AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR.

Last summer, my mother got very angry with me for insisting something had happened that she said was just plain “impossible” and I should grow up and quit telling  white lies!    Wow!  It was terrible!   She was more than annoyed,  she was angry!   I guess, maybe because I kept insisting it was the truth!

It had been one of those really sticky,  hot and humid summer days and I had finished my chores and it was just too hot to go looking for something to do.   I sat on the back steps eating a popsicle until I got frozen eye.  You know?   if you eat too slowly it drips on your hand but if you eat too quickly you get that sharp stick in the eye kind of pain….seems a very fine line method to successfully eat a grape popsicle.  

Well I finished the popsicle and took my purple lips off to the hammock slung under one of the pear trees.  My big brother had just bought the hammock from the surplus store and he planned to sleep the night in it.  It had a zippered in mosquito netting….and we were all warned to stay away from it or expect a whomping!

I sure didn’t see how it could hurt to just stretch out in it for a few minutes and so I crawled in and zipped up the netting.   It was surprisingly comfy in the shade with a nice breeze under the trees.   I wondered how much it had cost,  I wondered how long it would take me to save enough to buy one, I wondered where I could find a job,   and my wondering went on and on until…..until I felt so drowsy!  

As I lay there,  there came a distant drone,  getting louder as it came closer,  I tried to sit up enough to peep over the edge of the canvas,  trying to see out without being seen.  My brother would kill me if he found me in here!  Before I could see much,  the drone became kind of a buzz…like a druzzzz….drone buzz!   And then the biggest fattest bumble bee I have ever seen landed on the netting.   He walked about, here and there,  seemingly feeling with his antenna for a way in!   Yikes,  if he got in I would have no where to go!   

Finally he stopped right above my face!   “Are you just going to lay there being afraid or are you going to let me in so we can be friends?”     I squeezed my eyes shut so tight!   Slowly I opened then just enough to see if he was still there.   Yep!  Still there!   Now he did something with his legs,  rubbing one against the other,  bits of pollen and flower nectar falling on the netting.   “WELL?”,   he says.   “If you won’t let me in,  then unzip this thing so we can fly off to some place more interesting.”    “This is a pretty boring place and there is nothing to eat!”   “You have any flowers in there with you?”    Well of course I didn’t but quickly began to lick the leftover grape popsicle from my lips wondering if that is what attracted him in the first place.   “Come on,  come on,  unzip….let’s get going,  I need to eat constantly!”

I,  in truth, did not have a clue what to do.   Slowly I unzipped the netting just a bit.  He took the zipper tab from my fingers and with a whirring of his wings, ZIPPPPP….the hammock was open…and not only that…oh my gosh,  either he had gotten much bigger  OR  I had gotten much smaller!

He hovered there for a few moments,  like he was trying to decide if I was worth his time  then he zoomed in,  picked me up with his legs and off we flew!  The buzzing was like a warning to anything ahead of us because bugs of all sorts just got out of the way.  

Quickly we landed in Mrs. George’s big flower garden, well he landed on some red zinnias , I just got dropped on some petunias.   Pollen rained all over me and I let out the biggest little sneeze you can imagine!    I sneezed again and again….and then yet again!  Oh my,  everything in the garden just exploded.   Slugs began sliding about,  lady bugs came out of hiding from under the flower petals and  the spiders ran back and forth around their webs.   It was total garden pandemonium!    Finally things quieted down except for the buzz of my friend the bumblebee as he moved from blossom to blossom.   I crawled about under the petals seeing things in a totally different way.  The stems of the plants were covered in something like fine hair,  the earth smelled damp and yet very rich,  the shade was cool and as I crawled about I thought how nice to live down here.   Suddenly I bumped against a big soft green expanse of what?  I had no idea…soft green and a bit damp.   Then it moved,  and one eye and then another was looking at me…croak…croak…the familiar croaking of a frog.  It is was a frog,  bigger than me!!   Wow!   Wow! Wow!

I backed away slowly but he just appeared  to be curious about me,  as I was curious about him.  It became a staring contest as neither of us spoke but I continued to move away from him.  Then out came a quick pointed tongue and gone was a small insect from a leaf nearby.   Now I began to realize,   I didn’t really belong here,  I didn’t  know any of the rules,  I haven’t been taught  good manners or understand how to coexist here in this world!   What was I to do?

The bumblebee circled closer again and finally came to rest nearby.  From overhead somewhere I heard a small voice say,  “Hey Buzz,  I don’t know who your friend is but this patch has been taken,  not hardly enough food for us already here,  what’s he going to eat?”

 I stretched my neck until I caught sight of a green and yellow caterpillar,  it seemed to be  the owner of the small voice.   The bumblebee lifted off and hovered,  settled and lifted off again as though his wings must move for him to be able to think.

“Hmmmm,  I guess it wasn’t the best idea to bring him to our garden but I LOVE making new friends,  you know that about me,  I’m always bringing  home new friends, but maybe I best take him home.”    “Sigh”.    

With that he picked me up again with his hairy pollen laden legs.  He warned me not to sneeze or he would lose a whole days worth of pollen collecting and that would be very bad.   Off we flew!  I was hanging on and praying not to sneeze.    Soon we were back under the pear trees.   He dropped me into the hammock and with a very loud straining druzzzzz, drone buzz,  zipped me in again, and off he flew!

I laid there for a few minutes trying to remember each of the marvelous things I had seen,  who will believe me that bugs talk and they have friends,  just like us!   Amazing this life if you stay still long enough to see it.   

Now  suddenly I  thought  about my big brother again,  I’d better get out of here!    So I sat up,  and realized I’m big again,  boy size,  normal,  just like me,  like I’m supposed to be!   So I quickly climbed out of the hammock and headed for the house.  I needed some kool-aid and to tell my Mom about my adventure.

It was while I was drinking my kool-aid and my Mother was yelling at me for telling white lies that my big brother came storming in….he was furious….someone had filled his new hammock with pollen and bits of flower petals,  it smelled of damp earth and garden debris…..who had been in his hammock?

I stared at my Mother willing her to put this all together.  Hadn’t she been listening?.  My story about my day in Mrs. George’s garden with the insects and frogs and the mess in the hammock!    I wondered why she just didn’t  get it!  But she didn’t  or wouldn’t!    I was sent off to my room to think about telling lies until supper was ready.   

Well,  I know what I know!   Call it a tall  tale or just another version of a boy’s afternoon!