Little Bee
It was a day, much like any other day, spent talking to friends, as he usually did. Just random communication about nothing of any great importance. He hardly noticed it at first, but nevertheless, there it was, a little bee. It was not any ordinary kind of bee, for a bee would usually make him leap up in fear of being stung. No, this was not a stinging bee (or, at least, he hadn’t thought so then, but we may or may not come to that in the telling of this tale). The thing about this bee, that set it apart from the other bees, those stinging, buzzing bees, was its smile. This crazy little bee with its crazy big smile.
A simple request for friendship was made, and accepted, which seemed as nothing at the time, but as the days went on, he began to notice that the bee was always there. No matter where he was, or what he did, everywhere he went, the bee was with him. When he was feeling down, the bee would pick him up, would listen to him ramble on for hours about his woes. The bee would be patient with his delusions, would marvel at his illusions, and almost never say, “I told you so.” Mostly, the bee would smile, and make him feel young and wild and free.
The problem was he had started to think of it as his bee. It was silly, he knew, and yet for some reason the words “my bee” floated, unbidden, into his mind and refused to leave. But it was not his bee, it was a wild and untamed thing, and that was, after all, what made it so wonderful.
He was reminded of this, from time to time, as he watched the bee fly away. It would return to him, and not speak of its adventures apart from him, for it could see in his eyes that certain things were best left unsaid. For, after all, every bee has its sting, no matter how reluctant they might be to use it.
So for now he resolved to treasure his time with the little bee, to not complain when it woke him early in the morning with mad tales of bats and canaries. To enjoy the smile, that crazy smile, that always broke like sunshine waves upon his loneliness. For he knew the day would come when his bee would fly away and not return.
No, not his bee.
He kept forgetting that.
Oke Dafe
A tiny bit tragic but mostly heart-warming. I really liked this, it made me smile.
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