Some Drones

Once upon a time, a man’s adventure met an End.

Relieved, he set off on foot back to where he'd been before the adventure's Beginning, stopping at a roadside cafe along the way.

It was empty but for a waitress.

‘Where have you been?’ she called out to his clothes, eying them as she did, before him.

And do you know; the man couldn’t remember for the life of him where he’d been or what he’d done. Gazing down at his shoes, there was only a dim sense of having done something.

"Is this the Beginning or the Middle of the story?" he asked aloud, to himself as much as the waitress.

She laughed politely at first, and then violently, seeming to take the question as a joke on his part.

Her laughter soon died.

The man was not laughing or smiling. He looked confused. So confused it was funny. She spilt a friendly giggle his way, and invited him to take a seat. Still looking confused, the man accepted the offer, and sunk into one of the stools by the counter.

He resolved, after a moment’s consideration, to solve the mystery over a cup of coffee.

I’ll know where I’m going after this, he thought.

A cup
Of muddy sludge duly arrived.

The man licked hard on dry lips, 'long without water', he seemed to remember.

As he reached out for his drink, the waitress’s eyes grew suddenly very large. Mouth agape, she stumbled back, as if in slow motion, bringing a bag of sugar down from its shelf.

It was then that the man noticed the ants.

Ants everywhere.

Covering the walls, covering the counter and floor.

Some, the size of large house-spiders, others no bigger than they should have been.

Why had he not noticed before?

Looking around, seeing how they crawled over each other; it was if the room was moving, breathing; as if one were holidaying in the beating heart of some single, nameless, hideous, and preferably lonely life form.

“Fancy that”, he said in quiet exclamation to himself, questions forming.

But fear was all-around.

The waitress screamed at the bloody stumps reaching for coffee,

"Maybe it's the bit after a major shift in narrative?!"

“Tell me about the ants”, he said, seeming to not hear the question.

“What about your hands?” she asked, eyes wider than ever.

Not much of the story is known after this exchange. Some say he drank the coffee in huge gulps while others say he took his time. All agree, however, he may have wanted a straw.

An End.