The Loneliest Bee

Who would do anything to make a friend.

Photo by Fabian Kleiser on Unsplash

She worked hard all day to make honey for the hive. She went back and forth, ensuring her loads were at maximum proficiency.

Yet, none of the other bees cared whether she existed or not. She was invisible.

One day, as she was having a break, she started to think loneliness was her only friend. She couldn’t understand why she was being rejected and neglected.

What did she do to deserve such dismissive treatment from the others?

Was she ill or deformed? Was she different in any way?

She couldn’t come up with an answer. She was at a loss to find a reason.

So, she sighed and returned to work like she’d done daily since she became a worker bee for her Queen, whom she loved with all her tiny heart.

The days of winter were coming to an end. The greatest of all seasons for bees was not far.

She still had hope things would change when the flowers bloomed.

The mood would be festive, the hive would be ecstatic as the cold subsided, and she slowly could integrate herself with the colony with nobody being the wiser.

That surely will be a happy occasion for all the members. Just like a commune should be after a good job was accomplished.

A sudden calm and sense of well-being invaded her.

She could hardly wait. She thought that everything would be okay in just a few more weeks. She will no longer be the loneliest bee.

She started to daydream in between her loads. She envisioned chatting with her newfound friends, she pictured herself hugging and kissing her long-lost brothers and sisters and not wanting to let go.

She imagined the toughest bees calling her by her name, Mary.

How fantastic would that be?

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She started to become emotional just thinking of all these possibilities that a tear rolled down her face, then another, and yet another.

She flew without noticing where she was and ended up hitting a branch face-on and falling flat on the grass, stunned.

She wanted to laugh, but she’d lost her load so that alone prevented it.

Slowly and woozy, she cleaned up and dusted off, shrugged her bee shoulders, and took off flight, back to headquarters.

Back to nowhere land. Back to reality.

Weeks passed, and spring was late. And it got colder than usual.

She had to work extra hard alone. She saw how all the others cuddled together when the chill-to-the-bone winds came around.

So she tried to sneak in to get warm as well, hoping and praying she’d be allowed. Just this time. Just for a while…

Everybody was so busy surviving the brutal cold onslaught they didn’t mind the extra body bringing in heat.

Even though the time was far from perfect, it was one of the happiest moments of her life. She buzzed like the others, she heard the chatting, and she closed her eyes to take it all in.

She could have been that way forever, it was such a beautiful cocoon, it felt as if she was back in her mother’s womb. Cozy, safe, and comfortable.

It was such chaos that she had to laugh.

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Bees were stepping on each other, vying for a better, warmer spot. Some were arguing about the silliest things, and some were verbally worrying about what was to come.

Dry food and grass were flying all over the place. Visitors from other tribes came around, but they didn’t stay long after seeing such a mess of a hive.

Yet, Mary was in heaven. Mary was finally, one of them.

Then, one day, it was a big proclamation: The Queen was going to address the hive with an announcement! Tomorrow, at 8AM on the dot.

All of a sudden, it’s clean-up time! With urgency, no more nonsense. All hands on deck. Including hers, thankfully. It was the first time in Mary’s life she belonged to any group with a goal in common.

Of course, at such a point of despair, she would’ve done it for any cause, much less for the Queen.

All able bees must do their part. And do the part they did. Known for their organizational skills, natural instincts took over, and everybody knew what their place was. It was an amazing sight to see.

And they beat the deadline with time to spare.

Mary was exhausted when she heard somebody shout, “We did it!!!”. It was Frankie, the self-proclaimed MC.

A chorus of approvals could be heard from the crowd. They were ready.

Mary had never seen the Queen before. She was dumbfounded at her presence. She was such an impressive, imposing sight, she thought.

Such beauty and splendor, such elegance.

She strolled in, nodding at her adoring subjects as she passed them before reaching the center of the forum and sitting down.

Then, everybody else did the same. Mary was in such awe she kept standing until another bee pulled on her wing to follow suit.

She was merely inches away from the highest royalty. She could smell her and was in full view of her eyes.

Everything about her Queen was impressive, but her eyes projected nobility, charisma, intelligence, and empathy. No wonder she was the Queen, Mary thought.

“Dear beloved. I came to announce not-so-good news. We are facing unexpected dangers. And we must be prepared.”

One could cut the suspense with a butter knife. There were no pins, but you could hear them drop if there were.

“We are now facing an extended winter, which unfortunately has worsened lately. No one knows how much longer this suffering will continue, but my humble guess is another month and a half, at least.”

“Secondly, we have non-native killer hornets in our midst who were just recently inadvertently brought in by the humans in one of their ships of Asian provenance.”

“These beasts are as brutal as they’re efficient. They know to strike our throats first. Sometimes, they would decapitate us as their jaws are immensely more powerful than ours.”

A collective “Oooohhhh” could be heard in the hive.

“However, there is one way we can neutralize them. Sadly, that would require volunteers from you in the colony to sacrifice your lives. We must attack them when they’re not expecting it. When they are at rest and at night.

In order to save our species from these pests of the insect world, we must act quickly and decisively. Since they have the ability to kill us at 100 to 1 ratio, we must pre-emptive strike ASAP.”

That sentence infuriated the sitting bees, who now stood up and cheered their monarch with loud ‘Yeahs!!”

“I bless those first volunteers as I have a team of experts who will teach you the most effective way to accomplish our mission. The total annihilation of these disgusting, sadistic invaders who want to destroy our way of life for pleasure, nothing else. No! Let’s kill them first!!”

At that point, the room exploded with cheers and joyful cries for war.

It took a while for her to be able to speak again.

With supreme elegance and grace, she slowly got up from her seat, spread her enormous wings, and left them with a couple of last words.

“Your future and mine, and perhaps of our entire population, is in your hands.”

“Godspeed and Bless you all.”

Mary was ecstatic and shocked. Within 48 hours, her world had completely turned upside down, inwardly, outwardly, sideways, and all around.

It was a suicidal mission, of course, since bees can’t survive their stinging.

Just a few hours ago, nobody wanted her near. Now they are all honoring, cheering her, and loving her.

She would be remembered forever among the bees of the country and maybe beyond.

Because she became the first volunteer and, later, the motivational force within the hive.

She will die for her Queen and the other bees. And in less than a week, she formed volunteer commandos ready to take on the killer hornets.

The sting applied didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, but she felt an enormous shock throughout her own body. Then she realized she had poked the beast well and deep.

She also felt like she was dying.

She knew it wouldn’t be long. She relaxed and waited, exhilarating with happiness that she didn’t fail with her strike.

In her last minutes of life, she started daydreaming again. She imagined her name being called for all the bees to stand together against attackers, invaders, or destroyers.

She thought of little bees learning her name in their bees’ classrooms. She pictured her Queen mentioning her name after they conquered the invader, honoring her sacrifice.

Mary, the bee, after that last thought, closed her eyes for the final time.

Some in the rescue team who picked her up told the hive that she had a smile on her face.

Maybe she did, but they all knew she died with a smile on her soul.

Photo by Roberto Lopez on Unsplash