A short story dedicated to Tereza, thank you for all you do.
The winter cold began to ebb. The nights grew shorter and the days longer. The mornings awoke veiled in mist and the grass mantled in frost. When the sun rose above the hills on the horizon, blinding and warm, its rays spread over the meadows dispelling the mist and thawing the frost.
Day after day the trees and bushes sprouted with shoots and leaves, and the once funereal branches and twigs soon were clad in a foliage of dazzling green dotted here and there with the buds of precocious flowers unfolding their petals and exposing their pollen.
And as the spring swelled in its symphonic magnificence, with the chirping of birds and the tweeting of fledglings, life stirred within a bee colony that awoke from its winter slumber.
One by one the old workers shook off their grogginess with intermittent buzzing of their wings and wondered about the colony awakening everyone else. As the colony buzzed with activity, the workers all flew out into the wild to forage for precious pollen which they would later bring back and use to make honey.
And after all the old workers had flown away, the young ones hatched from their hexagonal cells and began wondering about. Amongst these was Terka, an energetic little bee who shook her wings vigorously from the sheer joy of being alive.
Seeing how the old workers all flew outside, Terka too decided to fly out of the colony, even as the other hatchlings were barely crawling out of their cells and learning to beat their wings.
‟Come!” Terka said to her sisters. ‟Let us fly outside and see what we can find!”
But the other hatchlings were just learning to stand on their six legs, let alone beat their wings and fly. ‟We can’t,” they said, ‟Flying is too scary!”
‟Flying is fun!” Terka smiled and flew out of the colony. She flew into the skies and breathed deeply the fresh air, smelling all the scents of spring that blew with the breeze.
Everywhere there were flowers, and everywhere there was pollen, and Terka was ecstatic with their scent, yet she wanted to explore and see more, and so she flew and flew farther and farther away, beyond all the old workers harvesting pollen, to places of such sylvan beauty as no other bee in the colony had ever seen. She found trees and bushes bursting with luscious flowers untouched by any other bee, and there she landed upon the petals and harvested as much pollen as she could possibly carry.
Terka flew back as the day came to an end and presented all the pollen she had gathered to the queen. The queen was very impressed and said to her in front of all the colony, ‟You are such a busy little bee, Terka, so young and so diligent! I am sure that with your help we will harvest more pollen than we ever did before!”
Terka was happy and proud of herself. But the other hatchlings were not.
The next day Terka woke up eager to fly out into the world and explore to see what flowers and pollen she could find. She said to the other young bees, ‟Come! Let’s fly out early and we will fly out farther!”
But the other bees were not as excited.
The sad one said to her, ‟You are so fast, and you just want to show off!”
‟Yeah!” Said a jealous one, ‟You just want the queen to praise you again!”
‟We should stay close to the colony,” said a cowardly bee.
‟Flying far away is too tiring,” said a lazy one.
‟We are supposed to fly together,” said an obedient one.
‟But hey!” Terka buzzed her wings eagerly. ‟There is so much to explore and so many flowers to discover! And flying feels so good! Come with me and you will see!”
But the bees refused and so Terka decided to leave and fly away on her own.
She flew high and far, beyond the range of the old bees who already new where to find pollen and nectar nearby, and out into unexplored fields and thickets sprouting with petals of bright whites, alluring yellows, deep violets, and irresistible reds. They all smelled so delicious and Terka plunged into each of them, drinking the nectar and covering herself in pollen.
When at last she was done, Terka began buzzing her way home. She was so heavy with so much pollen that she had to fly very low. She flew across a vast pool of water shining with a million ripples, and she was so heavy with pollen and so tired from flying all day, that she dropped from the air and plunged into the water.
Terka panicked. Her wings were at once wet and she could not fly. She dropped all the pollen she carried and flayed her legs trying to get a hold of something but there was nothing to hold on to. She did not know how to swim and the best she could do was stay afloat and breathe. Terka was terrified. She realized she could not get out of the water and she was too far away for any one to help her.
Always a brave little bee, she dried her tears and prepared to die, but then she heard a very familiar sound. It was the buzzing of wings. She looked up and saw her five sister bees from the colony buzzing about. ‟Here!” Terka shouted at once. ‟I am here! In the water! Help!”
The young bees heard her cries and all flew down to the pool. They grabbed Terka by her legs and together pulled her out of the water and onto the grass.
‟Thank you, thank you!” Terka said as she dried herself.
‟You fly so far away!” Said the sad one. ‟You are lucky we found you!”
‟This is what you get for showing off!” Said the jealous one.
‟You should have stayed close to the colony,” said the cowardly one.
‟We tried flying as far as you,” said the lazy one. ‟But flying far away is too tiring,”
‟We are supposed to fly together,” said the obedient one. ‟So when it got late and you did not come back we flew out to find you!”
‟Thank you!” Terka buzzed her wings eagerly. ‟I just wanted to fly far and explore, but I should not have left you behind. Thank you for saving me.”
‟It is OK,” said the jealous bee. ‟Now let us fly back to the colony and bring in today’s pollen.”
Terka was suddenly sad. She looked back at the pool where all her pollen was floating on the water. ‟But I have nothing to bring back. The queen will be disappointed.”
‟Don’t worry,” said the cowardly bee. ‟We will put all our pollen together and say that it is from all of us!”
‟Really?” Terka was impressed. ‟Thank you so much! I promise I will never fly away on my own and leave you girls behind! And we will share all our pollen!”
So the young bees buzzed their way back to the colony and, starting the next day, they always flew together and helped each other... Like happy little sister bees.
