Fire Ants Quotes

“My husband is nervous about a lot of things down here, like the monstrous size of the fire ants and the quality of the gasoline, because half the time the gas stations are out, the nozzles bundled up in black garbage bags, or the credit card readers don't work or the attendant is a shirtless man with a hip flask tucked into the waistband of his shorts. I keep trying to explain that this is a place with its own laws.”
― Laura van den Berg, State of Paradise

“You're just like your degenerate mother," Sienna told her and turned away to head back to the house.
Until that moment, Brigid hadn't fought back. "How would you know?" she called out loud enough for the maintenance men to hear. "You never met my mother, you fucking psycho."
Sienna wheeled around, a wide smile on her face, raring to fight. "Go ahead. Speak your mind. You'll be out on the street blowing strangers for Snickers bars by the end of the day."
Brigid had heard enough. "Well then, I guess I have nothing to lose." She stood up and pushed her lounge chair to the side. There, beneath it, was a mound of soil she'd first noticed days earlier. She'd spent hours watching its inhabitants, marveling at the complexity of their world. She hadn't wanted to see the colony eradicated, so she'd covered it up with the chair. Now she placed a bare foot at the center of the fire ant hill. Thousands of insects accepted the invitation. Soon they'd formed a thick line that started at her toe and reached all the way to her palm.
Sienna watched with amusement. "If you think I'm going to help you, you've lost your mind. You're going to get what you deserve this time."
"Am I?" Brigid walked toward her stepmother. She felt each and every ant crawling over her skin, all of them waiting for her command.
Suddenly aware that the situation was swinging in her stepdaughter's favor, Sienna took a few more steps back until she reached the edge of the pool. "Don't come any closer, you little tramp!" she hissed.
"I'm not a tramp, you dumb bitch, and neither was my mother." The ants were everywhere now. Her face was mere inches from her stepmother's when she smiled, showing off teeth crawling with insects. "I'm a witch.”
― Kirsten Miller, The Women of Wild Hill