Part 1: The Bumble Bee who lost his Stripes
In the orange tree, at the park, there was a bumblebee who lived there. He would go and collect pollen from the flowers in the park and sometimes in the woods beyond every day. Once he had had his fill, he would come back to the tree and buzz about for some time, before falling asleep on a leaf.
One morning, as usual, the bee woke up nice and early and went off in search of pollen. He found a nice patch of flowers where he started to collect pollen to his heart’s content.
Suddenly, a large drop of pollen fell onto his back from a flower above. The bee was unaware of this. His back now had no stripes, as the yellow pollen clung there, covering them. So now, the bee looked like a completely yellow bee. Anyway, after he had collected all the pollen he could, he sleepily made his way to the tree.
Once he reached, the birds all stared at him. “Oh, what happened to your stripes, Mr. Bee?” asked a chirpy sparrow.
“What? I have them!” asked an astonished bee trying to twist around to see his stripes.
“No, you don’t” chorused the birds, and the chirpy sparrow took him to the lakeside to show him his reflection.
The bumblebee leaned forward and saw that he was yellow instead of yellow and black stripes. He was shocked and sad at this and flew back to the tree crying at his sad plight.
He landed on a branch and thought hard about what had made his stripes disappear. Unfortunately, he could find no answer. Just then, black clouds appeared on the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance. A wind blew across the park, and it started to rain heavily. The bumblebee was drenched by the rain that washed away the pollen on his back and made his stripes visible again. He did not know this, though and sat with the saddest face.
After the rain was over, the chirpy sparrow exclaimed, “Oh Mr. Bee! It seems your stripes have come back! Come look!”
And once again the two went to the lakeside to see the bee’s reflection. He was happy to see his stripes returned to normal and gave a buzz of happiness.
It was the sparrow who figured out what had happened, as he saw a tiny spot of pollen on the bee’s back that had failed to wash off.
“You had a patch of pollen sticking to you, which hid your stripes!” he chirped.
“Oh! So that was it!” exclaimed the bee, much relieved to have figured out the reason for his stripes disappearing suddenly. He decided to be careful about feeding on the flowers and washing in a puddle of rainwater once he was finished collecting pollen, to remove any that might stick to him.
The bee was happy at getting his stripes back and happily went off to take a nap on the leaves of the orange tree, along with his friend, the sparrow.
Part 2: Bumblebee Meets his Double
Remember the Bumblebee who lost his stripes and then got them back? Like all animals and birds, our friend, the Bumblebee had a name, of course. Because he was especially soft and fuzzy, his mother had named him “Fuzzball” and called him “Fuzz” for short.
Now, Fuzz would go out to collect nectar every day and soon Mother Bumblebee allowed him to go farther and farther away from their nest. Fuzz felt very proud because he could go so far and bring back lots of nectar. He was a happy and carefree little bee and would buzz loudly if something good happened.
One bright summer day, Fuzz went out early in the morning as usual. The sun had come out just an hour back or so. It was bright, clear, cold, and lovely. Fuzz fluffed himself and started to fly fast over the fields and forests. He flew up and he flew down as he went in search of nectar. The ground was covered with nice green grass and he could see his shadow fall on it as he flew.
After some time, as he kept flying and looking down, he saw something strange. Beside his shadow on the ground, was the shadow of another bee.
Who could it be? Fuzz looked left, he looked right. No one! He looked up, he looked down! Still, no one!
“Maybe I was mistaken,” he thought to himself. Just then he saw a flower that was almost bent over with pollen and he flew straight down towards it.
As he was doing so, through the corner of his eye, he noticed a movement. It was another bee who looked exactly like him. Fuzz was surprised. Who was this?
The other bee also flew towards the flower Fuzz had seen and stopped his flight right above it.
Now here was a problem! Fuzz wondered if this bee also wanted the pollen he had seen and what was the right thing to do? As he was thinking this, the other bee said in a high piping voice, “Hello! I am Hoover, the hoverfly!”
“Who?” asked Fuzz, not knowing who or what a hoverfly was. “Hoover” repeated the hoverfly and then said “I look like you because then no one eats me or hurts me. So I wanted to thank you for that!”
“But I did not do anything!” replied Fuzz, amazed and a little puzzled. “Maybe, but it is because I look like you that I am alive, so please take the nectar from this flower! I can always spot another flower…” answered Hoover and solemnly shook wings with Fuzz. Then he was off with a little bow and Fuzz drank the nectar in a wondering way, feeling nice about meeting such a polite and thankful hoverfly.
After his nectar hunting was over, he returned home and told the whole thing to Mother Bumblebee. She nodded solemnly and said, “Yes! Hoverflies are our cousins. God made them look like us for protection. Remember to always help them!”
“Yes, Mama I shall” promised Fuzz, feeling full and sleepy after eating so much nectar. That night all his dreams were happy ones…