Page 7 of To Hell With It

‘How do you know?’

‘Research.’

‘Yeah, but how do you research that? They can’t exactly tell you, can they.’

‘When they encounter something harmful, they react in the same way we do, like flinch or curl up in a ball.’

‘Jesus, what do they do to them to find that out?’

‘They use heat usually.’ Niall cringed.

‘They burn them?’

‘They have to expose them to heat to test their reaction.’

‘What about emotions?’ I asked.

‘Harder to establish but in theory, yes, insects can experience emotions.’

‘How the hell did you work that one out then?’

‘It’s just common sense if you think about it,’ Niall said. ‘Insects produce their own offspring and are social with their own species so if something were to disrupt that, like if they were taken away, then they could experience some kind of emotion.’

‘What about memory?’

‘In what context?’

‘What about if I was to move some insects away from where they lived – all of them so none were left behind to feel sad – and put them somewhere else? Like woodlice for example, would they know?’

‘To some degree they would have a memory. If they’ve made a home, like ants do, they remember where they live and come back to that place.’

‘So, if I moved some woodlice they’d just come back anyway?’

‘It’s best not to disturb nature if you can help it.’

‘Even if it was a life and death situation?’

‘What situation?’

‘Like if they were going to get squashed.’

‘There’s no harm in moving them if you think you’re going to save them but generally speaking you should leave them well alone.’

‘And if I can’t?’

‘Can’t what?’

‘Can’t leave them alone?’

Niall looked frustrated for a moment and then his tone softened, like he knew exactly what I was worried about, even though he couldn’t possibly have known because I hadn’t told him.

‘Then you do what you’ve got to do to make yourself feel better.’

* * *

I met Una when I was fourteen. She’d moved to the village from Killarney and we’d hit it off straight away. Probably because she was the only other girl my age in Drangan so we kind of had no choice really.

Una describes herself as strawberry blonde but she is as ginger as they come. I didn’t know why she had such a hang-up about being a redhead. She’d dye it of course, to try and hide the red, but it would come back with a vengeance, a life of its own. It never knocked her confidence though, being a redhead, if anything it gave her more fire.

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