Like a Curled Leaf or a Knot of Hair

 

There was something on the carpet; perhaps a curled leaf or a knot of hair. I could either ignore it or investigate. I chose the latter.

It was a bee lying on its side.

I thought it was dead but there were faint movements near its wings.

I put a drop of honey on a piece of card and slid the card under the bee. I had the hope that it would smell the honey, extend its long rolled up tongue and sip it into an empty stomach. I placed a glass over it in case it did revive and so that I could then take it outside.

Once you get your eye in you can see bees.

There were two others walking on the carpet looking far feistier, the kind that might engage in a kamikaze fight if provoked.

I slipped a card with a drop of honey under both and again covered them with a glass. One of them stopped its aimless patrol of the glass rim, extended its tongue and sipped and I felt cheered that this one would survive. The other a different type of bee its body more elongated into a waspish shape was more angry and foolish, falling on its side into the honey and then dragging itself away from the sticky mess.

The first bee I carried outside, the idea being that I would leave the honeyed card with it and should it revive it could then fly freely away. Then I set the others outside too.

Hours later the two feisty bees had gone. but the one I’d seen first had curled into a tighter ball, like a curled leaf or a knot of hair.