Claus was playing with me as if I were one of the chewed-up catnip mouse toys Krissy always gives him for Christmas.
With my last burst of strength, I spread my wings, shot up through the air, and flew as fast as I could. A backwards look out of one of my eyes told me that I’d left the surprised cat sitting in the grass.
For one second, I experienced a wonderful sensation of triumph. “You did it, Gary!” I crowed to myself. “You, a tiny little bee, managed to fight off a great big vicious cat!”
I was so pleased with myself, I decided to take a little victory lap. I spread my wings out wide and began a big, slow circle in the air.
Whap!
Oh, no! Now what?
I’d crashed right into something! But what was it? It wasn’t hard, like a wall or a tree. Instead, it was soft and clinging, like cloth. And my feet were all tangled up in it.
I struggled to squirm free. I wiggled and pushed. But my legs were caught.
I was trapped.
“Haw haw haw!”
The booming laughter made my entire body shake.
I suddenly realized where I was.
I was caught in Andretti’s net.
A wave of despair made me slump against the white netting.
I knew exactly what would happen next.
He would put me in his hives—and I would never get away.
13
“Time to go back home now, my little buzzing babies,” Mr. Andretti sang. “Time to get back to work, my honeys.” He started to laugh at his stupid pun. “My honeys! Haw haw! Oh, my, wasn’t that a good one?”
Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzz.
From the loud humming sounds in my ears, I knew I wasn’t the only bee Andretti had caught in his net. In fact, out of my right eye, I could see another bee who looked just like me. He loomed right in front of me, and wiggled his antennas in my face.
Whooa! What a monster!
My wiry legs began trembling with fright. I twisted myself around and around, struggling to get away from him.
I finally got myself turned the other way. But then I saw I was facing another bee. And another. Each one looked scarier than the last.
They all had big, bulging eyes and creepy antennas! And they all buzzed menacingly at me.
The frightening hum grew louder and louder as Mr. Andretti caught more bees in the net. Suddenly, the net began to shake. Up and down, up and down—like a violent earthquake—until I couldn’t even think straight!
As the net shook, I lost my footing and fell into a big, squirming cluster of bees at the bottom of the net.
Whooooa! I stumbled over the pile of wriggling, hairy bees. And as I staggered in terror, bees fell on top of me.
A crawling, buzzing nightmare!
I’ve never been so terrified. I screamed in my tiny voice. I tried to climb up the side of the net, but my feet were stuck under another bee’s body. How I hated the feel of his disgusting fuzz!
In my terror, I knew I had to escape. I had to get away from here. I had to get to Ms. Karmen’s office and beg her to help me.
Then I had the most terrifying thought of all. If I couldn’t escape, I suddenly realized, I would remain a bee for the rest of my life!
As Mr. Andretti carried me and the other bees across his back yard, I started buzzing and shivering with panic. How could this have happened to me? I asked myself. How could I ever have been so stupid as to try to change bodies with somebody else? Why wasn’t I happy with the perfectly good body I’d already had?
Mr. Andretti opened the door to the screened-in area off the side of his garage. “We’re back now, my little honeys,” he cooed.
The net started to shake, and I figured out that Mr. Andretti was slowly turning it inside out. One by one, he started plucking us—his prisoners—off the side of the mesh cloth and plopping each one back inside his hanging drawer hives.
As Andretti reached for the bees, they started buzzing louder than ever. Finally, it was my turn to be plucked out of the net.
When I saw the ends of Andretti’s grasping fingers reaching for me, I hung back, clinging to the net. I suddenly remembered his bragging speech about how he never used gloves because his bees “trusted” him.
I watched his fingers stretch toward me.
It would be so cool to plunge my stinger into his soft, plump skin, I thought.
Should I do it?
Should I sting him?
Should I?
14
I didn’t sting him.
I really didn’t want to die.
Sure, things really looked terrible for me right now. But I was still clinging to a shred of hope.
Maybe, somehow, I’d find my way out of this bee prison and back into my own body. It didn’t seem very likely. But I was determined to keep on trying.
“In you go, my fuzzy little friend,” Mr. Andretti said. He opened up one of the removable drawerlike parts of his hive and dropped me in.
“Ohhhh,” I moaned. It was so dark inside the hive. And so confusing.
Where should I go? What should I do?
The air was hot and wet. Everywhere I turned, I was surrounded by a deafening, droning hum.
“I—I can’t stand it!” I cried. I could feel myself totally losing it!
All around me, bees scurried around in the darkness. I stayed where I was, too frightened to move.
I suddenly realized I was still very hungry. If I didn’t get something to eat, I knew I’d never be able to find a way out of here!
I spun around and started trying to explore.
Out of my left eye, I saw another bee glaring at me. I froze in my tracks. Did bees attack each other inside their hives? I wondered.
I didn’t remember reading anything about that in my bee book. But this bee really looked ready for a fight.
“Please leave me alone,” I begged in my tiny voice. “Please give me a break.”
The bee glared back at me. I’ve never seen such big, angry-looking eyes!
Slowly, I started backing away from him. “Uh…” I squeaked nervously. “I’ve got to be going now. I… um… I have to get to work.”
The bee bulged his eyes and waved his antennas in a threatening way. I was sure he planned to sting me. I turned and flew away as fast as I could. I tried to hide.
I was so frightened, I couldn’t even make myself move. What if I bumped into another bee? I couldn’t even stand to think about what might happen if I did.
I realized I had to move. I had to find something to eat.
Shaking with fear, I tiptoed out into the open. I took a nervous look around.
On the far wall, I could see a large cluster of bees, busily building something. A honeycomb!
And where there was a honeycomb, I told myself, there was honey.
I’ve always hated the sweet, sticky goo. But I knew I had to eat some. Right away!
As quietly as I could, I crept over and joined the bee workers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them doing really gross things with their mouths.
First, they used their legs to pick little flakes of waxy-looking stuff off their abdomens. Then they crammed the wax into their mouths and started working their jaws up and down like little chewing machines. Finally, they spit out the wax and used it to build part of the honeycomb they were working on.
“Yuck!” It looked so disgusting. It made me sick!
But what choice did I have? I had to eat some honey—even if it was covered with bee spit.
I turned my head and practiced sucking my tongue up and down. Then I slurped up a big puddle of honey.
Amazing! For the first time in my life, I actually liked that stuff. Soon, I was sucking it down as if it were chocolate milk.
After a while, I got quite good with my tongue, which was actually more of a bendable tube than a tongue. It was really the perfect tool for guzzling honey.
If I ever made it back to the outside world, I thought I’d now be pretty good at using it for gathering nectar and pollen. Why,
I might turn out to be the best worker in the whole hive!
I tried to smile, and then I almost gagged on my honey.
What was happening to me?
What was I thinking? I was actually starting to feel like a bee!
I had to get out of this place. Before it was too late!
I wanted to start searching for an escape route right away. But I suddenly felt so tired. So completely worn out…
Was it the honey? Or was it the strain of so much fear?
I could barely keep my eyes open. The droning hum grew louder.
With a weary sigh, I sank against a clump of hairy bodies.
I sank into the warm darkness of the hive, surrounded by the steady buzz. Breathing the sweet aroma of the honey, I sank beside my furry brothers and sisters.
I’m one of them now, I told myself weakly. I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a bee. A buzzzzzzzzzing bee. A bee sinking into the warm, dark hive. My home.
Sinking… sinking…
15
I woke up with a start and tried to brush a bee away from my face. It took me a few moments to remember. I wasn’t lying in my back yard anymore, trying to keep the bees away from me. I was a bee—a bee trapped inside a hive!
I jumped up, took a step, and immediately came face to face with another bee! I couldn’t tell if he was the same one I’d seen the night before. But he looked just as angry. His big eyes were bulging with rage. And he was moving deliberately toward me.
As fast as I could, I spun around and flew away. Of course, I had no idea where I was going.
The hive seemed to be made up of a lot of long, dark hallways. All around me, groups of bees were building honeycombs. As they worked, they kept up a steady buzz. The sound was really driving me off the wall!
I began searching for a way out. I wandered in and out, in and out throughout the dark, sticky honeycombs.
From time to time, I shot out my tongue and lapped up some honey. I was getting a little tired of the sweet stuff. But I knew I had to keep up my strength if I wanted to try to break out of the hive.
As I searched for a way to escape, I noticed that every single bee seemed to have an assigned job, either building honeycombs, caring for the babies of the queen or whatever. And the little bugs never stopped working! They were “busy as bees” from morning till night.
Darting through the tangled darkness, I began to lose hope.
There’s no way out, I decided. No way out.
I sank unhappily to the sticky hive floor. And as I dropped, three large bees moved in front of me.
They buzzed angrily, bumping up against me with their hairy, damp bodies. It was easy to tell these bees were angry with me.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t doing my “job.” But what was my job? How could I tell the bees I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing?
I tried to slip past them, but they moved to block my path.
Three tough bees. They made me think of Barry, Marv, and Karl.
I shrank back as one of them pointed his stinger at me.
He was getting ready to kill me! And I didn’t even know what I’d done!
I screamed and whirled around. As fast as my six legs would carry me, I darted back down the narrow passageway and turned another corner.
“Oh!” I bumped hard into another bee. Luckily, he was hurrying off somewhere, and barely seemed to notice me.
I gasped with relief. And then an idea came to me. Where was that bee going in such a hurry? Was he taking something somewhere? Could he be going to an area I hadn’t searched yet?
I decided to follow him and find out. I needed to learn everything I could about the hive. Maybe, just maybe, it would help me escape.
I hurried after the bee. I thought I’d find him quickly. But he was already long gone.
I searched in and out among the different honeycombs, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. After a while, I gave up.
Way to go, Lutz the Klutz, I scolded myself. I felt worse than ever.
I shot out my tongue and slurped up a big helping of honey to keep myself going. Then I began my endless searching again.
“Whoooa!” I stopped when I reached an area that looked familiar. I was pretty sure it was the place where Andretti had dropped me when he first put me into the hive.
All at once, a large group of angrily buzzing bees crowded against me.
“Hey—!” I protested as they shoved me forward.
They replied with a sharp, rising buzz.
What were they doing? Were they attacking me? Were they all going to sting me at once?
They had me surrounded. I couldn’t run away.
But how could I possibly fight off all these bees? I was doomed, I realized. Finished. Sighing in defeat, I closed my eyes and started to shake.
And waited for them to swarm over me.
16
I waited to be crushed.
And waited some more.
When I opened my eyes, the angry bees had moved to the side of the hive. They weren’t paying any attention to me.
I saw a single bee, standing in the center of the hive floor. He was performing a kind of jumping, twisting, hip-hop dance.
How weird! I thought. The other bees were watching intently, as if this were the most interesting thing in the world.
“Those bees didn’t care about me,” I told myself. “They were trying to get me out of the way so this bee could do his dance.”
I realized I’d wasted a lot of time. I had to keep searching for an escape route.
I tried to push myself away from the group of bees, but the hive floor had become too crowded to move.
The bee danced faster and faster. He moved his body toward the right. All the other bees stared intently at him.
What was going on?
At that moment, something from my old Big Book of Bees came back to me. I remembered that bees send out scouts to find their food. Then the scouts “dance” to tell the other bees where to go get it!
If the scout was reporting on where to get food, it meant he’d just been out of the hive. That meant there had to be a way out of this place!
I was so excited, I almost started dancing!
But I didn’t have a chance because, suddenly, all the bees in the hive rose up like a dark cloud. I spread my wings and flew up with them.
As I followed, the bees formed a single, orderly line and shot out through a tiny hole in a far, upper corner of the hive.
I buzzed around until I found the end of the line. Then I got ready to escape.
Would I make it?
The very last bee in line, I shot out of the tiny hole into open space. For a few seconds, I watched the other bees floating away, busily hunting for nectar and pollen.
I knew I looked just like them. The difference was that they would willingly return to Andretti’s hive. But I never, ever would. At least, not if I could help it.
“I’m out!” I cried joyfully in my tiny voice. “I’m out! I’m free!”
Dazzled by the sudden bright light of the outer world, I flew around and around in the beekeeping area. Then I headed for the hole I’d seen in the screen when I was still in my own body.
I knew it was on the wall that faced my family’s yard. But when I flew over to it, I stopped and gasped in disappointment.
The hole had been patched up. Mr. Andretti had fixed it!
“Oh, no!” I wailed. “I can’t be trapped! I can’t be!”
My heart started thumping crazily. My whole body was vibrating.
I forced myself to calm down and look around.
None of the other bees were in the screened-in area anymore. They’d already gone outside to collect pollen. And that meant there had to be another way out.
I wasn’t thinking clearly because I was exhausted, worn out from all my flying around. I sat down on top of the hive to rest.
At that instant, the door between the beekeeping area and the garage opened. “Good morning, my little bee friend,” Mr. Andr
etti’s voice boomed. “What are you doing, lying around on top of the hive? Why aren’t you busy inside making me some honey? Are you sick? You know we can’t have any sick bees around here.”
As I gazed up weakly, Mr. Andretti moved closer. His huge, dark shadow fell over me.
I tried to curl up into a ball and disappear. But it was no use. His large fingers were stretching right toward me!
I yelled in terror. But of course, he couldn’t hear me. What is he going to do to me? I asked myself. What does he do with sick bees?
17
What does he do with sick bees? I wondered again, quivering in terror.
He probably throws them in the garbage, I thought. Or even worse—he feeds them to his pet bird or frog.
Despite my weariness, I knew I couldn’t wait around to find out. I had to get out of there!
Just as Mr. Andretti’s fingers were about to fold around me, I shot up into the air and buzzed around his head. At the same instant, I saw some other bees flying in through a tiny hole in the screen. It was in the corner, near the ceiling.
I buzzed Mr. Andretti’s face one more time. Then I raced toward the hole. As I tried to squeeze myself out the exit hole, I crashed right into another bee who was flying in. He glared at me and gave me an angry buzz.
Frightened, I backed off and clung to the screen. I had to wait for a long fine of bees to come back inside. It seemed to take them forever.
When I was finally sure the last bee had come in, I leaped forward and shot out of the hole. I was out in the open sky!
“This time I really am free!” I screamed in celebration, forgetting my weariness. “And Andretti’s never going to catch this bee again!”
I landed on a leaf and let the morning sun warm my back and wings. It was a beautiful day—a beautiful day for finding somebody who could help me get back into my human body!
Like a rocket, I shot straight up into the air and gazed around. I recognized the familiar creak of my father opening the back door of my house.
Panting hard, I raced forward.
My father called, “Good-bye, hon! Tell the kids I’ll see them tonight!” over his shoulder and let go of the door.