Summary

Every year in the fall for the last several years, a troupe of red country ants has infiltrated Hot Sausage’s boiler room and eaten some of the cheese that he set aside for himself, along with anything else they find. Nobody in the building knows how these types of ants found their way into the city, but the residents have many theories. The truth is that in 1951, a Colombian worker named Hector Maldonez snuck into the US and lived there for six years, before returning to Colombia to divorce his wife. She gave him a platter of his favorite food, bandeja paisa, but when he opens the package he discovers that his wife filled the platter with red ants from Colombia.

As he recovers from being shot, Deems wonders about the ants, having dreamt of them frequently since leaving...