17 - Why I'm Afraid of Bees (4 page)

Exhausted, I landed on the sill. I turned my head to one side. Then I gasped
in fright.

A hideous monster was reflected in the window glass!

The creature had two huge glaring eyes. And it was staring right at me.

I tried to scream. But I was too terrified to utter a sound.

I—I have to get away! I decided.

I moved my feet and started to run. The monster in the glass ran, too.

I stopped and stared at the window glass. The monster stopped and stared back
at me.

“Oh, no! Please—no!” I cried. “Please don’t let it be true!” I reached up
and tried to cover my eyes. The creature in the window did the same thing.

And suddenly I knew the hideous truth. The monster in the mirror—it was me.

Ms. Karmen had messed up. Totally.

And now I was trapped inside the body of a bee!

I don’t know how long I stood there.

I couldn’t stop staring at my reflection.

I kept waiting to come out of this nightmare. I kept waiting to blink my eyes
and find myself in Dirk Davis’ big, muscular body.

But I didn’t look at all like Dirk Davis.

I had two giant eyes—one on either side of my head—and two skinny little
antennas sticking out of my forehead.

My mouth was truly disgusting. I had some kind of long tongue, which I soon
discovered I could move all around and make longer and shorter if I wanted.
Which I didn’t.

My body was covered with thick, black hair. I had three legs on either side
of my body. And let’s not forget the wings sticking out of my shoulders!

“This is the pits!” I cried. “I’m a bug! I’m a disgusting, hairy bug! Ms.
Karmen—something went wrong!
Help me!”

Creeeeak.

Slam!

What was that?

Oh, no! I realized that Ms. Karmen had just gone out the kitchen door.

“No—wait! Wait!” I squeaked. She was my only hope!

I had to catch her. I had to tell her what had happened!

“Ms. Karmen!” I squeaked. “Ms. Karmen!”

Frantically, I flew out of the kitchen into the living room. Out the window,
I could see her car still parked out in front of the house.

But the front door to the outside was shut. And bees can’t open doors. I was
trapped inside my own house!

The back door! I remembered. Ms. Karmen had said it was open just a bit.

Yes! That was how all those bees got into the house in the first place!

I fluttered my new wings and flew back into the kitchen. As I soared, I
realized I was getting more and more control over my flight pattern.

But I didn’t care about that right now. All I knew was that I
had
to
get to Ms. Karmen before she drove away.

I darted out the tiny opening in the back door. “Ms. Karmen!” I shouted as I
flew around the side of the house. “Ms. Karmen! Help me! You messed up! I’m a bee! Help me!”

My voice was so tiny, she couldn’t hear me. She opened her car door and
started to climb behind the wheel. My only chance for a normal life was about to
drive away!

What could I do? How could I get her attention?

Thinking quickly, I flew right toward her head. “Ms. Karmen!” I shouted in
her ear. “It’s me. Gary!”

Ms. Karmen uttered a startled cry. Then she drew back her hand and swatted
me. Hard.

“Ow!” My entire body vibrated with pain. The force of her swat sent me
falling to the street. I hit the pavement with a painful
splat.

I shook my head, trying to clear my eyes. That’s when I realized I had an
extra set of tiny eyes arranged in a kind of triangle on the top of my head. I
used them to gaze straight up.

And then I screamed in terror.

I saw the tire rolling toward me.

Ms. Karmen was about to drive right over me. I was about to be squashed like
the bug that I was!

“Oh!” I froze in panic.

Even with my blurred bee vision, I could see the deep treads in the tire as
it rolled steadily toward me.

Closer. Closer.

I have to move!
I told myself.

Fly away! Fly away!

But in my panic, I forgot how to use my new muscles.

I—I’m going to be squashed!
I realized.

I uttered a final, weak cry.

And the car stopped.

“Huh?” My entire body was trembling. But somehow I managed to pull myself up.
Up into the air.

Yes. I was flying now.

I could see Ms. Karmen inside the car. She was fastening her seat belt. She
had stopped the car to put on her seat belt!

“Hey, seat belts really
do
save lives!” I told myself.

I called out to her. But of course she couldn’t hear me. I watched the car
roll away until it was a blur of color.

Then, exhausted and terrified, I buzzed over to a nearby lilac bush and
dropped onto a leaf. “That was too close!” I told myself, in between gasps for
air. “I’m going to get killed out here!”

A green caterpillar inched its way up onto a nearby stem and started chewing
noisily on the leaf I was resting on. I’d never really examined a caterpillar
before. Up close, they’re real ugly. They look a little bit like dragons. Only
scarier.

“Keep away from me!” I yelled in my tiny voice. The caterpillar didn’t even
turn its head. Maybe it didn’t hear me.

I forgot all about the caterpillar when I heard footsteps coming up the front
walk. I turned my head and used my sideways eye to see who it was.

“Mom!” I screamed. “Mom! Over here!”

She couldn’t hear me. She hurried up the steps and into the house.

Suddenly, I was overcome by a wave of sadness. My own mother didn’t recognize
me!

Desperately, I fluttered my wings and flew away from the leaf. I made my way
to the front of the house, and started buzzing around the front windows.

I had my wings under complete control by now. But the scene I saw inside the
house was enough to make me fall down onto the ground again.

My mother stood in the living room talking to
me!
Or at least, that’s
what she thought. Only I knew it couldn’t be me.
I
was stuck outside. But who
was
in there with my mom? Had Dirk Davis managed to get inside my body?

I landed on the ledge and stared into the house. My mom was talking. The boy
was nodding and laughing. He said something to her. If I stared closely, I could
read his lips.

“Hey, did you buy taco chips? I’m really starving, Mom.”

That had to be Dirk talking inside my body.

My mom smiled at him and patted him on the arm. I read his lips and saw that
he was calling her “Mom” again. How could he do that? How could he call
my
mother “Mom”?

If bees could cry—which I now know they can’t—I would have started
bawling right then and there. Who did that boy think he was? For that matter,
what kind of mom did I have, who couldn’t even tell that a total stranger was
living inside her son’s body?

As I watched “myself” and my mom chatting in the living room, I totally lost
it. Like a crazed maniac, I started bashing my insect body into the window.

“Buzz!” I cried. “Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! It’s me, Gary. Look out here! Help me!”

Again and again, I smashed myself up against the glass. But no one inside the
house noticed.

After a few minutes, Mom brought the new me a bag of taco chips. I watched
“Gary” rip the bag open and take out a handful of chips. Crumbs fell on the
living room carpet as he crunched the spicy chips.

I realized I was starving.

But what do bees eat? I asked myself. Desperately, I tried to remember
everything I’d ever read about the creatures.

I thought of the hungry caterpillar, crunching away on the leaf. But I was
almost positive bees didn’t eat leaves.

But what
did
they eat? Other bugs? Ugh! The thought made me shudder.
I’d
die
before I’d eat a bug!

I buzzed around the yard, hoping to see something—anything—I could use
for food. As I flew, I found that I was getting used to my strange new vision
and learning how to work my different sets of eyes.

I remembered something I’d once read in an old picture book called
The Big
Book of Bees.
It said that bee eyes each have thousands of tiny lenses
crowded together. But, because they don’t have pupils, they can’t really focus
their eyes.

Interesting, I thought. But not very helpful. If I could remember about bees’
eyesight, why couldn’t I remember what they ate?

I settled onto another bush to think. And suddenly, I became aware of a
wonderful odor nearby. I turned my head and saw a beautiful yellow flower.

Then I remembered something else I’d read. “Pollen,” I said out loud. “Bees
eat pollen. And they get it from flowers!”

Excitedly, I flew up into the air and started hovering over the yellow
blossom. I tried to open my mouth—before I remembered I didn’t have that kind
of mouth anymore!

Instead, I had my long, weird tongue. But how was I supposed to use it to get
the stuff out of the flower?

I didn’t have a clue!

As I hummed around in the air, I realized I was becoming more and more
exhausted. If I didn’t get something to eat soon, I was going to faint.

I started to feel dizzy. I hardly knew where I was.

I became more and more confused. My brain got so fuzzy, I even began to
wonder if I’d ever actually been a boy at all. Maybe I’d really been a bee for
my entire life, and I’d just dreamed about being a boy.

Slam!

Somebody closed a car door nearby, and I was startled out of my mental fog. I
swiveled my head to look.

Dad!

He was closing the garage door. Now he was walking across the driveway and
heading toward the back door of the house.

“Dad!” I screamed. “Dad. It’s me. Gary! Help me!”

“Hi, Gary,” Dad said.

“Dad! You can hear me!” I cried joyfully. “Dad—you’ve got to help me!”

My heart sank when Dad walked right past me and started talking to the fake
Gary.

Desperately, I started buzzing round and round their heads.

“Looks like Andretti’s lost one of his workers,” my dad laughed. He swatted
at me with his rolled-up newspaper.

A near miss. I darted away.

“Uh, right,” the fake Gary laughed, pretending he knew what Dad was talking
about. “Andretti.”

“Let’s help get dinner on,” my dad said. He put a friendly hand on my former
shoulder. “Okay, son?”

“Sure thing, Dad.”

Like best pals, my dad and his phony son crossed the lawn and opened the
screen door.

“Wait!” I shouted. “Wait!”

Like a space rocket, I shot through the air after them. If I really put the
speed on, I thought I could make it through the door before it closed. Fast,
faster, and…

BLAM!

The screen door banged shut, right on top of my tiny bee body. Once again, I
sank into a deep pool of blackness.

“Ohhhhhh. Where am I? What happened? Am I still a bee?”

Dazed, I fought my way back to the real world. When I was able to get my eyes
open, I realized I
was
still a bee—a small, frail, slightly damaged bee—who’d just narrowly missed being scrunched by a screen door.

Now I was lying on my back on the grass in our yard. My six legs were
thrashing the air.

“I was a klutz as a human—and I’m a klutz as a bee!” I wailed. I tried to
flip myself over. “I’ve only been a bee for an hour, and I’ve almost been
killed. Twice!”

I suddenly knew what I had to do. I had to get to Ms. Karmen’s office and
tell her what had happened.

I didn’t know if I could do it. But I knew I had to try.

I let out a small grunt, and with a huge effort, flipped over onto my
stomach. Using all five of my eyes, I checked myself out. Both sets of wings seemed to be working. And all my six legs were still there.

“Okay,” I told myself. “You can do it. Just fly to the Person-to-Person
office and go inside.”

I flapped my wings and started to take off into the air. But I’d only risen
about an inch up off the ground when I heard a sound that made my blood run
cold.

It was Claus the cat. With his long, sharp claws extended, he leaped through
the air.

I let out a squeal as he pounced on me, grabbed me in one paw, and began to
tighten his claws around my body.

As the cat’s claws closed around me, I saw his hideous mouth gape open.

Sting him! Sting him!

The thought burned into my mind.

But something held me back. Something told me not to use my stinger.

I suddenly remembered something else I’d read in
The Big Book of Bees.
Honeybees die once they use their stingers!

No way!
I thought.

I was still hoping to come out of this alive. And back in my old body.

So, if using my stinger was out, I’d have to use my wits instead.

With a loud gnashing of his teeth, Claus snapped his huge mouth shut. He
lowered his head, preparing to snap up his furry prize—me.

At just the right moment, I burst out of his claws and ducked out from under his gnashing teeth.

I tried to shoot off through the air. But the cat whipped out his paw and
batted me down.

Claus was playing with me as if I were one of the chewed-up catnip mouse toys
Krissy always gives him for Christmas.

With my last burst of strength, I spread my wings, shot up through the air,
and flew as fast as I could. A backwards look out of one of my eyes told me that
I’d left the surprised cat sitting in the grass.

For one second, I experienced a wonderful sensation of triumph. “You did it,
Gary!” I crowed to myself. “You, a tiny little bee, managed to fight off a great
big vicious cat!”