solutions into bee hives, and he turned over logs where insects burrowed quietly and let them dehydrate in direct sunlight. He often ran in the tall grass where started grasshoppers would flutter in long arches away from him. Jonah tried to squash them in stride.
Jonah was in charge of the yard work; he cut the grass, trimmed the hedges, and watered plants, killing every insect he encountered. Today he raked an anthill completely flat. As ants scurried frantically carrying larvae in a collective vibrating mass, he raked on. Tomorrow this ant hill will be completely abandoned. Today, Jonah would not interfere with any insect he encountered while cleaning the yard. Not because there weren’t any, despite his onslaughts they remained as present as ever, but today Jonah would respect the insects. As the screen door behind him swung shut, the bang did not startle the grasshopper he was looking at. Because he didn’t yet understand what was already happening he continued to approach it; had he realized what it was, he would have run away in terror. This grasshopper was unrealistically huge, like a movie prop, four feet long and stood motionless in plain sight.
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