Bee Happy (2 page)

  “Sure smells good, Grandfather.”  Calli entered the kitchen with a smile on her face.  “What’s in my bucket for today?”  Roger always had her lunch and snacks ready for market day.  He’
d
made the sandwiches and washed the fruit the night before.  “You are the winner of the best breakfast sandwich this side of the Mississippi, your favorite, bacon, egg, and cheese on sourdough bread, fresh from the oven yesterday.” 

“Thanks.  You know I’ll never turn down your homemade sourdough bread.  You could put just about anything in between the slices and it would taste wonderful.  I’ve got a van full and am really excited to get moving.  Will you be coming over later?”  Calli grabbed her wrapped sandwich and her lunch bucket heading out the door almost before Roger could answer her question.

“I’ll have to see how I’m feeling, Calli.
I’ve been taking afternoon naps lately.  Not sure what’s got me so tired.  Maybe after my nap I’ll be able to help you haul all the money home!”  He laughed and smiled all at the same time.  Calli was in too big of a hurry to question him about the naps.  She’d discuss it with him this evening.
  Calli threw gravel behind her tires, as she sped down the lane to the highway.  No moss growing on her today.  She loved all the old sayings that she’d grown up with, her Grandfather and Grandmother had shared them with her from a very young age. 

  As she approached the market square she realized that she wasn’t the first vendor to arrive.  Rats!  He beat me again.  Her best or worst competitor, depending how you looked at things had beaten Calli to the best space.  The market didn’t reserve any booths for people.  It was first come you get to choose your space. Calli growled a bit under her breath.  What is it with this guy?  Why does he always get under my skin?  He seems like a nice enough person, but there’s something about him that definitely rubs me the wrong way, each and every time I see him, which happens to be three times a week during the summer farmers market. 

  “Morning, Calli,
” Jim
called
as he
hauled another bucket of flowers from his old multi-colored van.  “Good morning, Jim.  How’s it goin’?”  Calli did her best to smile and look happy to see him, even though her blood was starting to boil.  Taking a deep breath, Calli claimed the space across the aisle from Jim that way she could keep her eye on him and make sure he wasn’t stealing any of her regular customers with his ‘charming’ personality.  Grrr!  Calli couldn’t decide why this was so upsetting to her.  She knew that if she didn’t change her attitude immediately she’d ruin her sales for the day.  Reading all the books about marketing and how your attitude brings you exactly what you are projecting.  She took about five deep breaths and slowed her pulse, and got recentered for her day.  She understood the Law of Attraction and she was determined to attract so many buyers that her buckets would be empty by the end of the day, if not before!

  When Calli had all her produce, flowers and herbs in place and she was ready for the sales to start pouring in, she grabbed the sandwich Grandfather had made for her breakfast and took a big bite.  Rats,
its
cold already, just like my attitude towards Jim.  There I go again, focusing upon him instead of my customers.
She drank some of the lemonade that Grandfather had packed for her lunch; maybe this will sweeten my sour disposition.  Before she had time to ponder her mood any longer, the doors were opened for the customers to start shopping.  Calli was busy immediately and forgot to even watch Jim’s booth. 

  “Good morning, Lois.”  Calli smiled at one of her favorite customers.  Lois was about her grandfather’s age and she bought flowers and vegetables from Calli every time.  “
What are you in the market for today?  I have some delicious peas that I picked yesterday; they are crisp and ready to eat or to freeze.  I have a bumper crop this year.  Not sure if it’s the weather or all the bees that seem to pollinate everything they find.”  Calli waited for Lois to decide.  “Oh, honey,” Lois replied.  “I’m too old to worry about freezing anything for next year.  I’ll eat the fresh ones when they are in season.  One never knows about the future at my age.”  Calli was taken aback with Lois’s comment about next year.  She was the same age as her Grandfather and he had been slowing down and taking more naps.  Stop, I’m not going any further with this line of thinking.

  “Thank you so much Lois.  I’ll see you on Saturday for some more?” 

  “Of course.” Lois replied, “I always stop at your booth first because I know that you send so much love to your garden, the vegetables are sweeter and full of all the good things of life.  You said something about bees.  Have you seen many?  I’ve heard that the honey bees are having problems with some sort of disease.”  Calli shook her head.  Lois continued, “I remember
when 
your Grandfather used to keep bees and sell me honey.  It was the best in the county.  Never understood why he stopped.  Well, I’d better be going dear. See you on Saturday.”
 
Lois hurried off to the next booth which had homemade bread
,
jams and jellies. 

  Calli started putting the puzzle pieces together in her mind.  Grandfather used to keep bees.  He used to sell the best honey in the county.  Why did he stop?  Calli couldn’t remember any honey or bee hives growing up.  The boxes she found in the old machine shed must be the ones he used.  Why has he never talked about keeping bees?  There must be a reason.  She was determined to ask him and keep asking until he gave her the answer.  Sometimes when she questioned him, he side stepped the question with another question.  This time she wasn’t going to be thwarted.  The bees had led her to the old hive and there must be a reason for that. 

  The flurry of customers slowed down enough that Calli had time to glance across the aisle at Jim’s booth.  He was sold out!  How did he do that so fast?  She’d watched him fill his space with just as many buckets as she did.  And she still had more to sell.  Jim was packing up everything and getting ready to leave, when he walked over to her booth and stood there with that grin on his face, the grin that she’d like to wipe off with the slap of her hand.  Ugh, what’s the matter with me?
  He seems like a nice enough guy, but there’s something that unsettles me every time I’m within a few feet of him.

  “Looks like I’ll be heading home now.  Is there anything I can help you with?  Guess I got finished before you again.”  There it was, he was rubbing it in.  ‘I got finished before you AGAIN.’  Smirk, it was a smirk he had on his face, not a smile.  “Oh, no, Jim. But thanks anyway.  My grandfather should be along any minute now.  He always likes to help me pack up and count the money,” Calli remained as calm and cool and collected as she could despite her desire to eliminate his presence from her space.  “Okay, see you Saturday.  I’m looking forward to it.”  Why? Why on God’s green earth would he be looking forward to seeing me on Saturday?  Calli huffed around her booth with a vengeance and pulled
out the last bucket of flowers
remaining to be sold out of her van and set it down so hard on the cement that the bucket cracked and all the water ran out.  Now I’ve done it.  These flowers need to be in water so they’ll look beautiful enough to sell.  See what he did to me?  Calli wasn’t ready to claim that it was her behavior and not Jim’s that had caused the bucket to break.

  Luckily, Roger arrive
d
in that moment and took the wind out of her billowing sail of frustration.  “Hi,
honey.  How have sales been today?  Looks like you’re almost done. Just one bucket to go.  What happened to this bucket?  Looks like it split.  They just don’t make them like they used to.”
  Roger shook his head and transferred the flowers to another bucket that would hold water.  “I’ll just go fill this one up at the faucet.  Be right back and we can count the money.”  Roger loved to see just how much money Calli brought in with her vegetables and flowers.  He was so proud of her accomplishments, even though he had taught her everything she knew about growing flowers and planting and harvesting.  He knew that it hadn’t been easy for her to go against her parents’ wishes.  They saw her going to college and getting a degree and finding the perfect husband and then having an ideal family life, who knows now
a
days what an ideal family
is any more.  Times had changed; nothing was the same as it was when Roger was in
his prime of life.  Filling a new
bucket with fresh water, Roger took his time returning to the market space.  He walked slowly down the aisles of the market, stopping to speak with old friends, people he’d known for many years. 
He realized that it seemed like everyone had
aged, guess I’m not alone in this. 

  Calli was finishing up the accounting for the day when Roger returned.  Instead of having flowers in the bucket, he only had water.  All along the way back to their space, Roger had given away the last of the flowers.  He was pleased to be able to share with his friends and so enjoyed the feeling of gratitude everyone expressed to him for the gift of fresh flowers. 
“How did you do today?”  Roger was curious.  “Well, more than last week and not quite as much as I had hoped seems that I get to counting my chickens before they are hatched.”  They both laughed at the old saying, one that Roger had said many times to her when she was growing up.  “Did you share the last of the flowers with the ladies down the aisle?  I know what you’re up to.  You are kind of sweet on Margaret aren’t you Grandfather?”   Roger chuckled, “Now, Calli, you know that Margaret and I are old friends.  In our younger days, your grandmother and I and Margaret and Jack would go to all the dances together.  We’d sure ‘cut the rug’.”  Calli shook her head and laughed.  “I’m just sure people still talk like that!  Cut the rug.  What in the world does that mean?  I think you’re going to have to create an old timers dictionary for me to have to understand all these old sayings.” 

  The van was loaded with all the empty buckets and the full cash box.  Calli was pleased with herself, another profitable day.  She had plenty of money to pay her rent and plenty left over to put into her ‘dream’ account in the bank.  “Meet you at the Burger Barn.”  Roger nodded his head and climbed into his pickup, the one he’d restored
, his pride and joy.  The two of them always celebrated after the farmers market by going to the Burger Barn and having the Barn Burner Special, a bacon cheeseburger, large fries and chocolate malt.  Calli was ready to get some answers from her Grandfather.  Lois had given her the information she was looking for, her Grandfather had been a bee keeper.  Calli wanted to know what happened that made him stop and whether or not he’d be willing to teach her what she needed to know to become the next generation of bee keepers.  To bee or not to bee, that really was her question.

Chapter 3
A Long Tale

  The Burger Barn was hopping with people and the musi
c was loud.  Calli found a booth
towards the back of the main room.  She wanted to be able to have a conversation with her Grandfather without too many interruptions, when you’ve lived in a small town your entire life you knew everyone and her Grandfather was a talker.  She was so excited to tell him about the bees leading her to the machine shed and her discovery of the old bee hives, wonder how many years ago it was that he kept bees?  Calli watched as Roger made his way to the back of the restaurant, stopping every couple of tables to chat with a friend.  He was well liked and admired by the people in
Evergreen.  Roger had even been mayor for awhile when Calli was a kid.  Roger slid into the booth opposite from Calli, laughing at a joke he’d heard.  “There’s never a dull moment around here! Are we having the usual?”  Calli smiled, “I’ve already ordered, unless you’d like something new for a change.” 

  “Of course not.  We have an image to uphold.  Success at the farmers market calls for the Barn Burner Special, I wouldn’t want to jinx our winning streak.  You look like you’ve got something on your mind.  Spill it.”  Calli took a very deep breath and began to tell her Grandfather the story about how she had been picking peas yesterday and how the two little honey bees had played a game with her.  As she got to the part of the story where they led her into the machine shed back in the corner
where the bee hives were, Roger’s eyes began to dart around the room as though he was looking for a way to escape the rest of this story.

  “So, Grandfather, this morning I had a talk with Lois, you remember her, she lives on the north side of town.  And she was telling me that you used to keep honey bees and that you sold her the best honey in the county.  Is that true?  Are those really bee hives in the old shed?  Why don’t you keep bees anymore?”  Calli was determined to get the answers to
all
her questions, but Roger looked almost pale and ready to faint.  “Grandfather, what’s wrong?  Why do you look like that?  You are scaring me.” 

  Roger took a very deep breath and the color seemed to return to his face.  He paused, hoping that the food would arrive and save him from telling this long tale to his granddaughter.  The fry cook must have been backed up with orders for there was no food being delivered to their table.  Seeing that Calli wasn’t going to let this go, Roger began to share his adventures with her.  He indeed had been a bee keeper and it was time to tell her before she got the notion in her head that she wanted to keep bees.

  “Well, when I was a lad, you know we farmed with horses.  That seems such a long time ago now with all the modern equipment today, combines with air conditioning and automatic GPS systems that plant and harvest via satellite.
Anyway, my father had the
best team of horses in the county.  Everyone wished they had a team like them, Bess and Bob we called them.  We only had 80 acres back then but it was enough to feed us and pay the mortgage.  You know that ravine with the little patch of woods by the pond?  That’
s where this story
starts.
I must have been about 8 or 9 years old at that time.
I was d
own the
r
e
fishing one day, hoping to bring home some bull heads for super. My mother loved to fry them
.  And as I was sitting on the bank, daydreaming about summer and not having to go to school for 3 months, a couple of honey bees started buzzing
around my
head.  I tried to swat them away, but they were determined little bees.  They’d buzz and then sit on the top of a cat ta
il
beside the pond.  Then they’d come back and buzz me again, like they were playing a game with me.”  Calli nodded her head, knowing exactly what he was talking about.