Mother roamed the yard with a tea kettle, poured boiling water into the beginnings of ant hills. She placed a tin disc with a fragrant poison underneath the fridge, attracting anything that crawled into its lethal opening. A fly swatter hung on a hook in the kitchen, next to the fridge. Outside a bug zapper flashed like purple lightning.

Many times I came home from school and found a sign on the door, Bombing. Go play next door. On the sign, she had drawn a cockroach standing upright, suffocating, its hands wrapped around its throat. Mother had gone to art school, but found that she wasnąt cut out to be an artist. The scar on her right wrist was not an accident like she said. It had something to with art. Lefties like me, were artistic, so Mother took me to art class on Saturday mornings at the Y.

Once, I caught Father taking a roach from his pocket, and letting it go inside the cabinet under the sink. He saw me looking at him, winked, then walked to his bedroom to change out of his work clothes. Another time, Father brought me home an ant farm, told me not to tell you know who. Above my desk, he put it behind the stack of encyclopedias, which he pushed slightly forward, to give its perfectly neat appearance. It took a week for the ants to be delivered at his work. In my room, the door shut, he handed me a vial of ants from his pocket. Happy, Father revealed the ant farm from behind the encyclopedias, tapped the ants into the farm. If you get caught, tell you know who that you ordered it from a comic book. She will forgive you. Me, she will make life hard for. Understand?

I fed them a pinch of sugar every few days, drops of water. They dug tunnels, stored excess food in the barn, gave birth, fought, died, carried the carcasses to the farthest end, away from where they mated. One day, I found every ant dead. I told Father. Looks like you know who is out to ruin our little pleasures. I believe they were poisoned. Would you agree? If course I agreed. This means war, Father said. Days later, I came home and found the sign telling me to go play next door.