The rainy season is well underway. The drilling on the ground floor is tearing up the concrete. And all this means is that the ants are more desperate than ever. On this lump of jungle surrounded by the South China Sea, ants are omnipresent (but usually only in kitchens). Today I found a line of them in a novel I normally keep on my bedside table, nowhere near any source of food unless, that is, their appetite has taken a literary turn. Food is not even in the title. Very desperate indeed.
In high school, I remember going to the bathroom at a friend’s house and seeing a perfect line of black ants marching neatly from a crack in the window across the white wall tiles to an unlit scented candle on top of the toilet. I told my friend’s mother, a white American woman, a twitchy lady who dreamed of being French, so much so that she had married and divorced a wealthy Moroccan man in pursuit of this dream. She used to drive us around and go on and on about how it was all a mistake. My friend, to show she knew that she was a product of this mistaken dream, used to wear ripped skinny jeans, doc martens, and patches from punk rock bands attached with safety pins.
My friend’s mother cocked her head and told me I was not to touch the ants. They’re good luck, she insisted. I said I would not touch them. It’s in the Quran, she insisted.
I don’t keep in touch with that friend anymore. But I still follow her mother’s advice. Ants just go away if you just keep clean and put food away. For once, I can say I have never been overwhelmed by something.
When I found ants in the novel this afternoon, I searched “Quran ants luck” on google and no luck. But I did find something about dreams:
“Understanding the language of ants in a dream means sovereignty, leadership and prosperity. If one sees ants entering his house and carrying food in a dream, it means prosperity in that family. If one sees ants leaving his house and carrying food with them in a dream, it means poverty. Seeing ants coming out of one's nostrils, ears, mouth or any part of his body and rejoicing at that sight in the dream means martyrdom. However, if one seems unhappy to see that in his dream, it means dying in sin. Flying ants in a dream also represent a robbery. Killing ants in a dream means cruelty against weak people.”