The Beekeeper's Garden – Part 1: Hives by the Lake

The hives sat in a row beneath the apple trees, white-painted boxes humming in the August heat. Tina stood at the garden gate with her grandfather's keys in one hand and a suitcase in the other, and wondered whether she had come to sell the place or to find out why he had never asked her to visit.

"Stand still," said a voice from the nearest hive. "They think you're a bear."

A man was crouched beside the wooden box, a veil pushed back from his face, a smoker in his hand. He was broad and brown from the sun, with a short beard and very steady hands.

"I'm not a bear," said Tina.

"Then move slowly. They don't know that yet." He stood, and the bees rose around him in a gentle cloud and settled again. "I'm Matej. I've been looking after the hives since your grandfather got sick. He said you'd come one day, and I'd better have the honey ready."

"Did he say why he never asked me to visit?"

Matej's face softened. "He said you were too busy being good at things in the city," he said. "He said he'd rather wait for you to come home on your own than make you feel guilty about it."

Tina swallowed. Her throat was tight.

They walked down to the lake together in the late afternoon. The water was the colour of green glass, the island church small and white in the middle. Matej showed her the frames, the wax, the way the bees moved in patterns she could not read.

"They dance to tell each other where the flowers are," he said. "You have to watch carefully."

"Why?"

"Because they're always telling you something," said Matej. "Most people are too busy to listen."

Tina watched a bee circle a frame, then another. "I'm terrible at listening," she said honestly. "I'm very good at drawing things people want to see."

"Then draw this," said Matej. He handed her a notebook from his pocket. "Every day, one thing the bees say. I'll tell you if you're wrong."

She laughed, quiet and surprised. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Why do you really stay here? Looking after someone else's bees, on someone else's land?"

Matej looked out at the lake for a long time.

"Because the hives needed someone patient," he said. "And because I'm very bad at being in a city. And because this is the only place where nobody asks me to hurry."

"Would you show me one more hive before dark?"

"Yes," said Matej, and his grin was slow and warm. "But only if you let me hold the smoker. You'll set the hedge on fire."

"Deal," said Tina. "Green?"

"Green," said Matej. "Very green. Mind the bees, Tina. They're listening."