17 - Why I'm Afraid of Bees (5 page)

I was so pleased with myself, I decided to take a little victory lap. I
spread my wings out wide and began a big, slow circle in the air.

Whap!

Oh, no! Now what?

I’d crashed right into something! But what was it? It wasn’t hard, like a
wall or a tree. Instead, it was soft and clinging, like cloth. And my feet were
all tangled up in it.

I struggled to squirm free. I wiggled and pushed. But my legs were caught.

I was trapped.

“Haw haw haw!”

The booming laughter made my entire body shake.

I suddenly realized where I was.

I was caught in Andretti’s net.

A wave of despair made me slump against the white netting.

I knew exactly what would happen next.

He would put me in his hives—and I would never get away.

“Time to go back home now, my little buzzing babies,” Mr. Andretti sang.
“Time to get back to work, my honeys.” He started to laugh at his stupid pun.
“My honeys! Haw haw! Oh, my, wasn’t that a good one?”

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzz.

From the loud humming sounds in my ears, I knew I wasn’t the only bee
Andretti had caught in his net. In fact, out of my right eye, I could see
another bee who looked just like me. He loomed right in front of me, and wiggled
his antennas in my face.

Whooa! What a monster!

My wiry legs began trembling with fright. I twisted myself around and around,
struggling to get away from him.

I finally got myself turned the other way. But then I saw I was facing
another bee. And another. Each one looked scarier than the last.

They all had big, bulging eyes and creepy antennas! And they all buzzed
menacingly at me.

The frightening hum grew louder and louder as Mr. Andretti caught more bees
in the net. Suddenly, the net began to shake. Up and down, up and down—like a
violent earthquake—until I couldn’t even think straight!

As the net shook, I lost my footing and fell into a big, squirming cluster of
bees at the bottom of the net.

Whooooa! I stumbled over the pile of wriggling, hairy bees. And as I
staggered in terror, bees fell on top of me.

A crawling, buzzing nightmare!

I’ve never been so terrified. I screamed in my tiny voice. I tried to climb
up the side of the net, but my feet were stuck under another bee’s body. How I
hated the feel of his disgusting fuzz!

In my terror, I knew I had to escape. I had to get away from here. I had to
get to Ms. Karmen’s office and beg her to help me.

Then I had the most terrifying thought of all. If I couldn’t escape, I
suddenly realized, I would remain a bee for the rest of my life!

As Mr. Andretti carried me and the other bees across his back yard, I started
buzzing and shivering with panic. How could this have happened to me? I asked
myself. How could I ever have been so stupid as to try to change bodies with somebody else? Why wasn’t I happy with the perfectly good body I’d already
had?

Mr. Andretti opened the door to the screened-in area off the side of his
garage. “We’re back now, my little honeys,” he cooed.

The net started to shake, and I figured out that Mr. Andretti was slowly
turning it inside out. One by one, he started plucking us—his prisoners—off
the side of the mesh cloth and plopping each one back inside his hanging drawer
hives.

As Andretti reached for the bees, they started buzzing louder than ever.
Finally, it was my turn to be plucked out of the net.

When I saw the ends of Andretti’s grasping fingers reaching for me, I hung
back, clinging to the net. I suddenly remembered his bragging speech about how
he never used gloves because his bees “trusted” him.

I watched his fingers stretch toward me.

It would be so
cool
to plunge my stinger into his soft, plump skin, I
thought.

Should I do it?

Should I sting him?

Should
I?

I didn’t sting him.

I really didn’t want to die.

Sure, things really looked terrible for me right now. But I was still
clinging to a shred of hope.

Maybe, somehow, I’d find my way out of this bee prison and back into my own
body. It didn’t seem very likely. But I was determined to keep on trying.

“In you go, my fuzzy little friend,” Mr. Andretti said. He opened up one of
the removable drawerlike parts of his hive and dropped me in.

“Ohhhh,” I moaned. It was so dark inside the hive. And so confusing.

Where should I go? What should I do?

The air was hot and wet. Everywhere I turned, I was surrounded by a
deafening, droning hum.

“I—I can’t
stand
it!” I cried. I could feel myself totally losing
it!

All around me, bees scurried around in the darkness. I stayed where I was,
too frightened to move.

I suddenly realized I was still very hungry. If I didn’t get something to
eat, I knew I’d never be able to find a way out of here!

I spun around and started trying to explore.

Out of my left eye, I saw another bee glaring at me. I froze in my tracks.
Did bees attack each other inside their hives? I wondered.

I didn’t remember reading anything about that in my bee book. But this bee
really looked ready for a fight.

“Please leave me alone,” I begged in my tiny voice. “Please give me a break.”

The bee glared back at me. I’ve never seen such big, angry-looking eyes!

Slowly, I started backing away from him. “Uh…” I squeaked nervously. “I’ve
got to be going now. I… um… I have to get to work.”

The bee bulged his eyes and waved his antennas in a threatening way. I was
sure he planned to sting me. I turned and flew away as fast as I could. I tried
to hide.

I was so frightened, I couldn’t even make myself move. What if I bumped into
another bee? I couldn’t even stand to think about what might happen if I did.

I realized I had to move. I had to find something to eat.

Shaking with fear, I tiptoed out into the open. I took a nervous look around.

On the far wall, I could see a large cluster of bees, busily building
something. A honeycomb!

And where there was a honeycomb, I told myself, there was honey.

I’ve always hated the sweet, sticky goo. But I knew I had to eat some. Right
away!

As quietly as I could, I crept over and joined the bee workers. Out of the
corner of my eye, I saw them doing really gross things with their mouths.

First, they used their legs to pick little flakes of waxy-looking stuff off
their abdomens. Then they crammed the wax into their mouths and started working
their jaws up and down like little chewing machines. Finally, they spit out the
wax and used it to build part of the honeycomb they were working on.

“Yuck!” It looked so disgusting. It made me sick!

But what choice did I have? I had to eat some honey—even if it was covered
with bee spit.

I turned my head and practiced sucking my tongue up and down. Then I slurped
up a big puddle of honey.

Amazing! For the first time in my life, I actually liked that stuff. Soon, I
was sucking it down as if it were chocolate milk.

After a while, I got quite good with my tongue, which was actually more of a
bendable tube than a tongue. It was really the perfect tool for guzzling honey.

If I ever made it back to the outside world, I thought I’d now be pretty good
at using it for gathering nectar and pollen. Why, I might turn out to be the
best worker in the whole hive!

I tried to smile, and then I almost gagged on my honey.

What was happening to me?

What was I thinking? I was actually starting to feel like a bee!

I
had
to get out of this place. Before it was too late!

I wanted to start searching for an escape route right away. But I suddenly
felt so tired. So completely worn out…

Was it the honey? Or was it the strain of so much fear?

I could barely keep my eyes open. The droning hum grew louder.

With a weary sigh, I sank against a clump of hairy bodies.

I sank into the warm darkness of the hive, surrounded by the steady buzz.
Breathing the sweet aroma of the honey, I sank beside my furry brothers and sisters.

I’m one of them now, I told myself weakly. I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a bee.
A buzzzzzzzzzing bee. A bee sinking into the warm, dark hive. My home.

Sinking… sinking…

I woke up with a start and tried to brush a bee away from my face. It took me
a few moments to remember. I wasn’t lying in my back yard anymore, trying to
keep the bees away from me. I was a bee—a bee trapped inside a hive!

I jumped up, took a step, and immediately came face to face with another bee!
I couldn’t tell if he was the same one I’d seen the night before. But he looked
just as angry. His big eyes were bulging with rage. And he was moving
deliberately toward me.

As fast as I could, I spun around and flew away. Of course, I had no idea
where I was going.

The hive seemed to be made up of a lot of long, dark hallways. All around me,
groups of bees were building honeycombs. As they worked, they kept up a steady
buzz. The sound was really driving me off the wall!

I began searching for a way out. I wandered in and out, in and out throughout the dark, sticky honeycombs.

From time to time, I shot out my tongue and lapped up some honey. I was
getting a little tired of the sweet stuff. But I knew I had to keep up my
strength if I wanted to try to break out of the hive.

As I searched for a way to escape, I noticed that every single bee seemed to
have an assigned job, either building honeycombs, caring for the babies of the
queen or whatever. And the little bugs never stopped working! They were “busy as
bees” from morning till night.

Darting through the tangled darkness, I began to lose hope.

There’s no way out, I decided. No way out.

I sank unhappily to the sticky hive floor. And as I dropped, three large bees
moved in front of me.

They buzzed angrily, bumping up against me with their hairy, damp bodies. It
was easy to tell these bees were angry with me.

Maybe it was because I wasn’t doing my “job.” But what
was
my job? How
could I tell the bees I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing?

I tried to slip past them, but they moved to block my path.

Three tough bees. They made me think of Barry, Marv, and Karl.

I shrank back as one of them pointed his stinger at me.

He was getting ready to kill me! And I didn’t even know what I’d done!

I screamed and whirled around. As fast as my six legs would carry me, I
darted back down the narrow passageway and turned another corner.

“Oh!” I bumped hard into another bee. Luckily, he was hurrying off somewhere,
and barely seemed to notice me.

I gasped with relief. And then an idea came to me. Where was that bee going
in such a hurry? Was he taking something somewhere? Could he be going to an area
I hadn’t searched yet?

I decided to follow him and find out. I needed to learn everything I could
about the hive. Maybe, just maybe, it would help me escape.

I hurried after the bee. I thought I’d find him quickly. But he was already
long gone.

I searched in and out among the different honeycombs, but I couldn’t find him
anywhere. After a while, I gave up.

Way to go, Lutz the Klutz, I scolded myself. I felt worse than ever.

I shot out my tongue and slurped up a big helping of honey to keep myself
going. Then I began my endless searching again.

“Whoooa!” I stopped when I reached an area that looked familiar. I was pretty
sure it was the place where Andretti had dropped me when he first put me into the hive.

All at once, a large group of angrily buzzing bees crowded against me.

“Hey—!” I protested as they shoved me forward.

They replied with a sharp, rising buzz.

What were they doing? Were they attacking me? Were they all going to sting me
at once?

They had me surrounded. I couldn’t run away.

But how could I possibly fight off all these bees? I was doomed, I realized.
Finished. Sighing in defeat, I closed my eyes and started to shake.

And waited for them to swarm over me.

I waited to be crushed.

And waited some more.

When I opened my eyes, the angry bees had moved to the side of the hive. They
weren’t paying any attention to me.

I saw a single bee, standing in the center of the hive floor. He was
performing a kind of jumping, twisting, hip-hop dance.

How weird! I thought. The other bees were watching intently, as if this were
the most interesting thing in the world.

“Those bees didn’t care about me,” I told myself. “They were trying to get me
out of the way so this bee could do his dance.”

I realized I’d wasted a lot of time. I had to keep searching for an escape
route.

I tried to push myself away from the group of bees, but the hive floor had
become too crowded to move.

The bee danced faster and faster. He moved his body toward the right. All the
other bees stared intently at him.

What was going on?

At that moment, something from my old
Big Book of Bees
came back to
me. I remembered that bees send out scouts to find their food. Then the scouts
“dance” to tell the other bees where to go get it!

If the scout was reporting on where to get food, it meant he’d just been out
of the hive. That meant there had to be a way out of this place!

I was so excited,
I
almost started dancing!

But I didn’t have a chance because, suddenly, all the bees in the hive rose
up like a dark cloud. I spread my wings and flew up with them.