it came from the pearless pear tree

He was climbing up the outside of my coffee mug.

I remember thinking I hope he doesn’t fall in which I thought was a pessimistic thought because he was traveling more sidewise than towards the top to the rim.

But then he change his course almost as taking my concern as a dare and he traverse the rim and then started down and inside, so I approached him with an index finger to flick him up and away but I ended up knocking him in.

No worries – I thought he’s just a carpenter ant, he’s floating on top, I’ll fish him out. He was struggling, I readied my finger once again but before I could reach him he went under the surface. I thought –no worries, ants usually float, he’ll resurface – so I waited but he didn’t resurface.

I stared at the place where he went under and stared some more. The coffee was good, I didn’t want to just dump it but I didn’t want to drink a bug either and then I saw some slight movement under the surface so I put my finger just to the front of the motion and gently made a scooping movement and out came the ant on my finger, who I then flung to the lawn.

And then I wondered what else might be in that mug and not wanting to really find out I poured out the last half inch coffee.