The Ant and the Spider

There lived an Ant, small and frail. This Ant spent every hour of every day of his young life working; tending to its boss, the Ant Queen. The Ant lived with a Spider, who was large, and had a black abdomen, with a red hourglass shape on it. Despite its appearance, the Spider cared for the Ant, providing shelter as well as food and other amenities the Ant needed.

The Spider worked alone; its only job was to collect food for it and the Ant, and to keep their shelter standing up and away from any predators that would harm either of the two. When the Ant was not working, it stayed home with the Spider, playing games such as, "Bet How Many Flies Get Caught in the Web" or "What's That Insect?"

The Ant cared for the Spider, and the Spider cared for the Ant. Despite what they looked like, they cared for each other, and it would be like that for a very long time.

At the beginning of the week, the Ant woke up reluctantly for work, as it had been playing "What's That Insect?" with the Spider the previous night for a very long time. It got out of his little shell embedded in the web, and waved goodbye to the Spider.

"I'll be seeing you later!" it called, still seeming a bit tired.

The Spider was up, waiting for breakfast. "Oh, are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" the Spider said, sympathetically.

"I'm―ah, what the heck. Sure," the Ant said, turning away from the exit. "I do have to travel quite a bit today!"

"My goodness!" said the Spider in surprise. "How long will you be?"

"Dunno! The Queen's sending us all out for something she wants us to do. I guess she sees a new spot for her nest? Maybe she's looking for a new hole out somewhere? Ah I don't know! All I know is, it will be very exciting."

"Well I am happy for you, don't forget that."

"I'm glad." The Ant gave a respectful smile.

"You be careful when I'm gone, alright? Let's hope no rain comes out today! I doubt that it will though. It's been quite sunny these past few weeks."

"Haha, okay," chuckled the Spider. "Here―"

And with this, the Spider handed the Ant a bit of food, placed it in its tiny pack, strapped it onto its abdomen, and hugged it goodbye. It was not just until the Ant exited their little shelter that the Spider cried out "Be safe!"

The Ant smiled, and made its way out onto the street. Here, cars passed in great numbers―to the Ant's knowledge, it never knew why. Instead of making a right to the other side of the street, the Ant walked the other direction, each step feeling more confident as to where it was going. It counted each car that passed by, somehow losing count after ten. It also tried identifying the weird symbols on the backs and fronts of each car, however only ending up counting seven weird symbols.

After walking what seemed like forever, the Ant made its way to the end of the street, which, attached to a large pole, was a white sign, that read, Avenue des Nations Unies. It had no idea what this meant; all it knew was to follow the giant metal pointed object that jutted out from the ground majestically.

It crossed the street carefully, dodging the gigantic vehicles hurtling towards it with perfection. On the other side the Ant viewed a bridge, in which another white sign read Place de Varsovie―almost there, thought the Ant to itself. It continued to walk, being watchful as to not be stepped on by any passersby.

That was the thrill that the Ant loved so much in its work―watching out for giant shoes and other insects that might want to get ahold of itself. In thinking about this, the Ant caught glimpse of something else―it seemed to be two giant pillars, with two concrete statues that the Ant could not make out what they were. In between was a space where cars drove by, the Ant feeling surprised by the look of the suspended piece of concrete carrying so much weight, It walked on the side of the bridge, feeling the air hit it softly, already missing its dear Spider.