{"id":469,"date":"2018-06-10T11:02:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-10T15:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/?page_id=469"},"modified":"2018-06-10T11:02:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-10T15:02:36","slug":"big-little","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/stories\/big-little\/","title":{"rendered":"Big, Little"},"content":{"rendered":"

She decided to take a walk, to clear her head. She locked the door to the building and slipped the key in her pocket. She headed north towards town, away from the river, away from her two-story, somewhat historic building.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is a big place,\u201d she thought, feeling small and lost. \u00a0She walked out of the sun and passed under the oak tree. The shade offered some coolness but no relief from the June humidity. <\/span><\/p>\n

She tripped on a crack in the sidewalk; \u00a0stumbled but didn\u2019t fall. Over the years, the oak\u2019s root system had shifted, cracked and raised a portion of the concrete. Kate paused and watched the row of ants pouring forth from the crack where she\u2019d disturbed them with her near fall. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnts! One thing leads to another,\u201d Kate said out loud to no one. \u201cThe root sends out a shoot. The sidewalk cracks. The ants move in. \u00a0The world\u2019s a big place with so many tiny components\u201d, she thought, \u201ctearing down what we–I–build up.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She resumed her walk. She passed the library, closed now on a Sunday. She stopped and looked in the consignment store window, also closed. Rows of clothes, shelves of knickknacks, outdated electronics, used books. Sweat ran down her back. She rounded the corner and sat down on a bench under two trees–a reprieve from the heat. <\/span><\/p>\n

A mockingbird fussed overhead. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kate looked up. \u201cNot to worry,\u201d she said. But the bird continued its chatter. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYep, I get it,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t be certain of me and my intentions, what may or may not happen.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She looked down and saw a mosquito land on her arm. She swatted it. It left a bloody streak on her arm. She shuddered? \u201cJust whose blood is this you have siphoned off?\u201d \u00a0she asked as she used her finger to wipe it away. \u201cYuk,\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s a big place but the tiny things are my problem,\u201d she told the bird who was still fidgeting in the branches. She rose from the bench. She looked up. \u201cI\u2019m just hoping that \u00a0the winged-ants I spotted are truly ants and not termites, taking tiny bites out of my building–my brick building no less. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kate pulled her phone from her pocket to dial the pest-exterminator. A second later, she put it back, remembering that it was Sunday. \u00a0She scratched the whelp on her arm, left by the mosquito bite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Glenda Kotchish<\/span><\/p>\n

June 10, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She decided to take a walk, to clear her head. She locked the door to the building and slipped the key in her pocket. She headed north towards town, away from the river, away from her two-story, somewhat historic building. \u201cThe world is a big place,\u201d she thought, feeling small and lost. \u00a0She walked out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":470,"parent":33,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-469","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469\/revisions\/471"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}