Bee Happy (15 page)

  Guests started arriving and the groom and his groomsmen also disappeared but to another room in the church, holding to the tradition of keeping the bride and groom apart on the wedding day.  Which didn’t make any sense because they had seen each other during all the picture taking.  Traditions sometimes were followed without regard to reality and common sense.  Jim ushered Calli to a row reserved for the wedding party’s family.  He looked beyond handsome in his tux and shiny black shoes.  She’d never seen him this dressed up before and it almost took her breath away to watch him usher people to their seats. 
Having him sit beside her during the ceremony would be the next highlight of the evening.  Her mind was making notes of all the special feelings she was having.  Being
with Jim reminded her what it felt like to be a woman and to be admired and cherished, she wasn’t ready to use the ‘love’ word just yet.  But it felt like that was a possibility sometime very soon. 

  The ceremony was touching; she felt like the soloist was singing to her, the words moved her to tears.  Being reminded about love and how it can last for eternity brought memories
flooding back –all the promises
she and Cal had made to each other and now…..  Calli pulled herself back to the present moment, longing for something that was never going to happen isn’t a good place to be.  Especially because she planned to enjoy the rest of the evening with Jim, dancing and eating wedding cake, more dancing so there’d be room for more cake.  The kid in her liked to play and have fun and that was her plan.  Jim returned to his duties as head usher, giving people the nod when it was their turn to exit and congratulate the bride and groom.  Since Calli didn’t know them, she just waited until Jim was done and then she joined him in going through the reception line.  Smiling and nodding and shaking hands with everyone, she felt like she was more than a date for the evening, she felt like she belonged at Jim’s side, now this was a new feeling.  One that she was going to record on her check list.

 
Relieved that Jim was correct and they didn’t have to sit at the head table, Calli found a table for them that was close to the dance floor and the wedding cake as well.  She knew several of the other guests sitting with them from the farmers market.  During dinner everyone was talking about how beautiful the wedding was and weren’t they a cute couple together.  Calli wasn’t always certain if they were talking about the bride and groom or she and Jim.  But tonight it didn’t matter, she felt like they were a couple and that they were cute together as well.  After all the ‘required’ first dances, the rest of the guests were invited to the dance floor.  Jim escorted her to the middle of the floor and bowed deeply like a gentleman, asking her for the pleasure of this dance.  “Of course, it will be my pleasure to dance with you!  I do believe that you are the most handsome man here this evening.”  Calli was playing it up for all it was worth, since the guys had made such a big deal about Jim needing to have the most beautiful girl at the wedding.  “
…and I am with the most beautiful girl in the entire state!”  Jim held her close to him as they moved together around the dance floor.  After each song, they continued to hold each other, waiting for the next song to begin and not wanting to let go of the other.  Romance is usually in the air at a wedding, and tonight was no exception, Jim and Calli looked like the next couple to get engaged and hold their own ceremony.

  With clinking of glasses everyone’s attention was drawn to the five tier wedding cake.  This was the other part of the event that Calli had been waiting for.  She
was positive that she’d danced off all the food from dinner
and was ready for cake.  They got in line right away, knowing that no one would notice if they went through it twice.
  The cake was delicious, better than Calli remembered.  “Why does wedding cake always taste better than any other cake in the world?”  “Because you are at a wedding and everyone is happy and putting out happy energy!”  Jim knew not to push this idea any further, he didn’t want her to back away from him because he was talking about something you couldn’t touch or see.  He hoped that eventually she would start to believe that it was true, that he had communicated with his wife and daughter and that Roger had talked to his grandfather.  “Let’s go get another piece before anyone catches us with crumbs on our faces.”  He grabbed her hand and pulled her in line again, Calli leaned back into his chest, feeling his strength and his caring.  This wedding was turning out to be the perfect evening.  She was totally happy and even wondering if there was such a thing as ‘happy energy’.

  Sunday was her day of rest, rest from the garden and all the bookwork that goes along with running your own business.  Calli had closed the window shade and turned on a fan to block out the crowing of the rooster.  She was determined to sleep as late as she could after the fabulous evening she and Jim had shared.  Dreams came easy to her during the night, ones that seemed like fairy tales during the daytime.  There were horses and coaches and glass slippers and lots of beautiful brides maids in multicolored dresses.  That part made Calli laugh when she woke up, remembering everything.  The dresses would match Jim’s colorful van perfectly.  She was in such a good mood she decided to pack a picnic lunch and spend the day at the pond watching the bees go in and out of their hives.  She had claimed them too; they weren’t just her grandfathers now.  They belonged to the both of them.  Roger was busy building his storage boxes in the barn and said he’d join her around noon at the pond.  For some strange reason Calli decided to take her cell phone with her, not that she expected any phone calls, but maybe just for safety reasons.  She remembered quite vividly Roger
’
s encounter with the bees and his trip to the hospital.  She wasn’t going to take any chances; this day was for dreaming and imagining her future.  It had been a very long time since she allowed herself to dream anything bigger than raising vegetables for the farmers market.  Now she was able to include a husband and children in her newest version of her reality.  There was a slight breeze in the air, which kept the bugs away.  Sitting in the shade
Calli remembered each moment of the wedding ceremony, dinner and their dancing.  The evening ended with some very passionate kisses on the front porch, that memory made her feel warm and tingly inside.  There was a possibility lurking hopefully around the corner.  As Sally would say, her heart chakra was finally opening and she was allowing someone to care about her again.  Whatever, all she knew was that it felt good to be in his arms. 

  The bees were busy flying in and out of the hives.  There was a field of clover nearby and she knew that this honey would taste divine.  Roger hadn’t put the pollen catcher on the hives yet, he was still working on his own design.  Watching the bees work, gave her a sense of adventure, pretending to be a small honey bee she imagined what it would be like to be that small and then to fly over to the clover, collect the pollen and then return.  Did they have a natural GPS system that kept them on the correct flight path?  How did they know where their hive was?  What if they got lost, were there rescue bees whose job was to make sure every bee was present and acco
unted for at the end of the day?
  Her imagination entertained her for a long time, as she sat on the grass, dreaming of her life with Jim and their children.  They could be the premier honey producers in the county and then the state.  Their honey products would be best sellers on the internet.  They could add fruit to the creamed honey and have the most amazing specialty products. 

  The sun was reaching its peak in the sky, almost noon and Roger should be arriving here very soon.  Spotting him on the path, she began to arrange their lunch on the table cloth she’d pack in her basket.  She loved the red and white checkered cloth, it had been her grandmother
’
s and she remembered as a small girl having picnics in the back yard with her dolls and her grandmother.  Roger smiled as he saw the table cloth, “Your grandmother loved that.  We had many a picnic with it.  Do you remember?”  “Yes, I remember being in the back yard with grandmother and my dolls, but I don’t remember what we ate, just that it was fun.”  Enjoying the food and the activity of the bees, they discussed all the products that they could create with the honey, pollen and propolis.  Their dreams matched
each other’s
and
as they talked the ideas
expanded.
  “We’ll probably need more than
two hives to produce enough honey to make the variety of products you’
ve created
already.  This is going to be our legacy for the future.  Plus it will give us something to offer at the winter farmers market.  I hear that they are going to rent the basement at the city hall this winter.  That will help us
keep our positive cash flow going
.”  Roger was beaming and feeling grateful that he’d finally healed his heart.  He knew that his grandfather was helping them from the other side.  Having Calli involved just completed the circle and hopefully it would continue into the next generation with her children.  He
hoped that some day she would understand about the communication from the other side, he knew there was more assistance available than anyone could ever request.  “Guess I’ll head back and start the plans for some more hives.  This is really fun for me.”  Calli agreed and gave him a hug before he left.

  Being alone by the pond was peaceful for her.  Feeling relaxed Calli lay down to take a nap, something that she never did during the week, but it felt like a good time to totally unwind and allow herself to rejuvenate her spirit with the energy from the earth.  As she pondered that thought, it occurred to her that maybe she did believe in energy more than she’d admit.  After all she totally understood how good it felt to work in the soil, growing plants and harvesting, that must be some type of energy although she didn’t know what to name it.  For sure Sally would have the proper name and explanation.  As she started to drift into dreamland, her cell phone rang.  Pulling it out of her pocket, she noticed that it was Jim.  “Hello.”  “Calli, this is Jim, can you come over here this afternoon?  I’m in a quandary and need to talk to someone right now.  I can’t explain over the phone but it’s very urgent.  Please!”  Surprised by his pleading and his concern, “Of course, it will take me a little bit because I’m down at the pond right now.  But I’ll be over as soon as I can.  Are you okay?”  “Yes, I’m okay for now, but not too sure how long that’s going to last.  Please hurry!”  Closing her phone, she felt puzzled, he was usually very easy going and nothing seemed to get him bothered.   This must be
something very unsettling.  With her basket filled, she jogged back to the house, knowing the sooner she got to Jim’s the sooner she’d know what was bothering him.

  As she pulled into his driveway, he hurried down the porch steps
and grabbed her into a bear hug, as soon as she got out of her van.
  He was hanging on like his life depended on it.  “Thanks for coming here so quickly.  I’m about out of my mind.  Let’s sit on the porch.  When I got home from the wedding last night, I picked up the mail, I’d forgotten earlier in the day because I was so busy getting ready for the wedding and our date.”  He called it a date, another positive mark on her check list.  “Well, there were the usual bills and advertisements and then this yellow envelope caught my attention.  The return address was a newspaper in Washington DC.  I tore it open and read the letter.  They are sending a reporter out here to research my discovery about communicating with the aliens.  At least that’s what they labeled it.  I thought this was over and I could live peacefully here growing my vegetables and meeting other beautiful gardeners.”  Calli blushed at his comment and gave
him a quick kiss hoping it would
calm him a bit.  “I tossed and turned all night remembering all the crap I went through about this, losing my job, my wife and daughter, being institutionalized and the deep depression, like a living nightmare all over again.  I don’t want to rehash any of this but I’m afraid I don’t have a choice in the matter.  They said they were sending him this week and that I should look for a call from him so I could give him directions to my farm.”  By now Calli
understood
why he was so frantic, burying the past had been good for Jim, digging it up
would probably
undo him.
“Jim, how can you stop them?  I don’t think its right for them to invade your privacy; can you call a lawyer or something?”  Her concern touched him, finally after all these years he had found someone he could trust with his secrets and now it felt like everything was going to be taken away from him again.  “I just don’t know what to do.  Plus I haven’t told you the rest of it.  This afternoon I got a phone call from an area code I didn’t recognize, I let the answering machine pick up and listened to the message he left.  It was the reporter, telling me he’d be arriving tomorrow and would I kindly call him back with the directions to my farm.  There’s not going to be anything kindly about what I say to him if he arrives here and starts to question me about everything.”  Jim was actually getting angry and Calli knew it was justified, but she still didn’t know how she could help him other than listen. 

  Jim stood up and started pacing the porch running his fingers through his hair.  “I’m so frustrated and angry.  I really have to get a hold of myself.  I’m not thinking clear enough to take any type of action other than ranting and raving and that’s not going to do me any good.  Help me Calli, what should I do?”  This is what a relationship is about, when one person needs help the other is supposed to know what to say and help them.  Calli so wanted to be the strong one right now but she was as befuddled by this as Jim.  “I wish I knew what to tell you.  The only thing that comes to mind is to call a lawyer and see if you can get some kind of restraining order to keep them from invading your privacy.  I’ve never heard of this, other than for celebrities and I think they have to hire body guards.”  Together they went through the phone book looking at the ads for the local lawyers, Calli only knew one of them personally and he was basically good at writing wills and stuff like that.  Then the most amazing thing happened, as they turned the pages in the phone book, on the very last page of ads, Calli noticed that there was something about one of the ads that made it stand out on the page.  She wasn’t quite sure exactly what it was, maybe the print was bolder or different font, but both of them pointed at the same ad at the very same time.  “Here’s the one, I don’t know why but I have a feeling that I need to call this guy right away. 
What do you think?”  Jim looked for her agreement, “I agree Jim, for some reason we both noticed this one at the same time, Sally would call it fate or something else.  I think it’s a sign of some sort -- you know I’m not much for this spiritual stuff, but I feel like you are being led somehow by a force outside you.”  Jim was calling the lawyer as she finished her statement.  “Tomorrow morning at 9 am is perfect for me too.  I’ll see you then.”  Jim closed his cell phone and looked at Calli, “Thanks for being here with me and I hope this doesn’t scare you away from me.  I really need your support and
I feel I
am falling in love with you.”  Calli didn’t know how to respond to his declaration of love.  She pulled him into a hug, “I’ll be here no matter what.  I care for you Jim; I’m not quite ready to use the ‘love’ word just yet.  But if you keep hugging and kissing me and taking me dancing that might change very quickly.”  He sealed the commitment with a kiss that made Calli’s toes curl.