hunger was spinning his head. He imagined great volcanoes of acid bursting inside his tummy.
Tired, he leaned against a strand and closed his eyes.
He didn’t know when he had fallen asleep, but Aye woke up to find water all around him. He jumped up in panic. There was water flowing down through the hair canopy above him; waterfalls breaking out all around. Aye clambered up through the wetness and reached the surface. He poked his head out through the tangles (which were all the more tangled now for the wetness) and tried to breathe. But as soon as his head was out, a torrent of water hit him on the face and he lost his balance. “Help!” Aye slipped over the slick surface of the giant’s hair and flowed down in a stream.
“Nooo…!”, he screamed into his own head, too tired to shout out anymore. What was the point? He was screwed. The day just kept getting worse every second and no one would help him. Here he was now, upside down and free-flowing down on a water ride from hell. The day’s events flashed through his head. A small misstep had landed him in the state he was in, now. Oh well, what was there to live for anyway. He’d been missing for hours and he was sure no one at the colony had even noticed. It’s not like he brought back a dead butterfly every day or was even on the queen’s good books.
Aye sniffed sadly and indifferently gulped down some of the water which filled his mouth. He then looked down to see where he was headed to. A cold hard floor faced him. He almost fainted in terror. “I am going to die!”Aye tried to crawl up but was pushed down by the water .In a desperate attempt he plunged his jaws down on the hair strands only to find himself biting down on sheets of water which now carried him down with even more force.
Oh no…Help!... somebody!
Just then the giant shook her head, throwing off drops of water, inside one of which Aye was caught. He flew for a split second and fell hard against a furry surface.
Aye now bit down on it with all the strength that was left in him.
Where was he? And what now? The way the day had progressed so far, he was sure a lizard was going to swoop down to eat him up right then. He opened his eyes slowly and tried to find out what he was biting on to. He hoped with all his heart that it was nothing alive. “No god, no.”
Aye sighed in relief to find that he hadn’t plunged his mouth onto a squirrel or dog (as much of it as he could fit in his little jaw). Phew! It was only a piece of furry cloth that he had been thrown on. He loosened his jaw grip and spit out the cotton he had chewed up, and then straightened his head to look around.
