A BUG'S LIFE NOVEL

Chapter 1: Never Make A Difference

I could hear some ants walking outside to continue work on the offering. I got out of bed – very much wanting to stay in – and left the room. I joined the crowd of ants walking to the anthill entrance. Although I usually stood out in a crowd, today I was lucky – no one distinguished me from the other dozens of ants.

Once we were out of the anthill, Mr. Soil did the usual morning briefing to all us worker ants, this time stating that the grasshoppers would probably be arriving later today. Although the offering stone already had more than enough food on it, most ants were keen to keep putting more on it – it made the chances of the grasshoppers being displeased less likely. Well, if they were going to gather food I might as well help them.

I barely noticed what he was saying, or what Thorny, Cornelius, Dr. Flora or even the Queen were doing. As usual, my whole attention was diverted to Princess Atta.

Princess Atta. I think about her so much. Her long slender legs, her elegant arms, her beautiful fluttering wings (I'd give up all my inventions to have a pair of my own) and her shining face! Her twirling antenna and her princess tiara only seemed to enhance the image. She was great! It would be even better if she was as nice to me as her sister Dot was, although Atta was still a lot nicer than the rest of the Ant Council (Mr. Soil, Dr. Flora, Thorny and Cornelius).

I was suddenly brought back to my senses by everyone walking off to do their work for the day. I made to go too, but I suddenly realized that someone had a hand on my shoulder. Already knowing who it was, I turned around to face Mr. Soil and the rest of the council. Unfortunately, neither the Queen nor Atta were there. I gulped nervously.

'Mr. Soil!' I said nervously. 'Can I help you...?'

'Yes Flik, you can.' he said, a little aggressively. Behind him, the other three wore similar expressions of distaste. I was probably the only ant that they showed those expressions to. 'You can get through ONE day without using one of your crappy inventions.' The other three nodded in return.

'I'll do my best,' I said. Although there was no trace of an abnormal tone in my voice, they looked as though there had been. 'No need to treat me like I'm a common ant!'

'A common ant's more then you deserve, Flik!' interjected Thorny.

'More then you deserve!' added Cornelius.

'Just do what everyone else does, Flik and you'll get some respect,' said Dr. Flora. She was carrying her plant as always. I noticed that it had some dew on the end. That gave me an idea, but I shelved it in my mind for later.

'Oh, um, OK...' I gulped nervously. Noticing that several ants were already piling food onto the offering stone, I went and grabbed a piece of food, joined the line and threw it onto the stone. I went back to the Council.

'That's more like it, Flik!' said Mr. Soil, a little nicer this time. 'Isn't that much easier than making inventions? And you might earn some respect this way.'

'OK' was all I could say. The Council left me. I went to look for food along with everyone else. Once I was alone, I sneaked off to where I had hid my grain-harvesting machine the previous night. But while I was looking for it, I started to think.

Why oh why? Why did no one ever think I could do anything without help, and that none of my inventions worked? Admittedly, few of them did, but what's life without a couple of slip-ups? But I got more slip-ups than usual. I got probably more than half the colony together. Still, there was little I could do about it today. I had decided that, since everyone bar Dot though my inventions didn't work, that the best way to show them that they did was for them to see this invention working the first time that they happened to see it. I had therefore hid the grain-harvester last night before I had gone to sleep. I set to work using this invention.


The morning gradually passed. Once I had a fair collection of food, I put it into a basket and started to drag it towards the clearing where the offering stone. I made more grunts of tiredness then was necessary. As I had hoped, some worker ants noticed what I was doing and came and helped me bring it to the offering stone. After we shoved the flood onto the leaf on the stone, Thorny gave me a thumbs-up, to show that he approved of what I was doing. I went back to my invention and resumed what I was doing.


Nothing more eventful happened for a while. It was a bit after lunch that things took a turn for the worse. I had just finished with one stalk and catapulted it into the air as usual when I heard voices aimed at me. Turning around and lifting my protective mask up, I saw the four ants of the council, plus the Queen (holding Aphie) and Dot gathered around the stalk I had just catapulted.

'You could have killed someone over here!' Dr. Flora was yelling.

I gasped, threw my mask aside and ran over, saying 'I'm sorry!' over and over again. As I got there, they lifted the stalk off... Princess Atta! Of all the ants, it had to be Atta! This would ruin my already slim chances with her, and, unlike the others, she knew nothing of the good I had done that morning!

'Flik, what are you doing?' she asked, as she got to her feet.

'What? Oh, oh this,' I replied, gesturing to the machine on my back. 'This is my new idea for harvesting grain.' I turned around to show her how it worked. 'No more picking individual kernels, you can just cut down the entire stalk!'

I heard her say 'Flik, we don't have time for this!'

'Exactly!' I said turning around. 'We never have time to collect food for ourselves, because we spend all summer harvesting for the offering. But my invention will speed up production!'

'Another invention!' she uttered.

'Yeah, and I've got something for you too,' I added, remembering my idea from this morning. Since you're going to be Queen soon –' I picked up part of the stalk and wound it into a small spiral '– you can use this to oversee production!'

I went over to Dr. Flora. 'Dr. Flora, if I may?' I took the dew from the plant she was carrying. 'This is all very nice, but...' I heard Atta say. I went back to her.

'Just an ordinary blade of grass, and a bead of dew, right?' I asked, holding them out.

'Flik, please...'

'Wrong! It is in fact –' I put them together '– a telescope!' I heard Dot and the Queen chuckle. If they liked it, Atta might too! I couldn't think of anything wrong with this invention.

'It's very clever, Flik...' she said slowly.

'Hello princess!' I said, looking at her through the telescope. She looked even more beautiful close-up! My, aren't you looking lovely this morning!' I lowered it slightly. 'Not, of course, that you wouldn't need a telescope to see that...' and things might have gotten better then, if I had not been interrupted.

'All right, listen!' yelled Thorny, grabbing the telescope and tossing it aside. 'The princess doesn't have time for this! You want to help us fill this thing? Then get rid of that machine, get back in line, and pick grain like everyone else!'

'Like everyone else!' added Cornelius.

'Please Flik,' said Atta. 'Just go.'

'I'm sorry,' I added, hoping that that would fix it. 'I was really just trying to –' Thorny and Cornelius pointed me away '– trying to help...' I walked off slowly, feeling them staring at me as I walked off. All the good I had done that morning was effectively undone!


I was halfway towards the place where I had previously hid my invention, intending to leave it there for good, when I heard a voice behind me.

'Flik, Flik, wait up!' I turned around and saw Dot running towards me, with my telescope in her hands.

'Oh. Hello, princess.'

'You can call me Dot.' She held up the telescope. 'Here, you forgot this.'

'Thanks, you can keep it; I can make another one...' I said, somewhat gloomily.

'I like you inventions.'

'Really,' I said, my arms folded. 'Well, you're the first. I'm beginning to think nothing I do works...'

'This works!' She looked at me through the telescope.

'Great...' I said sarcastically. 'One success!' I sighed. 'I'm never going to make a difference...'

'Me neither,' said Dot, looking down on the ground. 'I'm a royal ant and I can't even fly yet. I'm too little.'

'Aw, being little's not such a bad thing.' I said in a concerned voice. At least she didn't have to do any work, would be Queen one day and got plenty of respect!

'Yes it is!'

'No, it's not!'

'Is too!'

'Is not!'

'Is too!'

'Is not!'

'Is too!'

'Is not!'

'Is too!'

'Is... A seed. I-I need a seed. Uh...' I looked around for a seed, but there wasn't one in sight. I then noticed a rock. I picked it up.

'Here, here,' I said, swapping it for the telescope Dot was holding, placing the latter on the ground.

'Pretend-pretend that that's a seed.'

Dot stared at the rock.

'It's a rock.'

'Oh, I know it's a rock. I know, but let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed. We'll just use out imagination. You see our tree?'

We looked up at the giant tree that towered above us.

'Everything that made that GIANT tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs it some time, a little bit of sunshine & rain and... Voila!'

Dot glanced down and the rock again.

'This rock will be a tree?'

'Seed to tree. You've got to work with me on that, alright?'

I took the rock and held it.

'Now, you may now feel like you can do much, but that's just because... Well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed.'

She stared at me for a few seconds. 'But it's a rock.'

'I know it's a rock!' I yelled, standing up. 'Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!'

'You're weird, but I like you.' Dot had just picked up the telescope when we heard a very familiar blast. We both gasped, me dropping the rock.

'They're here.'

We heard the blast a couple more times, and then the unmistakeable sound of the ants scattering.

Dot ran back to the clearing, yelling 'Mom, mom, where are you?' I ran after her, but after a few feet my invention got stuck on something and catapulted me back a few feet, scattering the kernels that had been in it. While I gathered them up as quickly as I could, I heard more voices, though they were too distant to make out the words. When I finished, I ran back to the clearing. Just before I got there, I heard Princess Atta saying 'OK, that's everyone!' When I emerged, she had already gone into the anthill.

'Hey,' I cried. 'Hey wait for me!' I ran to the offering stone, saying to myself 'Get the food to the offering stone, then into the anthill!' I got there, took off the machine threw it next to the pile of food and ran towards the anthill. I was halfway there when I heard a noise behind me. Turning around I saw the rock slipping, the food off the ledge behind it.

'Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!' I cried running back to the stone. All the food was falling very fast. I grabbed the leaf and tried to save some of the food, but my attempts were fruitless. Every last piece of food fell off. Looking over the edge, I saw, with a pang of horror that it had all sunk into a small puddle.

'Oh, no.' I then heard the gradually-getting-louder sound of buzzing.

'Princess Atta! Princess Atta!' I yelled running back to the anthill. 'Princess Atta!' I ran inside just in time; the buzzing had gotten very loud.


I got to the bunker in the anthill as quick as I could. Reaching the crowd, I broke through to the small stone that the Queen, Dot and Atta were on.

'Princess Atta, there's something I need to tell you...'

'Not now, Flik!' she whispered without even turning around

'But your highness, it's about the offering!'

'Shh!' she hissed.

I held a finger between my teeth as we heard feet landing on ground above, waiting for the inevitable to happenl.

'Hey what's going on?' said a voice above us.

'Yeah, where's the food?' said another.

All the ants gasped. Predictably, Atta turned around to me.

'What did you do!'

Every ant turned to face me.

'It was an accident,' I said timidly.

I dared to think what would have happened next, if we had not been interrupted.


Approximate Movie Running Time: 00:01-00:10