Mind Hive

Buzz…buzz…buzz

I was just a boy, barely eight years old. I don’t know how it started but I was running frantically. 

I was being chased by a bee. 

Not the usual thing to be chased by but it was quite a persistent bee. Oh right, I think I plucked a flower that it was sitting on. I was quite a stupid child it seems but anyway, where was I? Yes, I was being chased. It was in the early morning so there weren’t many people on the road. I was supposed to go to school but well… nobody studies much when they’re that young anyway. 

So, you can imagine something like this, a scrawny little boy with short, perfectly combed hair running like a maniac through an empty street. Whizzing right behind him is a bee with an intention of stinging him. The fear in my heart was considerably increasing with every step I took. I couldn’t look behind to see if the bee was still following me as I would have to slow down. I tried running in a zig-zag pattern to shake it off. I would climb onto the footpath, then suddenly step down. After a few minutes, I got tired and stopped. My hands clutched my knees as I took a second to catch my breath. As soon as I did that, the buzzing got louder and I turned around to see a flash of yellow dashing toward me. Without wasting another second, I bolted.

The chase was on again. 

My legs felt like red, hot steel. My chest was hurting and I could feel my lungs pounding inside of me. I shouted at the bee, “Why won’t you stop chasing me?”

Then, I heard a voice. I cannot say it was anything I had ever heard before. It was a little squeaky; like that of a child who had taken some helium. The source was behind me, flying in the air. You could say that I was shocked to my core because I did not really expect a reply. 

It said, “What did you say?”

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked behind. “Did you just hear me?”

It replied again, “I did not, that’s why I asked. Man! Humans are so stupid,”

I could not believe that the bee could talk but that’s when I realized. It hadn’t stopped chasing me although I had. Its sting was barely an inch from my ear. I screamed and started running again. I suppose I didn’t have the intelligence to swat it like a fly.

Then, I started speaking to it while I was running but clearly it did not seem like the right choice. If my attention was diverted even for a second, I would most certainly fall and get stung. It wasn’t really a matter of life and death, but it sure did feel like it. 

As my feet started getting tired again, I spotted my savior. A broken umbrella lay on the side of the road and I was attracted to it like a moth to a flame. As fast as I could, I opened it and swished it in front of the bee. Now, I couldn’t be attacked.

Having an obstacle between us, I could speak to the bee freely as anytime it moved to strike I would use my absurd shield. 

“You can talk like me?”

“Of course I can talk like you, all animals can,”

“Oh, but they don’t”

“Wait, don’t they? Oh no! Well, I have to sting you little thief now”

“I’m not a thief,”

“You plucked my flower and you have the audacity to say you are not a thief. Such a classic human act,”

said the bee trying to dodge the umbrella

“I can give it back to you if you want,”

“I don’t want a flower that has been touched by your filthy, pudgy hands. All I want is to sting you now. You cannot understand right now. This is all a mistake, me talking to you,”

“Why are you so obsessed on stinging me?”

“If you aren’t given pain,

 you will do it again,”

“My God! It’s the 21st century. You still have thoughts like that. You would be such a bad parent,”

“Well, thanks to you. I never will be a parent,”

“What do you mean?”

“When a bee stings someone, it dies,”

 “Oh no, I would feel so sad for you if you weren’t trying to sting me right now. Just don’t sting me please. I won’t kill you either,”

Before the bee could reply, I noticed that there were many other bees a little far away from us, whoozing through the air right toward us. But then I realized that my home was just a few meters away. My legs had gathered the strength they needed and I leapt towards the door of my house. My open umbrella was slowing me down and I threw it away. I barely got in and was able to close the door on the faces of nearly 15 bees. 

The bees outside my door went away after a while. Obviously my family didn’t believe me when I said that the bee talked to me. They thought I was just imagining things. I know I wasn’t until today. 

I have finally opened my eyes to the world. I was a stupid child who thought that a bee talked to him. The sole reason I became a zookeeper was to see if animals talk to me. 8 long years I have spent taking care of animals, loving them, hoping that one day I’ll be able to know if what happened to me was not just my mind playing tricks on me. 

One’s best friend and worst enemy is one’s mind. It shows you what you want to see. And that is not always the truth. I am leaving this job now. I have had enough of it. I want to start my life anew and forget the past. It is a cool, sunny day. Small breezes disrupt my neatly combed hair once in a while. I’m feeling positive for the first time in many years. The zoo will start in an hour. As I stand at the gate and take a look at the zoo for the last time, I see the new zookeeper, Rohit on his first day having been promoted from being Assistant Zookeeper. We wave good bye to each other and a smile shows up on my face. I turn to the right and just before leaving, glanced at the gorilla exhibit. 

I swear I saw it smile as I left…