Bee Happy (10 page)

  Roger was in the kitchen drinking his coffee
;
his
breakfast eaten long ago.  Calli noticed how happy he looked, and maybe even a bit younger.  Part of her wanted to talk and get all this nonsense out in the open and out of her consciousness and the other part of her wanted to escape to the garden and work with real things, plants, bugs, weeds, things she could touch and see.  “How did you sleep?”  She finally was willing to talk, munching on the bacon and waiting for her eggs to finish cooking.  “I slept like a baby.  At least that’s what it felt like.  I’m sure I don’t remember what sleeping like a baby was way back then, but the saying describes my night.  How about you?”  He didn’t want to broach the subject of last night and his communication with his grandfather anymore than Calli did.  “Well, after Sally and Jim left, it took me awhile to get to sleep, probably all the adrenaline running through my veins after being in the emergency room.  But I’m fine this morning.  Think I’ll spend some time in the garden, checking on everything and planting a few more rows of spinach for the fall.”  Any topic to get away from ghosts and spirits would do this morning.  “That sounds like a great idea.  After I read the morning paper and finish my coffee think I’ll go out to the machine shed and drag out those old bee hives.  When you’re done planting would you like to help me?”  He almost was holding his breath, hoping that he hadn’t frightened her too much last night and praying that she’d come along on this journey willingly.  It seemed to be the salve that would finish the healing of the wound from his grandfather’s death.  “I’ll see how the day goes.  Catch up with you later.”  Calli left the kitchen without even noticing that her eggs were done cooking.  She was in such a hurry to avoid the topic of bees
and ghosts
that she’d forgotten to eat them. 

  Gathering her tools and seeds, she found an empty row a
nd started hoeing like there were
nuggets
of gold buried and if she dug deep
enough she might find them.  The sun was bright and the birds were singing.  The wind was quiet, just a gentle puff of a breeze every now and then.  Calli felt herself relaxing into the rhythm of the earth and the
connection to the soil.  She looked at the rich soil they had created with all their composting efforts.  Roger really did know how to build the perfect soil for their garden.  Patting the earth gently over the newly sown seeds, she looked up at the sky, noticing that the white puffy clouds were creating pictures.  As a child she used to lie on the grass and decide what kind of animals were in the sky.  Suddenly she was buzzed by a bee.  Then another one came zooming by her head.  Oh, my, are those two little pesky bees back, the o
nes who led me to the bee hives?
  She was determined to ignore them and finish planting the spinach.  The next fifteen minutes became a ducking and swatting battle for Calli’s attention.  The bees seemed to create new flight patterns with each fly by.  Calli finally threw down her gardening gloves and started yelling at the bees.  Of course, that didn’t matter to them; they just kept up their dive bombing attacks.  Finally they landed on the bee balm, the same one that they had sat on before.  Calli walked over and stared at them, trying to figure out what they wanted.  Ignoring the fact that she knew perfectly well, what they wanted.  It had been long enough since she left the kitchen and her grandfather was probably headed for the machine shed right at this moment.  This was a losing battle, she knew that she’d have to go there sooner or later and the bees were just the messengers.  Putting everything away, back in the tool shed, she surrendered to the fact that she was going to have
to face Roger and the bee hives and his grandfather’s ghost.
  What a difference last night had made in her feelings towards becoming a bee keeper.  When it had been her idea and her grandfather was hesitant, she was almost driven to make it happen, to help her grandfather heal by getting the bee hives out and working again.  Now, after learning that his grandfather
had been communicating
with Roger asking him to get the hives out, she had
flipped 180 degrees, not wanting anything to do with the bees or ghosts
.
  What is the matter with me?  What am I afraid of?  As she continued the questioning in her head, the bees started buzzing around her again.  Okay, I’m going.  See you at the machine shed.  She trudged unwillingly across the yard and saw her grandfather sliding the
old door back revealing the broken
pieces of long forgotten equipment.  She knew that the hives were in the corner
and Roger was going to drag them out
whether she wanted to participate
or not. 

 
Roger had one hive already out of the shed by the time Calli got there.  She hadn’t hurried; in fact she’d walked very slowing wishing she could shift her attitude before she got there.  “Did you get the planting done already?”  He wanted to sound upbeat and positive, knowing that there was uneasiness about his story about talking to his grandfather.  He didn’t want Calli to be afraid of this project or of him for that matter.
 
“Yes, they are all tucked into the ground and ready to sprout when we get a shower.”  She too wanted to be upbeat and hopefully enjoy this newest project of learning to be a bee keeper.  She just didn’t want any ghosts helping them.  “Help me get the other hive; I think it’s stuck somehow.”  Together they pulled and pulled and finally the last layer of the hive was free from the dirt.  Looking at them out in the sunlight, Roger sighed, “They seem to need a little love and attention, some fresh paint and cleaning.  Do you remember if we used up all the white paint, you know when we were painting the tool shed?”  Roger seemed to be excited about the prospect of getting the hives looking good again.  “I think there’s enough left to cover them with a couple of coats.  I’ll go and get the wire brush and some sand paper.  Where do you want to do this?”  Calli was beginning to shift a little, hoping that working together they would be able to talk about his experience like mature logical adults, adults who didn’t believe in ghosts talking to you in the middle of the night. 

  A couple hours later, the
hives looked great.  Roger
though
t
they looked better than he remembered them.  “Thanks!  I do believe that they are ready for some bee habitation.  Wonder how we can find a swarm?  It would be almost unbelievable to think that there might be some by the pond, just like when I first found them with my grandfather.”  Roger seemed to get lost in his memories. 
Having worked side by side with her grandfather for the past two hours, Calli seemed to mellow and feel better about the bee hives and the potential of learning how to be their keeper.  She even supposed that she could talk to him about his grandfather’s visit, but just not today.  She had to sort through some more ideas and beliefs and probably could use some more girl talk with Sally.  She was the one who could get her thinking put back into place better than anyone else.  That’s what she needed, some time with Sally.  Lucky for her, the sun was almost overhead which meant it was close to noon and her lunch break.  “Think I’m going to head into town for a bit and see what Sally is doing for lunch.”  Calli wanted to sound nonchalant and didn’t want Roger to suspect why she was going.  “That sounds like a great idea.  Tell her thanks for coming last night and being with you while I was hooked up to all those machines.  So happy that I have good insurance, I wouldn’t want to see the bill if I didn’t.”  Roger went to the barn to get the skid loader so he could move the hives back down to the pond.  Whistling and grinning like a kid, he felt happier than he had in a very long time. 

  Sally was sitting on the bench expecting Calli to show up any minute.  She knew her friend well enough to know that there would be about a thousand questions about Roger’s talk with his grandfather’s spirit.  She hoped that she could find the words that would put her mind at ease, Calli wasn’t a believer just yet, but Sally knew that eventually she’d have an experience that would bring her around to knowing that life really is eternal and we can communicate with others whether they have a physical body or a spirit body.  Just like clockwork, Calli’s van parked right in front of the bench and she hopped out with another sack of vegetables.  “You are the vegetable fairy these days.  I am living the good life and will be so healthy I’ll probably never die!”  Sitting down beside her friend, Calli turned very serious very quickly despite Sally’s attempt to keep everything light and fun.  “Now, I want you to tell me that my grandfather isn’t going senile or crazy or both.  Could he possibly have talked to his grandfather last night?  I’m having a very hard time wrapping my head around the idea that you can talk to someone who is dead.  I mean dead for a very long time.  This is so far outside what I believe and you are the only one whom I trust to give me the truth.  I know that we don’t always believe the same things but this is your arena and I’m at a loss to make any sense out of the entire thing.”  Catching her breath Calli continued, “…and what about Jim?  What did he mean about his own experiences?  Do you have any idea what he was talking about?  It seems
to me like everyone but me
have
had
other worldly experiences and they are
so much more advanced than I am spiritually.  I do believe in God and I do pray although I don
’t go to church very often.  I
feel my church is out in my garden, that’s where I feel the closest to God.”   Sally paused looking for the best way to answer her questions without scaring her away.  “Well, this is going to take a little longer than we have time for during my lunch hour.  How about you come over tonight and we’ll invite Jim and see if the two of us can give you some answers that will satisfy your logical mind.” 
The rest of lunch was spent talking about everything but ghosts, spirits and visitations.  Calli called Jim and he agreed to meet the two of them at Sally’s house this evening.  Finally she felt like she’d get some answers and some resolution to all her misgivings about spirits and ghosts.  Grabbing a large ice cream cone from the Dairy Barn, Calli headed home to see where he’d put the bee hives.  Wonder if the two little bees will follow him there?  Better than
them
buzzing around me while I’
m trying to work in the garden!

  Because she had the prospect of getting some answers tonight, Calli felt better after talking to Sally.  And the fact that Jim had agreed to come over too gave her the reassurance that he wasn’t going to disappear when things got a little weird, at least in her mind things had gotten plenty weird in the last 24 hours.  When she arrived at the farm, Calli noticed that her grandfather was down at the pond with the skid loader.  That means he has moved the hives and is g
etting ready for bees to arrive she thought.
  Her curiosity wouldn’t let her ignore that fact that Roger was there prepping everything and she had to go see what was happening.  Did he need to play a magic flute and woo the bees into the hive, or do some sort of bee dance?  Her imagination was giving her a little comic relief after last night
’s events and the unsettling feeling she had about her grandfather’s supposed talking to a ghost.  She hoped that being lighthearted this afternoon would set the mood and he wouldn’t say anything more about this.  She didn’t know what she would say if he did.  After tonight’s talk with Sally and Jim she would be ready, but not now.

  “How was Sally?  I see that you stopped at the Dairy Barn by the
looks of the
front of your shirt.”  Calli looked down and there were ice cream drips down the front of her shirt.  “At least I didn’t have the chocolate coat, and then there’d be blobs of chocolate drips too!  How are the hives?”  Roger wiped the sweat from his brow; the sun was quite hot this afternoon, “Well, I think I have them in exactly the same place they were before when my grandfather and I were keeping the bees.  I check
ed
the trees around the pond and didn’t see any swarms.  So we are going to have to count on Mother Nature and the Bee Gods to bring some here.  I’ll put some honey inside the combs and see what happens.”  The exact same spot that almost seemed eerie to her, but that would make sense too.  If they had been successful
here
before why not
now
?  The two of them sat under the shade of a willow tree on the edge of the pond.  “Seems like it got too hot today to do much else.  I think I’ll go back to the house and take a little nap.  Last night kind of tuckered me out.  All that attention when nothing happened really.  Lucky that I’m old and they just decided it was me losing my mind.  I did tell the ambulance crew that I had been talking to my grandfather and I know they didn’t believe me one little bit.”  Roger shook his head, wondering why no one understood.  Calli was aghast that he’d told anyone else about talking to a ghost.  Oh, boy
,
wait until that gets around town, she won’t be able to go anywhere without people staring at her and whispering things behind her back, ‘you know her grandfather is losing his mind, talking to ghosts and such’.  Calli wasn’t ready to deal with this, she needed the right comeback when people got going,
and small
towns are good in one way and not so good in another.  People watched out for their neighbors, but also could be quite judgmental as well.

  “I’ll have supper ready for you when you get up from your nap.  I’m going over to Sally’s tonight for a little girl talk.  Anything special you’d like me to fix?”  Roger paused and thought, “…I always liked when June stewed some of the fresh tomatoes and added macaroni, not sure why but that’s one of my favorite meals.  But you can fix whatever you’d like, I’m not fussy.  If you have a little time would you sit here and listen for the bees to arrive?”  He had a twinkle in his eyes, knowing that she needed to relax a bit and listening for the bees was a good enough excuse for her to stay here and soak in the good vibes from the water, wind and trees.  This felt like a sacred space to Roger and he hoped that someday Calli would feel the good energy that surrounded the pond.  “Of, course, I like the tomatoes and macaroni too.  I remember when grandmother would fix that, hope I can make it as good as she did.  I’ll wait for the bees to arrive, but if it’s after dark you’d better come and get me!”  She tried to keep her voice light and not get too concerned that he was going to take a nap.  He never took a nap that just wasn’t in his nature.    They hugged; he climbed up on the tractor and headed back to the barn.