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Back in the 1990's I wrote this story. Computer graphics were in their infancy. 

The strange thing is that the story I told is not an infantile or an old tale. 

It is one that will be told through the generations when, hopefully, we defended our anthill and got rid of the soldier ants that seek to take our homes and our livelihoods.

 I chose to keep the original images. Only the last image has changed. Enjoy. 

It was morning.

In the kitchen, Mum was already cooking breakfast. My brother Simon  was in trouble again. Mum has told him not to get in the cornflakes box but he does it every morning.

 

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Dad was running late for work. He is an Account Ant. He works with his two brothers in the family firm. He told us that he had some exciting news.

“What is it?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you tonight” he replied. “I haven’t got time right now”.
Bob and Rose and Jim and Sally will be over with the kids for dinner tonight so how about we have a special meal ? We’ve got some celebrating to do!”


What could be the news? We spent all day thinking about it.
Mum went shopping and bought Dad’s favourites.

 

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My sister Jennifer went out to the garden and picked some flowers for the table.


 

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The day seemed to last forever. By three o’clock, Mum was as excited as we were.
“What could it be?” she asked.

Aunty Rose came over to visit. Mum told her what Dad had said.

“Something’s going on “ Aunty Rose replied. “ Bob said much the same thing this morning to us!”

Bob is Dad’s brother. He and Uncle Jim work with Dad. Mum rang Aunty Sally
“Has Jim said anything strange to you?” she asked.

“As a matter of fact, he said he had a surprise for us tonight” Aunty Sally said.

“Hmm” said Mum.

By the time Dad got home from work, we were so excited we could hardly think of anything else.

Dad and Uncle Bob and Uncle Jim walked in through the door. We all gathered around them.

 

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“Tell us! Tell us!” we all yelled.

“In good time” said Dad, with a wink.

Mum handed around some nibblies. “Dinner in an hour” she said.

 

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We kids tried to play Computer Games but we just couldn’t concentrate.

 

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Finally it was dinner time.




Dad stood up, and cleared his throat.
“As you know , we have some exciting news” he started.

“We have decided to build our own home. Not just a home, a real Anthill. Where we can all live and be together.The whole family!”

We were so excited we clapped and cheered.

Uncle Bob and Uncle Jim stood up and Uncle Jim said “ We’ve done the plans ...”

 

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They explained what it would be like and showed us where our bedrooms would be.

“The kitchen will be the centre of the whole plan” Dad explained.

Aunty Rose was very quiet. Then she said “ I love the idea. I really do......but , but ... how can we afford it?”

Suddenly, everyone went quiet. It was true. How could we afford it?

“If we all help” said Mum. “ Let’s see how much we’ve all got”.

 

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Aunty Rose checked too


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“We could all help!” I said.

And so it was that the next day we started working on our new home.

We worked,

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And we worked 

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And we worked.

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There was plenty of food 

Before we knew it, it was finished.

We could move out of our old homes...... 

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and move into our new Anthill! We were so happy. There was so much to do.


I took up kickboxing and Jennifer started dancing.

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Simon stopped diving into Cereal and took up Bungee Jumping.

Uncle Jim bought a Boat. and Aunty Sally took up gardening. 
Uncle Bob started working out

Then one night.......... 


I was in the middle of a dream . There was a huge foot , and I was frozen.
I couldn’t move. 05db3db0

I woke up with a start.

Then I realized what had really woken me up. We were under attack!!!!!!!!!

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“Wake up!” I yelled.” Wake up!”

Suddenly, everyone was awake, and Dad raced up to the top of the hill to check out what was happening.

He came back, moments later, with a grim look on his face.

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“Soldier Ants” he said.

This was truly a nightmare.


Out in the darkness, they had gathered. Their commander was mounting an assault on our Hill, and he yelled out to us
“Come out now, and we won’t hurt you. Just give us the Hill and that will be an end to it”.

“No way!” Dad called back. “No way!” we all shouted.

”That’s it” said Mum. “It’s time for action!”

”OK , kids! Let’s show them!”

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Jennifer grabbed a stick. I did my bit 
and Simon found some fire crackers.

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Uncle Bob helped too .

Dad got his binoculars and looked to see what was happening “We’ve got them on the run!” he cried.

The Soldier Ant Commander was looking angry.

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Mum decided to go out and tell him what she thought of him.

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And when Mum gets mad....she really gets mad!

“Now listen!” she said. “We’ve worked hard to build our home. We’ve worked hard to build our garden. If you want a Hill, go and build your own!”

We were so proud. The Soldier Ants backed down, and felt ashamed. They all left, and only their Commander was outside, stomping his feet and angry at having been beaten by us.

We enjoyed the garden and we enjoyed the wind and we enjoyed the love of our home. 

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We loved watching the video Uncle Jim took that showed us beating the Soldier Ants.

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Mostly we just loved the fact that we had worked hard for our home and no one could take it from us.

Dad was heading out for work this morning and he told us that he had some exciting news.

“What is it?” I asked.


“I’ll tell you tonight” he replied


“Oh, no!” I shouted “Not another adventure!”

 

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