The bumble bee
He was frantically hovering above the flowers, there were so many of them. Purple ones, yellow ones, red ones. Every one of them smelled different and he didn't know which one to choose. Other bumble bees were flying passed him, their legs already full of pollen, while he hovered there indecisively. What if I choose the wrong flower and I will miss out? Do others have a system? Like do they know which ones give most pollen? Or which nectar is most intoxicating? Oh, I'm probably going about it the wrong way. How come nobody told me how to choose? That's it. I'm sure of it now, I'm inadequate, I don't even feel like drinking any nectar now. Sadly he decided to land under the shade of a big purple flower.
'I'm useless' he said to himself. 'What for?' asked a little voice. Bumble bee looked around to see where the little voice came from, feeling a little ashamed as he hadn't wanted anyone to know how he really felt about himself. Most bumble bees were chipper, but he... yet another thing that was wrong with him. He sighed.
'I asked: what for?' said the voice again. 'What for?' repeated the bumble bee. Confused about what the voice could be referring to. 'Yes, you said: 'I am useless'. So, I am wondering for what purpose you are useless.' 'For what purpose I am useless?' repeated the bumble bee, blinking his beady eyes. 'Yes, I mean everyone is good at certain things and useless at others.' 'Oh... ' absentmindedly he rubbed his front legs together in front of his furry chest. He couldn't think of anything he was good at and got a little irritated with whoever had asked him the question in the first place. 'See, I would like to know, who would like to know?!'
A little ladybug came from under a flower petal fold above him. She looked real cute and had three dots on either side of her red wings and somehow It looked like she was blushing. She was brave to say what was on her mind when nobody could see her, but when bugs were looking at her she was actually quite shy.
'Me.' she said. And shy or not, looked him straight in the eye. Bumble bee was a bit at a loss for words. Nobody normally peeked straight in to his eyes like that. He felt all exposed, but not in a bad way. This could be an interesting morning after all.
'Well?' she asked. 'Yes...ahum.' rubbing his front legs again, looking for an answer. 'I guess it comes down to that I'm useless at choosing.' ladybug looked puzzled 'Oh, I didn't know there was a good or a bad way to choose. Doesn't it just happen?' 'Well for you it does maybe, but it certainly doesn't for me.' lady bug thought that was interesting as she had a curious nature. 'Won't you come sit up here with me a bit, then I can continue eating these delicious aphids, sorry I'm really hungry, haven't had breakfast yet.' she stuck a apple green translucent aphid in her mouth. 'Eew, you eat aphids?!!' Bumblebees tongue was sticking out of his open mouth in disgust, his beady eyes rolling in his head, when he saw lady bug's stern look on her face, he quickly stopped doing it. 'Yes, I do, got a problem with that? I'll gladly listen to you talk about your choosing dilemma but don't you spoil my appetite!' Oh, she's got some fire bumblebee thought, gotta watch out for that, but sparks were showing in his eyes as he found it mighty eciting too. 'Alright, I'll come up there with you, but don't you try to feed me any aphids!'
So bumble bee propelled up until he landed on the heart of the flower that was yellow with pollen and started talking.
'There are so many things to take in to account in the making of choices..' he said. 'It's mind boggling. How can anyone wrap their head around all those things? How can you possibly keep yourself from making a mistake?'
Ladybug was licking her small black lips, then cleaning her antenna's with some left over saliva. 'Yum, too bad there aren't anymore on this flower.' Bumble bee guessed she was referring to her aphids. 'Oh look at you, your legs are all yellow now!' she smiled at him. 'Want to continue on with me towards the next flower?' As bumble bee didn't get an answer yet he thought he'd go along with her, also he liked to keep looking at her dots and told himself that it was just because he liked counting.
They landed in a beautiful deep red rose that was just being vacated by a happy looking honey bee and bumble bee had to admit it smelled wonderful there, if he was lucky there could be some nectar left in the rose.
Lady bug was frowning. 'Ah, too bad, most roses have an aphid or two but his one has none. Let's move on!' 'Wait a minute!', bumble bee said 'It would be a pitty to let this divine rose nectar go to waste wouldn't it?' Lady bug giggled 'Ah, you've gotten hungry too now huh? So she took the time to stretch out her inner transparant wings from under her red ones, while bumble bee was taking a swig of the nectar. This is quite cozy she thought. As you know, normally she was quite a shy lady bug, but with this bumblebee she felt very much at ease. 'Come on you!', she said after a while. 'Let's go!' But as she was getting ready to fly out of the rose a big butterfly was approaching and she got a scare and hid between the folds of the velvet rose petals. Bumble bee, who wasn't the fastest, didn't realise what had just happened, all he knew was that the lady bug was gone. 'Oh well, that's just great then, doesn't even wait for me, well I guess it was nice to have met her at least, maybe we'll meet again some day soon.' 'No, I'm here' came a squeaky voice from somewhere hidden. 'I'm still here, don't go!' Now bumble bee had found where the sound came from and folded the petals open only to find the scared face of lady bug. 'Are you ok?' 'Ehm, yes, yes, I think so.' The lady bug said, her antennes folded back over her head. 'You don't sound very sure of it. What happened?' bumble bee wanted to know. 'You didn't just get scared of that b... nah, that's not possible, butterflies are the friendliest bugs ever!' Shame was now showing on the little black face of the lady bug. 'Oh..so you...are scared of butterflies?' Bumble bee had a look of total disbelief on his face. 'Well, I met a really rude one some time ago and it came flying in so carelessly as if the existence of other bugs was unknown to it and pushed me right over the edge of a flower and so I tumbled off before I could get my inner wings unfolded. I wasn't prepared you see...to be flying and I took quite a fall. I'm not sure it even noticed me...' Now the lady bug looked really sad. 'I'm a lot smaller then you you know...' 'ah, I see..' Bumble bee said, now fully understanding and actually relieved that he wasn't the only one who was struggling with certain things. Not that he wished the lady bug to be scared or anything. To be scared wasn't fun he knew, but to have a friend you could talk about these things about, well that WAS fun! He decided to stick to her all morning. 'Come on, it's safe now, the butterfly is gone, let's find you some aphids.' Next they landed on a yellow flower, bumble bee's favourite colour and soon he discovered that it was lady bugs favourite colour too. What a coincidence! Each time he talked about choice making to the lady bug, while she was eating her aphids, he sat in the centre of the flower as that was the most stable part of it. His legs soon had more pollen then he'd ever collected. Every now and then he took another swig of nectar and kept talking about dilemma's and he didn't really notice that she never answered any of his questions about it.
One time a wasp came flying by and lady bug started shaking like a reed and he felt the urge to start hovering in front of her and block her from view with his furry body until the wasp was gone. 'See, nothing to worry about!', he told her. 'I'l keep you safe!' the lady bug smiled nervously, glad that the wasp was gone. 'Thank you.' she said shyly. 'So what was your dilemma about this morning?' she asked him. 'Oh, it was about which flower to choose to gather pollen from.' 'Ah..' said the lady bug. 'And have you decided yet?' A secretive smile was on her face, but bumble bee didn't notice. 'Yes,' he said I tried a few this morning and I actually like them all, although the rose seems to be my favourite.' Lady bug smiled at him, her secretive smile still in place. 'Well, I'm glad you worked that out.'
And so they spent a lovely morning together and decided to meet up for breakfast again the next day.
I hoped you liked my little story!
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Lots of love Clara@wombloom