The Hive

Barry tried to listen to the Queen but all he could hear was her usual droning buzzing about collecting pollen and feeding the babies blah, blah, blah. It was always the same; every day was just as un-exciting as the rest. Barry sighed and wiped a little dust off his antenna. The Queen finished up her boring warnings about winter coming and that it was important to gather as much as possible for the hive.  Barry yawned. He looked over at Mandy Bee, the fair and lovely Mandy Bee, and wished he could talk to her. But she was so dedicated to the bee cause she didn’t have time for him.

The morning meeting was mercifully over and Barry’s brother Brian nudged him as they headed for the exit. Brian was the way too peppy type frat bee that Barry found most distasteful. Brian wore his antenna slicked back and had recently got a, “Buzz for Life”, tattoo.

“Hey bro, are you pumped up for this”, shouted Brian.

“Yeah. Bro. I’m really pumped”, said Barry as he rolled his eyes.

“C’mon Bro! It’ll be awesome! Let’s go, bro”, yelled Brian.

Brian flew off toward the meadow while Barry tried to shake the shouting from his brain. He couldn’t understand Brian’s excitement about collecting pollen. It was just so boring; especially for such a short lifespan. Barry wished for more. He’d been out there in the world now for three days and was fascinated by the giant world around him. It was completely beyond his understanding but he wanted to be part of it.

There were giant hives made out of something peculiar, it was very hard to get any pollen from. Plus he didn’t know where those fleshy wingless creatures secreted such a hard substance. It was a mystery that he wanted answers to. Colleting pollen for the larval babies seemed stupid by comparison.

Barry went to the doorway of the hive and flew out into the world. He stayed away from the meadow and headed toward the giant hives across the strange black river that strange monsters cruised back and forth on.  Barry tried to talk to one yesterday but it said nothing. Apparently it was just a beast that was incapable of understanding the clearly superior bee language. All these monsters did was bray and fart black clouds it seemed.

Barry flew over the tops of the monsters with ease as he headed toward a grassy area where there were some fleshy creatures gathered. He’d tried to talk to them as well but they were also incapable of understanding the complexities of the Bee language. Although they did seem to wiggle their abdomen quite a lot while talking to each other.

Barry wanted to know what their world was like. It didn’t seem like they were all stuck working their lives away for some Queen that didn’t even know their name. The last time the Queen even paid any attention to Barry was when he was a pupa. It’s not that he was bitter, he just felt unimportant. He wanted to be important. He wanted to be loved.

“Yo Bro”, called Brian, “get your pollen on bro. C’mon bro”.

Barry nodded and started to fly back toward the meadow. He only had another week to live as it was, so he might as well make the best of it. He was going to ask Mandy Bee out and take her to that pile of oranges in the meadow. Maybe things would work out and something amazing would happen. He just had to be patient.