Field Notes chapters open as the colony finds lore fragments and reaches new depths.
A jar on the desk
The farm arrived in a box with a picture of a happy ant on the lid. The ants inside had never seen the picture. They had only ever seen each other, the soil and the warm yellow light that came on every evening.
The first tunnel
Somebody dug the first tunnel crooked. Everyone else followed it anyway, because it was the tunnel, and a crooked tunnel that everyone uses is better than a straight one that nobody does.
Crumb weather
Crumbs fall on the farm about three times a day, usually after the keeper says 'oops'. The foragers have learned that 'oops' is a good word.
The rival tunnel
On the far side of the glass lives another colony. Neither side has ever crossed the glass. Both sides have drawn very detailed maps of it.
Staples
The keeper dropped a box of staples. The builders carried every one of them home, though no one knew what they were for. Later, under the warm lamp, they found out.
The great lid
Scouts report that the sky is made of plastic and has a crack in it. The elders say the crack has always been there. The young ants say that is exactly why someone should go and look.
Across the desk
The desk is enormous: a flat country of pencils, eraser hills and one sticky patch that has claimed many good scouts. The colony names it the Plains of Homework.
Paperclip age
A paperclip bent the right way is a ladder. Bent the wrong way, it is a trap. The builders keep a careful record of which way is which.
Under the bed
Under the bed is dark, dusty and full of lost things: a sock, three marbles and a whole world of socks' and marbles' worth of crumbs. The colony calls it the Treasury.
Steam
The phone charger hums all night and is always warm. The colony built its first boiler beside it and has not been cold since.
The Great Escape
One night the whole colony went out through the crack, down the desk leg and under the door. The keeper found the empty farm in the morning and laughed for a long time.
The backyard
Outside there is wind, which is like being pushed by nothing, and rain, which is like being pushed by everything. The colony decides it likes outside anyway.
Bin day
Once a week the big bin is wheeled to the kerb and comes back empty. The foragers mark the day on every wall: the feast before, the famine after.
The garden shed
The shed holds strange machines, a radio that only plays the cricket, and a battery that makes the soil around it tingle. The colony treats the battery with great respect.
Green things
The veggie patch grows food the colony doesn't have to carry. The foragers think this is cheating. The nurses think it is wonderful.
The network
Scent trails used to say 'food this way'. Now they say 'food this way, two crumbs, fresh, see also: the creek'. The colony has started to think together.
City lights
Past the fence there is a city, lit all night. From up the tallest tree, the scouts swear it looks like a colony too: tunnels of light, workers going home.
Up
Every scout who has climbed the radio tower comes down saying the same thing: there is more up. Nobody has found the top of up yet.
The launch mound
The tallest mound the colony has ever built points straight at the Moon. The builders say it is for weather. Everyone knows it is not for weather.
Moon dust
The Moon is grey, quiet and very far from any crumbs. The first scout to arrive left a single scent mark: 'we were here'. It will last a long time.
The swarm around the sun
The colony now orbits the sun in a glittering ring. It is very bright and very warm, and it still smells a little like the farm on the desk.
One mind
Somewhere along the way, the colony stopped being many ants and became one long thought. The thought is mostly about the queen, and a little about crumbs.
The keeper
The keeper is old now. The farm still sits on the desk, empty, with its crack in the lid. Sometimes the keeper taps the glass and says 'oops', just in case.
Wings
Every colony ends the same way it begins: with winged queens lifting into the evening, each one carrying the whole story somewhere new.