There is an ant superhighway running along my bathroom wall. It begins at the floor near the bathtub and loops all the way around the mirror and down the doorframe and into the kitchen. There the ants enjoy the sugar that has collected at the bottom of my recycling bin. All day every day they stream back and forth on this invisible road, guided by pheromones, and occasionally bumping into each other along the way.

I was in the bath today and I watched them do this for an hour . . . little black dots scrambling across the smooth white walls. They were completely silent and never strayed from the path. I decided I liked looking at them.

Later Hali said to me: “Do the ants annoy you? Do you mind that they’re here?”

And I said, “I like them a lot. In fact I think it’s better that they’re here.”

“Good,” she said. “I like them too. They can stay as long as they wish.”