It Was Just One Day by Clark Mahoney (paper ebook reader txt) 📕

below her abdomen, ready to alight on a flower. Keep flying.

There. She approached a flower, slowed down her forward movement, and hovered for a few seconds. First, she had to carefully inspect the flower, the petals, the dangling pollen receptors & receivers, the stem, the lower leaves. She had been taught to look first, before you land. Why? Once, when she was very hungry, on a foggy morning, she’d hovered over a yellow flower, only to notice something a bit odd, something a big lumpy, over in one corner. She backed away, hovered, and saw, to her horror, a fat, yellow spider, waiting to make a meal of an unsuspecting bee. She knew better now. And, assassin bugs, OMG! They’ll hide under a flower, along the stem, and smear sticky resin on their forelegs. When a bee lands on the flower, the assassin bug will grab them, and hold them with their sticky legs, stab them with their sharp proboscis, and suck out their innards. It’s a painful way to die. She had never been attacked by one, and didn’t want to. That’s why you ALWAYS look first before landing.

No enemies here, so she landed on the blue flower, wandering across the waving tendrils using her claws to stay atop the waving flower. Deep inside the flower, she burrowed, poking, seeking, and finding this morning’s breakfast. She slurped up what she wanted, using her proboscis as a straw. Such a delight, so sweet, and satisfying.

On she moved to another flower, and another, and another. She sampled the reds, and the purples, and the whites, and the yellows too, but found the blues to be most delightful.

This was fun. Yesterday, she ate a little for herself, and carried the rest back to the hive, to prepare honey for the cold, winter-time in which few flowers bloomed. Work, work, work. Not today. This was a day for her, to enjoy, to have fun, to play. And play she did.

Off into the air she flew, slowly at first, building up speed, then quickly. She soared above the meadow, higher, higher, then dropped down at a terrific speed, catching herself at the last minute before hitting the ground. “Wow! That was scary!” she exclaimed.

Then, zooming off into the distance, barely above the ground level, a mere body-length from the dirt, zooming past patches of grass, and flower stalks, small rocks and crushed plants. It was an obstacle course, turning left, then right, around this bush, around that stalk, then left, angling over here, then there, a roller-coaster ride of fun. Oh, how she loved to fly.

She lighted on a large boulder, to rest and clean herself. Pollen stuck to her legs, accidentally gathered during her foraging. She used her forelegs to clean her antenna, and her middle legs to clean her abdomen. Her hind legs? Whoa! What a mess. They were covered with gobs of sticky pollen, as they had ten rows of stiff hairs designed for such a thing. Today, she did NOT plan on taking pollen back to the hive, and so she discarded the pollen, leaving it scattered on the rock. Once clean, she danced about on the rock, doing a little figure-eight, pretending to tell others where the fun was. Oh, she’d told them many times…where tasty nectar was, or loads of pollen, but today, it was all about having fun. So, she danced, and vibrated, and hummed out the directions for this valley, to no one. She laughed, then decided to try something new.

She walked to the edge of the boulder, leaped, then when barely a few body lengths away from crashing to the ground, she beat her wings, and landed, sending dust flying in an arc around her body. “That was fun!” she exclaimed. So, she did it again, yelling “Yee-hah!” as she plummeted to the ground, catching herself in a hover barely above the dust. Again, and again she dropped. Such fun!

She flew over to a large flower, atop a single stalk, landing at the base in the dirt. How fast am I, she wondered? And, can I climb this? I am a flyer, yes. But, am I also a climber? Today, I am. Up she climbed, six legs working together, pinch and move, pinch and move, claws and legs carrying her up, up the stem. Reaching the top, she stood there, six legs planted on the petals, and she looked off into the distance. This is what life is about, she thought to herself, doing, and being, and jumping, and climbing, and flying. It’s not all just about others. It’s also about me and living for me.

Her life had always been about helping others, gathering nectar & pollen for others, keeping the hive warm in the winter for others, caring for the little ones. Others, others, others.

“Today is about me,” she repeated aloud. 

Chapter 14

Spider awoke to see Bee flying upwards and away. She was gone. Her words had stirred feelings inside him that he hadn’t had in so long. The loneliness of his solitary life had become “normal”. He was accustomed to feeling sad, to having no friends, no one to talk to. The pain had been there for so long that he didn’t feel any other emotion. Now, he wanted to feel something good, something fun.

Today, his life would change.

The first thing he had to do was to get rid of this web. It had served its purpose overnight, catching food for him. Now, it was a mess, with several holes where flyers had flown into the web, struggled, then freed themselves. There were also several dry husks that had once been full of delicious juices, so tasty, but now gone, as he’d already had his fill.

He wandered over to the middle of his web, and started eating, one thread at a time. Around and around he went, eating the silk that was designed to capture prey. Once the spiral was done, he went to work on the spokes that angled outward. What was left was only a few strands, joining two branches of the tree, in a triangular shape.

Okay, he thought. What would I like to do? What would be fun? I could rebuild my web. No, I do that every day. I want to do something different. Think, think, he told himself.

He saw a rollie pollie walking directly under his web. Ah, food. He wasn’t a hunter, like the jumping spiders. And, he didn’t use a sticky line, like some of his cousins. He laughed at the thought of so many legs, walking, walking. Wait, he had an idea.

Spider shot down on his drag-line, grabbed the round little crawler, and lifted him high into the sky in such a quick motion that Rollie had no time to form himself into a ball. He screamed in terror, as his fourteen legs were left dangling in the air, clawing and reaching for something to hold onto.

“Ahhhhh!” he screamed. “Ahhhhh! Let me go!”

Spider let him go, sending him flying up into the air. Rollie had not expected that, and now feared for his life. He quickly rolled into a ball, and prepared for the impact of crashing down to the earth. Forming a ball was his way of staying alive, avoiding danger.

Spider saw the round critter fly up, and then return back down, landing in his arms. He descended down to the ground, placed Rollie down, and waited for him to open back up. He waited, and waited. Spiders were very patient critters. He could wait.

Finally, the ball cracked open, and fourteen legs started wiggling, and moving, and Rollie righted himself. He was a bit dizzy, and wondered just what had happened to him. He looked around, to the left, and to the right, then heard someone say, “I’m up here.”

Craning his neck, he saw Spider, the maker of webs. Oh, how he hated that web-maker. So many of his family had been snared by Spider, some becoming dinner, others just stuck until they wasted away in hunger, pleading for help, only to become a dry husk after many days.

“Wanna try that again?” Spider asked.

Rollie looked at him like he was insane. “What? Are you crazy? Why would I want to fly into the air, and be tossed around like garbage, then crash down to the earth and die?”

“Ummm, you did notice that you didn’t CRASH into anything, and you didn’t DIE,” replied Spider. “Wanna try that again?”

He was right, Rollie thought. I didn’t die. I flew through the air, like a flyer, and, most importantly, Spider did NOT eat me. “What is going on?” Rollie asked. “Why didn’t you eat me?”

Spider just laughed, “Ha, ha, okay, okay. Look, today is a special day. I’m not eating anything today. Today is my day to play…with others. I’ve spent my whole life eating anything that got close to me. Everyone is scared of me. They don’t like me. I have no friends. And, well, I’m tired of it. I want to play. So, how about it? Wanna try that again?”

Rollie wasn’t so sure about this. Was it a trick? a mean trick?

As if he could read his mind, Spider said, “Trust me. I won’t eat you. I just wanna play. Are you ready?”

Rollie was curious, and wandered closer to Spider. “Okay, but don’t let me fall,” he begged. “I bruise easily and sometimes my feet get sore and…”

This time, Spider pulled on the drag-line, making it tight, tight, very tight. He wanted to bungee up as fast as he could, like a sling-shot, and see how high he could make Rollie go. He grabbed hold of Rollie. “Don’t curl up into a ball. And, don’t close your eyes. Ready, one, two…”

And, on the count of three, he sprang into the air, pulling the scared little crawler with him, all of his legs a-wiggling, his antennae twitching, and a blood-curling scream escaping his mouth, “Ahhhhh!”
He flew through the air, rising high above Spider’s home, and in among the lower branches of the tree. Then, down he fell, legs wiggling, though he forced himself to face his fear, and NOT roll into a ball.

“Oomph!” he landed in Spider’s arms, and was carried back down to the ground, safely, almost as quickly as he rose.

“OMG! That was awesome! That was so cool. I flew. I actually flew. I can’t believe it. At one moment, I was on the ground, just walking around, and then WHOOSH! I flew. Wow! Can I do it again?”

Spider smiled, for he knew that he’d begun a day that would be like no other day. He’d