Cupcake

Cupcake
Eric walks everyday. He’s never been a huge fan of it, but he knows it’s what he has to do. Eric walks to find food, that might be a leaf, it might be an apple core, or breadcrumb. Whatever it is that he finds he must bring back to his colony. It’s all for everyone.
Each day when Eric leaves the hill he calls home behind, and walks down from its peak, through a forest of grass he begins his hunt. He can’t return until he has found something to bring back. It’s not a rule, it's just understood.
Today Eric has brought back a crisp green leaf. It had fallen too early from an elm tree, and was laying uselessly in the dirt. Eric knew the amount of provisions this leaf would provide to his colony. Eric also knew that this leaf was fresh, and spotless. Its color was immaculate. Eric knew it would taste as good as it looked but he just hoisted it up with his mandibles and made his way back to the hill he calls home.
The ants in charge of the food supply excitedly took Eric's leaf from his pincers and brought it into storage. As the doors closed behind them Eric hoped he would get to try it tonight, he should know better.
Once Eric and all the other forager ants had gathered in their feeding tunnel, dinner was served. At Eric’s end of the food pile he saw his options were apple core, lint, some drops of nectar, a hunk of some kind of cheese. At the opposite end where his colleagues David and Margot were sitting he saw an almond, a maggot, but most importantly he saw his leaf. Eric tried
to shimmy his way down to that end but there were too many ants in the way. He kept pushing in vain as he watched David take a nice large bite of his leaf. All Eric could think was “NO! That’s mine!” But in the back of his mind Eric knew that wasn’t his leaf, it was everyone’s leaf.
Eric went to bed with a half empty stomach. Half was filled with lint and the other was hollow out of respect for the leaf that he wished had been his.
By the morning Eric had recovered from his despair. Today was new, he might be at a good end of the table tonight. So Eric left the hill he calls home, down its face, through the grass forest and on his hunt. Today was tough. There wasn’t much around that caught Eric’s eyes. Breadcrumbs left by birds, tree fungus, but nothing he thought was all that appetizing. Eric was just getting ready to resign himself to an overnight search until he found it. A nice busted peach, rotting on ground next to a towering structure. Eric had only ever heard of the flies den, he’d never seen it with his own eyes. They buzzed high above him, frantically looking for a piece of treasure to crawl over. One was on the ground scuttling over Eric’s peach.
“Excuse me!” Eric tried to call, but the fly was too busy feasting. “Hello, hello?” He looked up at Eric.
“Is there something I can help you with, ant?”
“I was hoping to maybe take a portion of your peach there.”
“What did you just say?”
“Can I take a portion of your pea-”
“Exactly! MY peach. Go find your own!” Eric left quickly. He didn’t think it was a good idea to try and talk to the fly anymore. “MY peach,” Eric thought. It was all his. Eric ended up finding a little red berry from a bush. For some reason it weighed heavy in his pincers as he carried it back to the hill. When Eric arrived back to the hill, he handed over his
berry and watched as it disappeared behind the storage room doors, just like everything else he had ever found. He took a place in the dining tunnel waiting for dinner to be served. He saw his colleagues, David and Margot, were at the far end of the tunnel. David had never been a good forager, Eric thought. He always brought back spotty leaves, and the moldiest cheese. Margot wasn’t much better. She once brought back a wad of pink sticky goo that got stuck to her antennae, and ripped it off when she tried to free herself. How come they got to eat his leaf yesterday and he didn’t?
When dinner was served Eric once again watched as David and Margot ate the food he found. He watched the juice from the berry burst out the sides as they bit down. He watched their mandibles push the flesh of the fruit into their mouths. He watched for so long he forgot to eat. When he looked away all the food that had been in front of him was gone.
The next day Eric woke up hungry. He left the hill in a hurry to begin his search as fast as possible. He walked far and he walked fast. Eric wasn’t even sure where he was trying to go. The sun hung low over the horizon before Eric stopped. He had run into something. A Cupcake. Its top was pink with sprinkles of yellow and blue. Eric looked around, where even was he? Why had no one else found this? Its wrapper was missing and a human size bite was missing. But other than that the towering treat was deserted. Eric knew what he should do. He should take a piece back to turn in. He didn’t want to though. Eric knew the cupcake would never reach his pincers if he brought it back. He thought of David, he thought of Margot sitting with his leaf. David’s stupid mouth all over what was his! His leaf ended up being for everyone. But this cupcake was just going to be for one.
Eric walked to the face of the cupcake and dug his pincers in. It was chocolate. Eric had never tasted chocolate cake before. He’d only had it on a strawberry once. He knew none of the
other ants had tried chocolate cake either. He thought it would be better if they never did. He found it after all, not them.
Eric ate his way through the middle of the cupcake, burrowing tunnels all the way through it till he came up and out through the top. He emerged covered in sweet pink frosting. Eric thought he could just let himself drown in that frosting. He thought he must look like David and Margot in this moment, his face full of food, stuck in pink goo. He might drown in the frosting, he couldn’t move his limbs through it well. He thought he might have to eat his way out. That wouldn’t be the worst thing he thought. Eric felt like the fly with his peach. If anyone were around he wouldn't notice them right away either. What Eric did notice was the feeling of fullness in his gut. He could stop and bring some back to the colony, but he didn’t care about them. This was HIS cupcake.