Billy the Bee 3

Ministerial Meandering

Billy the Bee 3

For Billy there was no greater authority than his queen.  But he also knew that she would one day die, and that saddened him.  ‘How wonderful’, he thought, ‘it would be if there was always someone to whom he could turn for advice at any time, and who would be a source of wisdom and comfort,’ - but his queen was too busy laying eggs to have any time for Billy.  At least he knew his place and role in his society; that was what made him different from the lost humans he saw around him every day.

He wondered if they had a source of wisdom, advice, and comfort to whom they turned - and he set to observing them more closely.  For most of them - especially the young ones - it seemed not.  So they found other activities, it appeared.

Strangely, they did not talk to each other face to face very much, but talked or spent hours playing with little black or coloured slabs they held in their hands, their heads down, totally absorbed, and seemingly oblivious to the amazing world around them.  Often they had small buds in their ears that must have made them deaf - or at least shut out the beauty of birdsong - and made those who wore them have a vacant expression and even less aware of anything around them - even dangers.

Others, with similar vacant expressions, looked around for others who would give them pills or powders to take; these would make them either crazy or seem to send them into a dream.  They couldn’t ever seem to get enough of these substances, and were clearly as miserable as could be.

Yet others seemed to get pleasure from going around in groups.  They would be having a happy time it appeared - for a while - and then they would attack someone and hurt them, sometimes even kill them, for no apparent reason - or perhaps because they were the wrong colour - whatever colour they were supposed to be.  He could never work that out.

There were some, however, who didn’t appear quite so lost, and they seemed to come from small hives that had a couple of adult humans to whom they actually talked.  They seemed happier and more focussed - there was a purpose in their step and an apparent direction in their lives.  Indeed, there were schools or academies where whole large groups of young humans would be taught by instructors who showed them many things.  These young humans had a presence and bearing completely different from the lost ones.

And he saw, too, that there were some humans who went to a building on a regular basis where they seemed to learn a different sort of lesson or teaching, and where they had music and singing, and afterwards the whole group in the building would have food and drink together and actually talk to each other, face to face - even the young ones.  They were somehow different again from the lost ones.  They seemed to have a quiet peace about them, and a sense of knowing their place in their society and their world.  Billy felt happy about them; perhaps they had a queen who really cared.

Philip+