Once upon a time there was a bumblebee whose name was Bumble. Bumble did not live with a bunch of other bumblebees; He lived alone. Mr. Bumble liked living alone, though, He had a nice house he had made himself that had a bed made of moss and flower petals all around to eat. Living alone meant that despite loneliness at times, you could embark on an adventure at any given time. The reason he lived alone was because he was different. Different? In what way? You might ask. Bumble was different because he thought about things. He did not want to live the ordinary, boring, and repetitive life of a bumblebee. Bumble had not always lived separate from other bumblebees, no; he used to have a big family. Bumble had thought about the point of his life as a bumblebee, after all what is the point? The only things Bumblebees produce are other bumblebees. Bumble wanted to become a honeybee, because honeybees have a point in life. So, he left his family and went off to find his first adventure. This adventure, though, did not go as he had planned. Bumble had buzzed along in search of a honeybee hive for a long while, when he finally spotted one. He excitedly popped inside and attempted to imitate what the other honeybees were doing. Bumble kept getting stuck in the honey and soon he was engulfed in it and panicking. How did the others stay out of the honey? Well, Mr. Bumble apparently had not learned that secret yet. It did not take long for the queen bee to find the unfortunate Mr. Bumble. Huh! Thought Mr. bumble, some queen that is! I’m twice the size of that silly old bee! But since he was obviously helpless, stuck in a pool of honey, he had to submit to this little queen creature. “What are you doing in MY Palace?” The queen said Haughtily. “I came to be a honeybee.” Mr. Bumble said very boldly. “ Well, Some honeybee you’ll be.” The sarcastic queen mocked. There was a buzz of bees’ laughter, which was silenced by a glare from the queen. “Get back to work you lazy bees!” She yelled, which actually sounded more like a high-pitched squeak. “I want this dirty creature out! Out!” She squeaked again. Mr. Bumble was thrown out of the hive and dropped to the ground, as he could not fly with his wings sticking together with honey. He crawled to the nearest pond and buzzed away in the water. He liked doing this, and soon most of the honey was gone from his soft fuzzy fur. He thought about going back home, but decided he would never have enough nerve to tell his family his humiliating story. As he was Buzzing, or swimming, in the water he bumped right into the
legs of a flamingo in the pond. “What are you doing here?” He asked somewhat nervously, for the flamingo was very big compared to the bumblebee. At first the pink bird seemed not to notice Bumble, so he flew right up to the unfortunate flamingo’s ear and said hello. Still, he made no response. The flamingo was very unhappy looking. “What is wrong?” yelled Mr. Bumble very loudly for someone his size. The Flamingo looked surprised and said that he did not want to talk. But Mr. bumble knew how to talk. He had had a lot of practice with this useful skill, living in a cluster of flowers he had shaped to make a house, he often talked to the flowers, who, if you stared long enough at them, actually seemed a bit life like. He began talking away making a one-sided conversation, and finally Mr. Flamingo began chatting. “ I feel useless. I cannot fly, and I look silly because I am bright pink. I just wish I could be an eagle or something.” “But you cannot be an eagle! And you cannot be a honeybee!” Both the flamingo and the bumblebee looked about in astonishment. Who had said that? An old owl flew out of a nearby tree and landed by the pond. This startled them both even more, but Bumble could easily get over things like that. He quickly recovered and started chatting with the owl. “So who are you?” “You can call me Mr. owl.” The owl said pleasantly “How did you know I wanted to be a honeybee?” “I was watching you the whole time in the hive.” “Well what do you want?” “Just simply to give you two some advice that I wish I’d had when I was your age.” “Well… what is the advice?” “Enjoy the life you have while you have it.” “That’s all?” “Yes.” “Well that’s not too hard to remember.” The flamingo said, because he had recovered from his shock. Then the old owl flew away quite mysteriously, because they never saw him again, although his short visit changed their lives. “Well if you can’t be an eagle, and I can’t be a honeybee, what will we be?” “I guess we should just be ourselves.” Mr. Flamingo said. “ I think I can do that.” Bumble said. And so they lived happily ever after, being themselves.