that question. At precisely two thirty, Sharon pulled up in the driveway. My bees from the pink hive bearded her car, so many of them that all the windows were covered. I could see them leave the hive as they flew over in a swarm. She started blowing her horn over and over.
“Help!” Sharon was screaming bloody murder. “Help! Archie! Help!”
The bees were undeterred. Archie and the boys came running out of the house and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw what was happening.
“Call the police!” she was screaming. “Call them!”
She turned her windshield wipers on and began spraying them with the wiper fluid. This infuriated the bees, who quickly flew away and joined their sisters on the sides of the car.
I saw Archie give Tyler a push to come over to our house, presumably to get me. Maybe he thought I could do something.
I met him at the door.
“What’s going on, Tyler? Happy birthday, by the way.”
“Thanks! There’s a billion bees that have Sharon trapped in her car! Dad says for you to come quick!”
“I’ll be along in a minute. Let me get my suit on.”
He followed me through the house and out the back door to my shed.
“I don’t know why he thinks I can do a thing about it,” I said. “Now, Tyler, I want you to stand way back from her car, okay? Maybe my smoker will help. Maybe it won’t. Let’s hope.”
I pulled my veil down and lit my smoker. When I got to the scene, Sharon was beyond hysterical.
“You’re a menace!” she was screaming at me. “I’m going to sue you for a million dollars!”
“Good luck with that,” I said and started smoking the girls. They began to land on me, and when I had them all, and I estimated ten thousand or so, I simply began walking them back to their hive.
“The bees are all over her!” Sharon screamed. “Oh, my God! She’s a freak!”
“No. I’m not. I’m a beekeeper,” I said calmly.
A few bees, which might have been affected by the windshield washer fluid, hung back.
“Maybe that will teach her a lesson,” I said quietly to them. “I love you, girls!”
They buzzed all around me in a waggle and returned home to their hive.
It goes without saying that Tyler was allowed to go to his party with Hunter and all charges against him were dropped by his jailer. Archie told me that he’d had a chat with Sharon and told her she was being too strict. She was so upset about my bees swarming her car that she relented. I drove them to Maureen’s with the cake tucked away out of their sight in the back of my SUV. Sure enough, it represented the Sullivan’s Island playground, with a tiny marzipan Tyler playing basketball with Matthew and Brian, and Hunter hanging upside down from the monkey bars.
Tyler shrieked with delight when the kids yelled, “Surprise!” There were presents and pizza and cannonballs into the pool. They played Marco Polo until the adults couldn’t stand it for another minute. They dried off and sang “Happy Birthday” loud enough to wake the dead; Tyler blew out the candles and they all ate cake. The parents took pictures of everything. Tyler’s parents weren’t there, but he was absolutely beaming with happiness. That was all I wanted to see. If Carin was watching she’d be pleased.
Maureen finally got around to asking me how I got Tyler out of restriction and to the party.
“I had just about given up and I thought, Well, we’ll have the party anyway,” she said.
“You’re right. My honey bees helped me.”
“You keep honey bees?” Alice said. “I love them!”
“No, how wonderful!” Maureen said. “They’re the most fascinating little creatures, aren’t they?”
“Uh, yass. Listen to this story.”
I told them about the bees and how I talk to them. Then I told them the story about how they used Sharon’s car for target practice on their cleansing flight and about how today they swarmed her windows. They didn’t know how to respond to the implications of what I had just told them.
“Well, first of all,” Maureen said, “I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am we put this little shindig together for Tyler. That is one precious little boy.”
“He was tickled to bits,” Alice said.
“And don’t you know he was probably missing his momma today?” I said. “It’s his first birthday without her.”
“Poor baby,” Alice said. “Well, time for me to go.”
Alice gave Tyler and Hunter a ride home