The Messy Desk

The Messy Desk It was a damp morning and I was sitting inside watching the rain drops splash onto the sand making it wet and slushy to walk on. I took a glance at my desk...The messiest desk ever! I walked over to it and drew a big sigh and to my great, great, great astonishment, a little ant came up and talked to me! She started out as, “Yuck!”, big welcome speech, I know, right? “Not even an ant can live in this “paradise” if she can't live without a wasp or a roach knocking on her door, just waiting to devour her!”, she spat out in disgust. “Um...Who are you?”, I demanded, nervously hoping she wouldn't have super-natural powers and turn me into some garden lizard. “Oh! where are my manners? I'm Cheenu, the sixth ant of the fifth column, fifty second row, thirty fifth line and ...” “Come on, give me a break! Term holidays just started!”, I thought to myself, getting annoyed at the thought of another math lecture. “And who may you be, oh, four feet tall giant who is standing before me?”, she questioned dramatically. “Oh...I'm Ananya...One millionth person you'd expect to be talking to an ant in this world.”, I murmured, praying fervently that she wouldn't whip out a gun and declare that I was her greatest enemy, like Buzz Lightyear did to Woody in Toy Story 3. “Nice to meet you, Ananya!”, she answered warmly motioning me to shake her antenna. In a minute, she was scurrying across my desk muttering something that sounded like this, “We'll need that thrown away...Ah, yes, a vase here and maybe just a little penholder thing over there, ooh! And a nice little pin-up board on top to remind you to not mess up your desk again. There, perfecto!”. Suddenly, I felt a bright bluish green light grip me and before I knew it, I was whisked away to some unknown land!At first, I was scared, but, when I looked around I just forgot to scream my head off and run away into the horizon. The sky was the brightest blue I had ever seen, the soil was smooth and warm unlike the harsh concrete floor I had been used to, I could smell tulips and lavenders in the fresh air blowing across my face, the crocuses were lovely to just gaze at, the clouds were as white as a brand new layer of snow, the sun shone brightly like a ball of gold. It was breathtaking to behold nature in such a beautiful way! Then and there, I knew that I would never forget this bright blue sky I had seen today. “Enjoying the scenery, are we?”, asked Cheenu, interrupting my pleasant thoughts. “Why have you brought me here?”, I demanded, purposely ignoring her question. “Oh, only because of your desk...”, deliberately letting her voice trail off. “What does this have to do with my desk?”, I questioned, even though I wasn't really surprised. “The only reason why I brought you hear was because there's a clean desk competition held by our mayor, King Antie Anty Anter Antag Anta Anten Antem Antman Antan.”, she replied. “Mr. Antie Anter -wait, what?”, I asked, seriously confused. “We call him King Nine A's.”, she said, smirking at my “slow” thinking process. “Okay...I think.”, I said, a bit unsurely.”Anyways, we have to go enter you into the competition!”, she cried anxiously and grabbed my hand and made me run to wherever she was taking me. “Here we are!”, she cried, sounding a bit nervous but at the same time delighted. I looked up and saw a huge anthill in sitting in front of my eyes, but, this wasn't a normal two feet anthill you'd see on a jungle trek! This anthill was taller than the tallest skyscraper in the world and looked like a fairytale castle, that too, with the most vibrant colors I had ever seen!Cheenu, literally, had to pull me inside as I was so awe-struck by this humongous building made by such tiny things of which we don't take any notice in our lives. When I entered the anthill, or rather the castle, I saw thick red carpets strewn on the floor, portraits and photographs of very posh looking ant ladies with beehive hair-dos, ant sports jocks in sweatshirts with bandanas on their pimple sized heads, ant duchesses and dukes in princely robes holding scepters and curtsying , and old ant grannies in babushkas. I looked ahead and saw an ant dressed in flowing robes, his hair slightly greying, sitting on a throne, holding a scepter in his right hand and the other hand cautiously moving to his decorated sword hilt, with a wise look on his face. “Greetings Your Royal Antiness! I have come from the sixth house on Antsfort Avenue in the Desk of Danger and Disgustingness to enter Ananya, um, I mean, this human, standing beside me, into the Desk Competition on the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the fifth century, um, I mean twenty first century!”, she announced proudly and a bit nervously, bowing down before King Nine A's. “Rise Cheenu, ant from the sixth house on Antsfort Avenue! This human will be allowed to participate in the fourth competition of all ants from the Desk of Danger and Disgustingness which is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the twenty first century!”, he declared grandly. “Yes!”, both of us chorused, slapping a high-five onto each other's palm/sole. When we got back to the human world the first thing I did was stare at my desk for about a millionth of a second before exclaiming, “Cheenu! The fifth of June is tomorrow! How am I supposed to clear this up in one afternoon and evening put together?!”. She simply smiled and let a shrill whistle escape from her lips. I thought that I would be looking at every single dog in the country, the next minute. But instead, every single bird and insect were hopping onto my “oh so messy” desk. “Tweet, tweet! What can we do for you?”, asked one of the sparrows, curtsying cheerfully. “All you have to do is clear up and decorate “Madame Messy's” desk.”, she replied, glancing so sternly at me that I started to shift uncomfortably, ashamed of my “cleanliness”. “Ooh! I love cleaning things up!”, cried out a few beetles and spiders. “Great! Now, let's not be desk potatoes, and get some work done!”, said Cheenu, encouragingly. “Huzzah! Huzzah! It is time do something! Huzzah! Huzzah! But, hide when the telephones go ‘ tring'! Huzzah! Huzzah! We love cleaning up! Huzzah! Huzzah!None of us are lazy grumps!”, they all chimed into what was, probably, their “Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!”. “In a few extremely short hours my desk was the most “natural” looking desk on earth! Mrs. Chibby and Mrs. Chuzzette, the lovely old spiders spun detailed spider webs on the top and corners of my desk, Amanda and Miranda, the weavers, had built pen holders out of their funky nest material and John and Gabby, the beetles, had made glow-in the-dark paper ball lamps hanging from the top! It was awesome and I seriously wished that I had thought of taking a snap using the photo booth app in my laptop! The next day, we presented it and got second place, because some brainy ant computer jock had made a desk out of a computer and attached automatic iTunes to it. But still, I was the winner in the eyes of the cool beetles, wasps, ants, sparrows, parrots and macaws who helped me. Later, as usual, we had to say goodbye. I almost cried like a baby, that day! Cheenu bid a silent farewell and entered her home on Antsfort Avenue in the Desk of Dazzlement and Daintiness. She still visits me every now and then and we take crazy selfies and have some fun during those special moments. Who knows? You might be the next one to find yourself talking to an ant!