In the Midst of Tribulation (16 page)

"What can I say? I seem to leak when you're around." Martha joked.
"Are you all right?"
"I can't remember a time when I was better." Martha kissed her partner. "I'd like to return the favor."
Susan nearly purred when her lover's long fingers trailed down her body to play with the dark, damp curls. "It was my pleasure, honey." The hand stilled and she laughed. "But I'm not going to stop you."
"So wet," Martha exclaimed, as she pressed onward. She shifted slightly and inserted her knee between Susan's legs. Lifting slightly, she was able to sink her two middle fingers into the tight channel.
Gasping at the intrusion, Susan clamped down and jerked her hips. "Oh, God. That feels good."
When Martha tried to turn them both, Susan held her tightly. "No, sweetheart. Keep holding me tight. I need you to hold me right here."
Obeying her lover's words and needs, she began to thrust the hand between Susan's legs. She bent her thumb to make contact with her clit. Marveling at the contrast of hard and soft, Martha pressed another finger into her opening. Susan was so wet, she slid her index finger in effortlessly.
Martha reveled in the velvety smoothness surrounding her hand and spared a moment to kiss the uplifted chin. In response, Susan arched further. On the exposed neck, she lavished kisses and wiped with her tongue against the fast beating pulse.
"So close." Susan panted. "Don't stop."
"Never, my love," she promised. "I'll never stop loving you." Martha watched her lover race toward completion, marveling at the beauty when she cried softly and came.
"I can't believe how ready I was," Susan said with a self-conscious laugh.
Martha eased her hand out from its warm cocoon and brought it to her face. She breathed in the musky scent before sticking out her tongue and licking each finger clean. "The work you did on me would have made a corpse randy."
"Did you mind?"
"Can you ask that? I adore what you do to me and I love that it makes you so hot touching me." She brushed sweat-dampened hair off her still trembling lover's cheek. "Go to sleep."
The gentle command worked it's magic and they both slipped into a dreamless slumber.
Chapter Thirteen - Open My Eyes That I May See
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Words & Music: Clara H. Scott, 1895
After lunch two days later, Jay called out to Eva as she walked by with some dirty dishes. "You wanted to know more about the bees?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, please." Eva almost tossed the dishes at Cody before hurrying back to the dining room. "I'm ready."
Grinning at the eager girl, Jay told her to go and change her clothes to pants and a long sleeve shirt. When Eva returned, she held out several rubber bands. "Here. You'll need these."
"Um, what do I do with them?"
"Use them to keep your sleeves and pant legs together."
"Why's that?"
"We're going to check on the hives. And these," she said, plucking on the rubber bands sealing her own sleeves, "Will keep the little buggers from crawling into places that bees just don't belong."
After Eva complied, the two of them walked over to the other side of the geodome. There was a small windowless metal shed under the trees. Sliding open the stiff door, Jay handed out a hat with netting around it.
"Here. Put this on."
"I thought you had to wear a whole costume when you did something to bother the bees."
"When you bother them, you do." Jay put on her own hat and fluffed the netting around her face. "The kind of beekeeping I do is pretty low key. It causes a lot less stress on them and results in more honey for us."
Picking up a small crowbar, Jay led the way out to the ten boxes spread out under the trees. Jay waved her hand to encompass the area. "This is called an apiary."
"How many bees do you have? That's a lot of houses."
"Don't worry. Not all of the boxes are in use. I've got one largish colony of bees."
"Why do you have so many then?"
"Because I do everything to excess." Jay shook her head at the look on the teenagers face. "Sorry. I didn't know when I'd be able to get resupplied, so I just bought everything in bulk."
"How do the bees know which house to go into?"
She pointed at the blocks sealing the bases of several. "The ones in use are open down here. They come and go through the bottoms and that's where the queen hangs out."
"How come you've got two different kinds of beehives?"
"Because I want different things from each of them." Jay tapped the v-shaped box. "This is called a top bar hive. I get less honey but a lot more wax." She walked over to one of the yellow, plastic boxes. "This is called a super. It is what is known as a standard ten-frame hive. From it, I get a lot of honey and just a little wax."
Using the pry bar, she opened each of the hives and showed Eva the few bees inside.
"I expected to see more."
"That's why we're out here in the heat of the day. Most of the workers are out gathering more nectar." She lifted part of the box up and showed her the bottom section that was an actual hive of activity. "This is the brooding chamber. The queen and all her minions live down here. It stays busy all the time but, because it's separate from the top section, I don't get bee larva in the honey."
A number of bees flew out and around them until she settled the two parts of hive back together. They stood quietly until the bees shifted their attention back to caring for the queen.
"What are we doing now?"
"We are looking for capping." Jay lifted another lid and put it to the side. She pulled up one of the frames. "See how the honeycomb is open? You know it is ready to harvest when around 90% is capped."
"Then what do you do?"
"I extract the honey."
"You mean you take their food." Eva put her fists on her hips.
"You shouldn't think of it as stealing, the bees sure don't. Besides, we're actually only taking their spit after giving them a great place to live and room for all their young. I should have been so lucky when I was scrapping rent up during graduate school."
Jay replaced the frame and lid and moved onto the next box where she repeated the operation. Taking the three frames she had collected, she led Eva back over to the shed.
Lighting a small can of sterno, she set a dull knife on top of it to heat. "What I'm doing now is cutting the cap. The bees seal the honey chamber once it has ripened. The honey will ferment if it's harvested before being capped. Once the knife is hot enough, I just slice off the caps."
"What then?"
Pointing at the machine that dominated the shed, Jay said, "I can put up to five panels in this extractor. Then, all I have to do is close the lid and turn the crank. The centrifugal force flings the honey out where it slides down the sides of the chamber to the holding tanks. Little or no damage is done to the delicate honeycomb and the super is ready to be replaced."
Jay put Eva to work turning the handle. "Do you really see this as stealing?" she asked after a while.
"Not really, I just don't know what else to call it."
"Harvesting honey is just good husbandry. We offer them some benefits and, in return, we get a sweet reward for our efforts."
Eva seemed a bit disappointed by the little honey that they were able to collect. "Is that all?"
"Don't worry, kid, this is nothing. I do the big harvest at the end of July. That gives the bees plenty of time to make enough storage for winter."
Bending down, Eva looked at the cloudy liquid. "Um, it looks a little gross."
Jay took a scrapper and a squeegee to get out the remaining honey from the extractor. She took the collection jar and carried it over to a smaller jar. "We've got to strain the honey into the tanks and let it sit for a couple of days for the air and impurities to rise to the top or sink to the bottom. The honey is then ready for bottling." Saying that, she poured the honey through the fine mesh on the top of the jar. She took the empty jar out and set it by the door outside.
"What is that machine?"
"It is a squeeze press. For the other type of hive, we will cut off the comb. I only need to leave about an inch at the top for them to start building a new one. We'll place the comb in here and squeeze out all the honey. The wax is then ready for use."
"Like what?"
"All sorts of things. I use it to rustproof metal, coat cheese, and make candles. You can also use it as the original tie-dye."
"What do you mean?"
"You've heard of Batik? It is done by painting designs in melted wax on cloth and then dying the fabric."
"How do you get the wax off?"
"Boil the cloth."
"Can we do that?"
"Sure. That'll be a good thing to do during the winter."
"Excellent."
Jay took the empty frames and leaned them up against the side of the shed.
"What are you doing now?"
"When we're done with the frames, I just set them outside for a couple of days."
"Why?"
"The bees will come by clean up any honey that is left. If I put the frame back in the hive they would repair any damage then starting loading it up with new honey."
"Don't you need to put those back then?" asked Eva. "How can you be sure that they have enough food?"
"To prepare for winter, the colony needs one full super. I've spread that among a couple of hives. By removing a couple of frames, it forces them to consolidate what they have."
"They don't die out?"
"No, in fact they'll stay remarkably warm. The hive is extraordinary. They air condition it in the summer if it gets too hot and their little bodies generate enough heat to keep it warm all winter long."
"That's pretty cool."
"Yeah. They're some of the most efficient and complex insects. They communicate with each other about where to find food with dances."
"Dances?"
"Yeah. After one of the bees has tasted some nectar, they come back to the hive and do a dance for the other bees. They are able to communicate about distance, quality and quantity of the find."
Eva watched a bee fly back into the hive. "Really? You're not just pulling my leg?"
"No, no. It's the truth." Jay worked quickly to return all the items she had used back to their places in the small shack.
"Why do you keep everything way out here?"
"It's easier to have the whole operation close together. That way, you don't have to walk very far with sticky, drippy things. " Jay winked, conspiratorially. "Honestly, I moved the extracting operation out here after Harmony threatened to kill me because of all the honey I tracked into the house."
Jay handed Eva the strained bottle of honey. "Carry this back and set it downstairs near the water heater. After a couple of days, we can pour it into bottles." She directed the teenager outside and closed the door. "When we bottle the honey, we should come out here and put the screens away in the shed."
"What would happen if we left them?"
"Other insects would make their home on them." Jay sniffed, disdainfully. "Moths, mainly. They'd latch onto them in no time flat." She threw an arm around Eva's shoulder. "Pretty neat, doing all that and not getting stung, huh?"
"Yeah. I thought it was more dangerous than that."
"Just remember to come out during the hottest time of the day to check the hives. That way, most of the bees are off collecting more nectar and not hanging around looking to sting you."
"Have you been stung?"
"Several times in fact. But not lately." Jay pointed at her foot. "The last bee that stung me did so because I stepped on him."
"You should watch where you're going."
"Or wear shoes." They laughed. "Bee stings aren't that bad. If you do get stung, you need to get the stinger out as quickly as you can. Then just make a paste with some baking soda and put it on your skin."
"I don't want to get hurt."
Jay shook the youngster gently. "Hey, there used to be people who would go out deliberately to get stung. They said it boosted their immunity."
"No way."
"Way." Going down into the basement, Eva put the jar aside while Jay grabbed a bag of squabs from the freezer. "How about we do a honey glaze on these birds for dinner?"
Eyes bright, Eva nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds great. Can I help?"
"Can you? My dear child, I insist."
"What do you insist?"
Jay nearly jumped out of her skin. Doris had snuck up behind her before speaking. "Damn, woman. You scared me."
"What have you been doing with my daughter?"
Looking confused, Jay pointed at the jar of honey. "We've been charming bees out of their stash."
Doris turned to her daughter. "Is that true? Is that what happened?" At Eva's nod, she asked, "Are you sure that's all?"
"Now wait just a cotton picking minute here." Jay drew herself up and glared at the taller woman. "What the hell are you implying?"
"Not a thing. I would just appreciate it if you would get my permission before you disappear with my child."
"I'd hardly think that walking over to the other side of the pond is disappearing."
"Mom, it's okay. Jay was just showing me her bee hives and all about extracting honey." Eva put herself between the two women. "It was really neat. I can hardly wait until the summer and we get to do it for real."
Jay smiled at the girl. "Don't forget there is a whole fun time during the spring when the bees swarm." At the concerned looked from both of them, she raised her hands. "Not to worry. The old queen takes off and leaves the new queen to rebuild the empire. It's also really cool."
"I'm not sure I want Eva to have anything to do with that."
Eva's face fell. "Mom, it's not dangerous at all. The bees didn't even come close to stinging me."
"It really is very safe, Doris."
"I'll be the judge of that just as I'll be the judge of any other activities that involve my child."
"Whatever." Jay patted Eva on the shoulder and walked by her to the stairs. "I hope you let her out of jail long enough to help with dinner."
Doris looked at her daughter. "I don't care for her attitude."
"You insulted her, mother."
"Don't take that tone with me."
"Of course. You just take that tone with everyone else."
"Eva Maria Matlan, you go to your room. There is just no talking to you when you're like this." She stalked after Jay. "It's obvious that you know nothing about raising children."
"I didn't do anything with her that I haven't done myself."
"You have the experience to make such decisions for yourself, not for a minor child."
"Nothing happened to her!" Jay nearly shouted in her frustration.
"This time. What about next time?"
"She'll be just as safe next time as she was this time."
"If you can't be responsible, I'll need to insist that you keep away from her."