The Big Idea

As soon as the sun rose, Drononimus knew that this day was going to be hotter still. There was no time to lose and he immediately sent for the Consultantz.

It wasn’t long before there was a ratatat at the entrance and the guards, who had been briefed to allow them entry, ushered a smart looking ant and a small entourage into the hive and away from the buzzy landing strip.

Antonius Formica, the leader of the Consultantz introduced himself in a strange high-pitched voice.

After offering the customary nectar to the honoured guests, Drononimus addressed them in an authoritative voice, which covered up his general unease in talking with anybody else other than the Queen and his fellow Drones. ‘Look here.’ He said and pointed vaguely towards where the queen was working. ‘We need to cool this place down. We want to increase the numbers of workers in the air-conditioning squad but we don’t have any spare. All our workers are, well, out there working. We understand that you might be knowledgeable in such matters.’

Tonee didn’t even pause before launching in. ‘Well, we are veery pleased that you have spoken to us. We seeee this all the time. This is a veeery common problem. We are just the ones that can help you take clear and deecisive action.’ Tonee continued and Drononimus’ thoughts wandered for a moment. At the end of this he was sure that Tonee had said something about thinking outside of the box but had to admit that he didn’t understand that at all. He made a mental note to follow more carefully in the future what Tonee said.

Tonee concluded. ‘We need to diagnose the problem. Then we can present our ideas together with our very reasonable rates.’

Drononimus nodded assent as if he knew what he had agreed to.  Soon afterwards young consultantz flooded in looking very enthusiastic, each carrying a clip board and stopwatch.

As the day wore on, the temperature increased relentlessly. The mass ranks of the air-conditioners did little to ease the unforgiving heat.

Drononimus had to let the Queen know that he at least had a plan and sought an audience with Her Majesty. Bowing deeply, he said, ‘Ma’am I have to inform you that the air conditioning is on full power but it is not going to be enough. I suggest that you rest now. We have a plan which I am putting to the Drones later today.’

Drononimus knew the Queen must be tired because she only hummed the tune of her favourite hymn.

When at last the day began to cool Tonee and a small selection of his Consultantz returned looking rather pleased with themselves.

Tonee started his explanation in his strange way of talking. ‘We have analyseeed the situation and identifieeed the problem. The air conditioners at the back are less eeeffective. All they do is blow air onto the ones in front. What they need to do is to converge their efforts on to the target with a clear trajectory.’ 

‘Meaning?’ Drononimus asked. 

‘Hhmm. It means that the workers at the back have to stand on a box.’ Tonee spoke quietly as if he were embarrassed as to how easy the fix to the problem was.

Despite feeling annoyed that the Head of Air-Conditioning had not come up with such a simple solution, Drononimus was pleased with the end result. Here he had been faced with a challenge and the result was sure to please the Queen. ‘Aren’t all his best ideas simple ones,’ he thought to himself.

As was customary at the end of the day, Milly and Flor were chatting at the entrance to the hive and had got onto the subject of quizzes. Milly thought that she would test her friend and asked, ‘Do you know where Hadrian’s Wall is?’ 

‘Yes it’s around Hadrian’s garden,’ Flor replied.