A little while ago as I was leaving my mother's apartment, I noticed that the crepe myrtle trees were in full and magnificent bloom. It reminded me that I still had the bloom time to look forward to as my crepe myrtles were still at the bud stage. As I stopped to take a picture of the pretty pink display, I came face to face with Mr. Bumble Bee busily feeding on the nectar. Not being terrible fond of stinging insects, I stood a healthy distance from him, pointed the camera and clicked. I quickly did a 180 and made a fast escape to my car. I had been reminded of the one time I had been stung by a bee and until recently, I did not know that THAT experience of ten years ago had been at the "hands" so to speak, on one of these not so little guys.
We were nearly at the end of a ten day tour of England and France with the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra. Late in the trip we had returned to London and we were on our way to our departure point and one more stopover before catching the plane home. It was early in the morning and I had just settled into my seat on the bus when I felt this terrible ache that slowly spread into excruciating pain. It was like someone had lit a match under my skin.
Don was sitting next to me and was pre-occupied with settling in and didn't notice. On reflection, how could he have not noticed? But that will remain one of life's little mysteries. Quanah and Kevin (one of the other chaperones) were behind us and they noticed my extreme distress. They were swatting at my shirt and Quanah freed the remains of the bee from my back and someone removed the stinger. Another student ran up to the front of the bus and broke into the bus driver's mini-fridge and hurried back with an icy cold can of soda to put against the sting. Don, of course by this time was fully alert to what had happened and had jumped in.
On reflection, it all seemed to go in slowmotion but in fact it must have all went pretty fast, so Don's reaction wasn't slow, just not the first. Perhaps it wasn't so mysterious after all though for the longest time I wondered why he had seemed so oblivious. It was Quanah who just recently informed me that it was one of these monsters of the bee world that had decided to sacrifice himself on the alter of my back. All I can say is, "Gee, thanks". And thank God I did not have an allergic reaction, but then Quanah just HAD to further inform me that often reactions don't set in until the second time you are stung. Now why did he have to tell me that? Another one of life's little mysteries I suppose.
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