Memoirs of Ali
Chapter Three
. . . (hey, that rhymes)
Just to clear things up: Yes, Ali is a boy. ^^
* * * * *
Violet was the first to recover. She sprang to her feet and grabbed me by the leg, pulling me up along with her.
“You –” I started to yell, but she beat me down.
“Shhh! Don't move! I need to figure out where we are!”
She scurried away from me and began pacing around the metal belly. The foul smell was even stronger now and a painfully strong wind was blowing all around us. Piled up on all sides were what seemed to be –
“Nets,” Violet said, feeling their thin strong fibers. “And we're moving. We're inside of something large and probably alive, and it's taking us away from the woods, but I don't think it will hurt us. It hasn't noticed us yet, so it's probably too stupid. We should be okay.”
“Okay?!” I screeched. “Ten seconds ago you were trying to kill me!”
“That was ten seconds ago,” Violet said firmly.
“But –”
Violet hissed. “Brother, I have no affection for you and so help me I will eat you alive if I think it's practical, but right now it's not! We can help each other survive!”
“I'm not going to help you survive,” I said, glowering at her.
“Then I'll eat you now and save us all the trouble,” said Violet.
“Oh, fine then,” I growled. “But it won't matter anyway, because we're not going to get out of this alive.”
Violet just rubbed her graspers together.
“We will,” she said, “you'll see. So stop whining.”
To my great surprise, she turned out to be right. Our ride in the pickup truck (for, as I found out later, that was what it was) lasted for several hours, but Violet never slept. She climbed up to the top of the pile of nets and kept watch, waiting for an opportunity for us to escape. I, on the other hand, remained still and useless on the floor. I hope you will not blame me for this. I was aching all over from the fall, but worse than that, I was sure I was never going to see my own home again. More than anything I wanted to hear Aspen's voice, whether reassuring me or telling me I was a stupid little bug, I didn't care. I could hear Violet goading and insulting me from above, but I couldn't care less; I had become fairly listless with despair.
To this day I do not know how long the ride lasted. I do remember, however, that sometime in the night I was roused out of my stupor by what seemed to be soft, high-pitched singing. Curious in spite of myself, I pulled myself to my feet and crawled up the nets a little bit to see what was going on.
Violet was standing on her hind four legs, her front legs and graspers spread wide and her wings aligned. As I watched she would move, her body shifting and twisting gracefully, silhouetted by the glow of moonlight coming from the sky. And she was singing.
Mantis, mantis, move towards me,
Move your legs in rhyme with me,
In the moonlight, under the leaves,
I am ready. Come unto me.
She turned towards me. I made to scurry back undercover, but I was too slow; she had seen me.
“You!” she said fiercely. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” I retorted. I had not meant to sound so nasty – in fact, I had quite enjoyed the dance, more than I cared to admit. Surprisingly, though, Violet didn't snap at me again.
“I am preparing a dance,” she said. “A dance, so that when I meet a young male stronger and more graceful than yourself, we can charm each other and mate.”
I stood there, feeling confused. It had been many weeks since Aspen had first told me about the “sweet scents,” and I was starting to understand what she had meant, but to actually see a mating dance in action was something else. No wonder I had liked it so much. Without saying another word to Violet, I scrambled back down to my cranny at the bottom of the truck, running through my mind what I had seen and heard.
Violet had been beautiful – actually beautiful. A strange, revitalizing feeling was spreading all over me and I was of half a mind to rush out into the open again to watch her some more. Perhaps you think it strange that I feel such about my sister, and my hated sister at that, but among insects this is not as odd or forbidden as it is with some creatures.
Nonetheless, I had a feeling that it would never lead to anything – and it never did. The kind of closeness that I knew was required for pursuit was something I could never risk with Violet – she was just too dangerous. Maybe I just wasn't a mantis meant for courtship.
Then, however, Aspen's words came back to me. “You can't die before making a couple of kids. Not in this world. Not when you're a vermin. Nothing's more important.” But was it really the most important thing in the world?
* * * * * * *
“Hey, you! Get your act together – come on!”
I was on my feet before I was properly awake; my legs were weak beneath me and I lurched.
“Come on, you useless bug!” I heard Violet shouting. “We've stopped – it's time to get out!”
I looked blearily at her and she struck me in the face. That woke me up.
“Come on, come on!”
My sister was right. We had indeed stopped; the truck stood still and cool again in gravelly lawn. The sun was warm on my back, and towering above us was something huge . . . almost like a mountain.
But it was too square to be a mountain: too ordered, too artificial. It seemed to be made out of bricks. I stared at it for a few seconds, dazzled, before I noticed Violet scurrying down the side of the truck.
Well, for a second she seemed to be scurrying, but then she stumbled, her feet sliding on the smooth, shiny surface. Just as I thought she was about to fall into thin air, however, she extended her two wings and actually flew, unharmed, to the ground.
“Now it's your turn!” I heard her shout up at me.
I turned my head to look at the two silvery wings resting next to my abdomen. Could I do it? Steeling myself, I crawled up the mass of nets and made a leapt for it.
My feet slid on the truck's side just as Violet's had and I felt myself falling sideways. The hard, rocky ground was only a little ways away and I was falling headfirst – terrified, I spread out my wings and beat them furiously. I would like to say that I flew, but in actuality my efforts didn't prevent me from falling. They did slow my fall, however, and saved me from any serious injury.
Violet was not impressed.
“That was pathetic,” she said, and I was inclined to agree. However, she began to lead me across the lawn before I could so much as say a word, walking so fast I had to flutter my wings some more to keep up.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We're going to find another insect,” Violet said at once, “and ask him where we are.”
“What if we can't find anyone who will tell us?”
“We can persuade them,” said Violet, her eyes gleaming. “Here we go.”
She had stopped at a small cluster of wildflowers. Waving my antennae to pick up their scent, I could tell that there was probably an insect living inside. I could not tell which kind. Violet, however, seemed confident.
“You in there!” she said, clicking her jaws together menacingly. “We're strangers here, and we'd like you to tell us where we are, who lives here, and where we can find food and shelter. If you don't come out quickly, we're coming in there and finding you.”
There was a brief silence. Then a wrinkled brown grasshopper poked its head out of the flowers.
“'Ey there . . .” he said in a groggy voice. “And a very good day to you two . . . er . . . are you dragonflies? 'Cause my uncle used to tell my stories about them dragonflies and I wondered . . .”
“We're not dragonflies,” said Violet.“We're mantises.”
“Mantids?” said the grasshopper. “My uncle told 'bout them, too. 'Said they ain't as pretty as them dragonflies, but hey. Well, then, mantids, you wanted to know . . . sorry, I must've forgotten – what did you want?”
I bit back a laugh. The grasshopper didn't seem old – in fact, I guessed that he was quite young – but his eyes were glassy and absent and he walked with a drunken lilt. I noticed that one of his legs was covered in mud and he seemed to be having some trouble with it; it seemed stiff, at least. Violet looked as if she were keeping her temper with great difficulty.
“We want to know where we are,” she said, “and where we can find food and shelter.”
“Well, I'm not sure about the food an' shelter,” said the grasshopper, “but I can, you know, tell you where you are. This is the Cultivated Country and the territory of the chief Spider and the honeybee colony and a lot of others too.”
“Cultivated Country?” said Violet with interest. “What does that mean?”
“Well, I'm not exactly sure,” said the grasshopper, “but I think it has something to do with the big house yonder . . . the one that seems like a mountain, only square, you know? There's a human and his daughter livin' in there and they take care of the land, like. So it's Cultivated Country. It's beneficial to us. That's what the honeybees say – humans are beneficial to us.”
“There are humans here?” I said with interest. “Really?”
“The finest humans you ever – hey, what's wrong with the lady?”
I turned. Violet was walking away faster than I had ever seen her walk. As she disappeared into the tall grass I caught a glimpse of her face. She looked nauseated, horrified.
“Violet doesn't like humans,” I said quietly.
“Ah, well, not everyone does,” said the grasshopper. “The chief Spider doesn't think highly of 'em either. But they're not all bad, see. What's your name?”
“You know about names?” I said.
“Oh yeah. Seems like most people don't nowadays, don't it? But I think they should be important . . . 'specially since . . . well . . .” He seemed to shake himself. “. . . some things. Anyway – yours?”
“I'm Ali,” I said.
“Toby,” said the grasshopper, “and if you ever need any more assistance . . .” He trailed off, looking hopeful.
“I'm sorry, Toby, but I'm a praying mantis,” I explained, a bit amused. “I – well, I eat grasshoppers sometimes.”
“Oh.” Toby looked crestfallen. “Well . . . could you do me a favor an' not eat my uncle? Please? He's big and fat and looks like a cricket. Promise me.”
“Okay,” I said, laughing. “I promise you.”
So began my life in Cultivated Country, the place I was to learn to call home for the rest of my life. And as it turned out, Violet was to turn out to be the very least of my problems there.
