A Spare Umbrella

A Bee was hanging out in his favorite sunflower on a warm summer day. This was one of the bee’s favorite spots in the world. Despite having a hive he loved he would often say he felt most at home and most at ease here.

As the bee was enjoying his day a cloud came and covered up the sun.

“Oh great!” The Bee thought, “Some nice shade for a bit!”

The Bee was enjoying the shade for an extended period of time. It was a nice, long, period of shade. A brief respite from the mid-day heat.

…

The time in the shade was now going on for a really long time…

…

A little too long in fact…

The Bee finally looked up and saw the sky had all of a sudden turned a threatening shade of gray.

“Oh no,” the Bee thought to himself, “I’m about to get rained on”

The sunflower agreed without saying a word. Her typically cheery demeanor on sunny summer days had become instantly withdrawn, glum, a shadow of herself only moments ago.

Then the Bee felt a drop.

“Oh, fickletwits!” The Bee thought, “That’s not what I wanted to feel today!”

Then another drop came, and another and another and, you guessed it, one million more drops started falling all at the same time. The Bee quickly scrambled to find some shelter. Home was so far away. There was no way he could make it back to the hive.

He was stuck. The place he always felt most at home, most comfortable — had all of a sudden turned into a nightmare.

The Bee was buzzing, panicked. The rain seemed like it was going to last forever. The Bee was getting wet and wet and wet and wet and wetter and wetter and wetter and then… it stopped. All of a sudden.

The Bee was relieved, but also curious. He looked around and the rain was still coming down in buckets all around him. So how then did the rain stop just over him? How was this possible?

The Bee looked up, an umbrella was covering the sky from his view. The Sunflower always knew an occasion like this would come up sooner or later. She also enjoyed having the Bee around and thought one day they may be caught in a storm. She figured she might as well be prepared, keep an umbrella within arms reach, nothing fancy just something thatched together so that no matter what, when the Bee was around he would feel safe, and at home.