by Dave Corrick
Chapter 19
Back from the Honeymoon and Pearl Has Made a Startling Discovery.
It is now early summer and Sunday morning.
Louie and Lulu had arrived back from their honeymoon yesterday and are relaxing on the deck outside their home. They are looking at the wedding photos Virgil had taken.
In spite of some previous reservations about Virgil’s photographic ability, the photos were indeed very good. Louie had just downloaded them onto his gaptop from the smellular network. Lulu had made a cup of TG Tips. The pair were lying back close together on their deck ferniture under the shade of a fern frond.
‘I love you in that top hat Louie and doesn’t Pearl look wonderful with us on the Rhododendron flower’, said Lulu studying the photos and giving Louie a bit of a nudge.
‘Personally I quite like this somebody in the middle’, said Louie pointing to Lulu.
‘Really?’ said Lulu in a teasing mood. ‘Do you think you will stick with her Louie?’
Louie turned towards Lulu and kissed her. ‘Oh yes, oh yes, for ever and ever’.
‘Lulu’, said Louie softly and being serious for a moment. ‘Now we are back from our honeymoon and we are moving on with our life together. I want you to know that it doesn’t matter that we can’t have baby bees. You mustn’t worry about it’.
‘Louie you are so kind and thoughtful’, said Lulu in response, holding Louie tightly. ‘It’s just a female thing I guess for me to have little bees to cherish and love. But I love you Louie and that’s all that matters’.
‘Thanks Lulu’, said Louie tenderly stroking her. He could tell by the look in her big brown eyes that she was disappointed but it was something to put aside and move on. Lulu smiled.
There were some really good photos that Virgil had taken after Louie and Lulu had left for their honeymoon.
‘Look at that Lulu’, said Louie. ‘Those two bees there; I haven’t seen them since I was at Fly School. That’s Rupert on the left. He and I used to be great mates. That’s Rastus on the right, he and I used to fight’.
‘I like the look of Rupert’, said Lulu mischievously sitting up to take a closer look. ‘Just as well I met you first Louie!’ Lulu put her head down in case she would get a slap from Louie and laughed. Lulu then reached up and pulled Louie close to her and whispered, I love you Louie, there would never never be anyone else!’
‘Just as well’, said Louie and gave her the friendly slap she deserved.
‘Ow!’ said Lulu. ‘Do that again Louie!’
Louie laughed and gave Lulu a squeeze.
‘Don’t the Ten Ants look great on the Elfin Daisy Louie’, said Lulu. ‘I love the smiles on their faces, and look at Import in the middle waving’.
Louie agreed. Indeed the Ten Ants did look great. They had been so supportive to Louie and Lulu. Louie felt somehow he would like to do more for them.
Oh it was so good to lie back in the sun with Lulu beside him. Lulu had her eyes closed now. They had finished looking at the wedding photos. Lulu was lying on her side holding on to Louie. Louie looked at her and reflected on how she had changed him. He thought how before he met Lulu he had been a bit of an eccentric bee, probably because he was on his own so much. He felt he had acted a little old for his age; he had been a little frightened of life itself and lacked confidence. In part this was due to his mother dying when he was young. His father who was also now dead had been hard on Louie.
Louie looked at the ring on Lulu’s finger. It was of course the ring that had once belonged to his mother. The ring was Lulu’s now. The support he once had from his mother now came from Lulu. It was as though the loss of his mother had finally been put to rest.
A wave of happiness passed over Louie, he smiled to himself and he felt he had the confidence to face anything life would throw his way now.
The couple lay in the sun in silence for an hour or more. Below them the stream flowed as it always did, quietly drifting on past and down to the village and beyond. About the only sound was when occasionally one of Virgil’s wasps passed, ever busy carrying mail and non flying insects.
Louie’s smell phone rang about 11.00 a.m. It was Pearl.
‘Hi Louie, just checking that you and Lulu are safely back again’.
‘Hi Pearl, yes Lulu and I are safely back. We had the most wonderful relaxing time. We got back late yesterday afternoon. We are just out on the deck taking in a bit of sunshine, how are you Pearl?’
‘I’m great’, said Pearl. ‘I have missed you two though’.
‘Aw shucks, thanks Pearl’, said Louie feeling honoured that someone as special as Pearl Baker-Moth would say such a thing.
‘Would love to catch-up with you both’, said Pearl. ‘I have something incredibly interesting to discuss too. Would you like to meet at the Nest Café for lunch?’
‘Yes indeed’, said Louie. ‘What time?’
‘Make it one’, said Pearl.
Louie turned to Lulu who was still half asleep and said. ‘OK to have lunch with Pearl 1.00 p.m. at the Nest Café?’
Lulu nodded and smiled.
‘Yes Pearl’, said Louie. ‘Look forward to it, see you then’.
Louie sat down beside Lulu again. Her pink ribbon had come off and lay on the deck so Louie carefully put it back around her head.
‘There that’s better’, said Louie.
‘Yes thank you Louie. Could you take it off and put it on again, that was nice’, said Lulu in a sleepy sort of voice.
Louie took the ribbon off and obligingly put it on again. Louie was thoroughly awake now and in a teasing mood and started tickling Lulu before she had a chance to doze off again.
‘Stop it stop it! You naughty bee’, Lulu squealed and wriggled then she started tickling Louie.
‘Help!’ said Louie. ‘You win, I give in’. The pair laughed and hugged one another.
‘Tell you what’, said Louie. ‘We have got an hour or so before we meet with Pearl, let’s go and say hello to the Ten Ants. We can take them a bit of chocolate cake and nectar’.
‘Great idea my clever bee’, said Lulu. Louie liked this clever bee bit!
‘I’ll go and make myself look nice while you get the chocolate cake and nectar ready’ said Lulu.
‘Right’, said Louie and he went and found one of their special bracken baskets. He loaded it with chocolate cake and a honeycomb six-pack of Louie’s special honey nectar that the ants liked. Lulu was ready in no time. Off the pair went up the stream, flying low towards the Factory.
The Factory of course was in Mr McFarland’s shed and the Ten Ants lived in the floor below.
Just to the right of Mr McFarland’s place was a small field of vacant land. Growing in the field were hundreds of Bluebells. As Louie and Lulu were nearing the Factory, Lulu shouted. ‘Race you through the Bluebells Louie!!’
Lulu had turned sharp right with Louie in hot pursuit. ‘I’ll catch you yelled Louie!’
‘No you won’t’, laughed Lulu.
The pair zig zagged at full speed through the Bluebells, just above ground level. Lulu was still ahead. Out the other side she went, then turned down and back through the way they had come.
Louie caught Lulu just as they were coming back out the other side again.
‘Told you I would’, laughed Louie.
‘No we were dead equal!’ shouted Lulu.
‘Liar, you rascal!’ said Louie.
Louie grabbed Lulu’s hand then up to the Factory portal they flew.
Once inside they went down to where the Ten Ants lived and shouted. ‘Anybody home?’
Expect came out and called to the others. ‘Yea it’s Mr Louie and Lulu, they are back!’
Louie and Lulu went down into the Ten Ants’ home. It was nice and cool after the race through the Bluebells.
The Ten Ants’ home was below the floor boards of Mr McFarland’s shed, under the ground. They had built themselves a combination of tunnels and rooms to live in.
The Ten Ants were rea
lly glad to see them. Louie gave them the chocolate cake and nectar and they sat around and talked about the cave and how wonderful it was and what Louie and Lulu had done on their honeymoon.
The Ten Ants told of the wonderful time they had at the wedding after Louie and Lulu had left.
‘We were treated like royalty’, said Import. ‘None of us have ever felt so special Mr Louie’.
‘Deservedly so too’, said Louie. ‘Lulu and I just can’t put into words how we appreciate what all of you did for us. We will never forget it. You are all so special’.
The Ten Ants went all bashful and chorused in response. ‘Gee thanks Mr Louie and Lulu’. Louie explained that they couldn’t stay long as they had to meet Pearl at one. Louie and Lulu got up and headed out the Ants’ tunnel, chatting and laughing with the Ten Ants as they went.
‘See you all tomorrow at the Factory, take care and thanks again for all you have done’, said Louie as he and Lulu left and flew off to the Nest Café.
The Ten Ants waved goodbye. They were so happy that Louie and Lulu had thought enough of them to call in.
Louie and Lulu put on full power and headed down to the Nest Café, they were running a little late. Pearl was already there when they arrived.
Pearl knew Louie liked table twenty seven and being vacant she had seized the opportunity to take it.
‘Hi Pearl’, said Louie and Lulu together. ‘Sorry we are late but we took the time to drop in and see the Ten Ants on the way’.
‘Don’t even think of it’, said Pearl. ‘It’s very pleasant sitting here watching what goes on out there on the stream. It’s just marvellous to see that new hotel there too’.
Yes the new Hotel Babbleon looked most impressive. The supermarket was busy as was Duck Paddle Cruises immediately below them. How things had changed in the last year.
Lunch was ordered after a few leisurely honey nectars. Pearl wanted to know all about the honeymoon.
Lulu excitedly told Pearl about how they swam in the pool and sunbathed for a fair amount of the time.
‘Louie showed me how the shaft of sunlight comes into the chamber, that was very special’, said Lulu. ‘We did quite a bit of exploring of the tunnels and went out the opening in the roof in the chamber a few times’.
‘Best of all though’, Lulu carried on to say, ‘was sitting in front of the fire after having the evening meal. We just watched the sun go down and the stars come out, I will never forget it’. Lulu reached over and squeezed Louie’s arm.
‘Yes I know what you mean Lulu’, said Pearl. ‘Your wonderful Louie made it very special for me when I was there a couple of years ago, didn’t you Louie!’
‘The least I could do Pearl, it was you that saved us all’, Louie responded feeling very proud of what Pearl had said.
Louie explained to Lulu how Pearl had saved them from the dreaded Al Spider. Lulu listened in awe as to what this wonderful moth, their leader and Queen had done.
Pearl went on to say. ‘Thanks to you two getting married, look at the hotel we have got now and the renovations that have been done here at the Nest Café with the new Builtmore Bar’.
‘Enough about us’, said Louie. ‘You had something special to tell us Pearl. We are both dying to know!’
‘Yes please’, said Lulu excitedly.
‘Well’, said Pearl. ‘Just like other things we have found when we have been through the quartz on the other side, this is equally mysterious. However this discovery has the potential to be of even greater advantage to our community’.
‘While you two were away on your honeymoon’, Pearl continued. ‘I was on the other side of the quartz just checking what was going on in the village. As you know I like to do this on a regular basis in case there is some issue that might affect our community and I can take action if necessary. I happened to be in the square outside the cake shop. There weren’t many people around and I had gone over to where there are plants growing in a bed put there by the council. You may remember it, it’s right beside the community notice board’.
‘Yes I do remember it’, said Louie. ‘It has some flax, a few conifers and there are Marigolds around the edge. I remember because as a bee, the nectar in those Marigolds is particularly delicious’.
‘That’s exactly the one’, said Pearl.
‘I probably shouldn’t have done what I did’, Pearl continued, ‘but because I am still fascinated with the powers we have, I was bending over making a couple of the Marigolds grow older and younger by clenching my fists. In fact I was completely absorbed in what I was doing and not paying attention to where I was. I had clenched both fists so that the blue auras were visible. Of course one Marigold was growing up from the aura of the right fist while the other was shrinking from the left. Then I crossed my arms over and reversed the process. I became mesmerised watching the plants age then become younger again. How does this happen? I kept saying to myself. What’s the process at work here? All these sorts of thoughts were going through my mind.
‘Anyway unbeknown to me, a person some distance away behind had noticed something odd about the plants and had come over to investigate. My first awareness of anyone close was from their shadow, right there beside me. I panicked and swung around. There was a person standing inches away from me. I had both fists clenched. In fright I had actually tightened my fists even more. Normally swinging around as I did I would have hit the person. I would possibly have even injured them!’
Pearl was getting quite emotional now and said to Louie. ‘Pour me another nectar Louie; I am still shocked a bit from what happened next. Talking about it brings it all back’.
Louie poured Pearl another nectar and she had a spot of chocolate cake to settle her nerves.
‘Gosh what happened?’ said Lulu who was on the edge of her seat by now.
‘Well’, said Pearl. ‘Instead of this person feeling the effect of my swinging fists’. Pearl paused wondering to herself if it really had happened. ‘As soon as I made contact, I merged with and became that person! That’s the only way I can describe it’.
To help the reader grasp what Pearl was saying, hold a finger up in front of your face, just a little distance from your nose. Look at something behind your finger. You will see two fingers.
Imagine one finger is Pearl and the other finger is the person. Now slowly shift your focus from behind your finger to your finger. You will see the two fingers merge! This is exactly what it was like with Pearl and the person by the Marigolds in the village.
‘I know it sounds unbelievable’, said Pearl, ‘but I actually became that person. I had my own thoughts but I also had the thoughts of the person. Now that I was in the merged state I found myself wondering, as the person obviously had, why the two Marigolds had been moving in such a strange way. That’s not all though. It gets even more incredible’.
Pearl had the full attention of Louie and Lulu and paused for a moment before continuing. ‘Amazingly I could walk around as that person, I could speak and my voice came out as that person but it was me talking! The person I had merged with was a youngish male and I had quite a deep voice!’
‘As this person, or for want of a better word, my host’, Pearl went on to say. ‘I had by this time walked a short distance away from the Marigolds. Suddenly I thought to myself how on earth can I demerge? Am I trapped? Am I destined now to be this human for ever! I was getting into a bit of a panic as you can imagine. It was just like the time when I first went through the quartz. Fortunately I found that all I had to do was clench my two fists tightly and just simply ‘walk out’ of the person which I did. The poor chap was quite confused. He was now some distance away from the Marigolds and he couldn’t remember how he had got there!’
Louie and Lulu sat transfixed by what Pearl was saying. Their minds were racing with the possibilities that this new found ability might offer.
Pearl continued. ‘As I mentioned I had to clench both fists to merge and demerge. Using a single fist as we know just increases or decreases
the age of a living thing. I sat down for a few moments to take it all in. The person I had merged with had gone back to the Marigolds to have another look; he knew that something strange had been going on’.
Pearl paused to gather her thoughts for a moment then continued. ‘After gaining a bit of confidence my curiosity got the better of me. I went back to the man and merged again, no problem. I walked over to the cake shop. Then I walked back to the Marigolds and demerged at the exact spot that I had originally merged with him. He showed no signs of confusion and just stood there looking at the Marigolds as though he had been there all the time!’
Louie and Lulu continued to sit in stunned silence while Pearl carried on explaining more. ‘Having now fully regained my confidence I went and tried it on another person. This time it was a young girl sitting outside the cake shop. She was eating a cake and reading a book. It was just the same, I became that person. I quite enjoyed the cake! I even had full knowledge of what the young girl had been reading and her thoughts. When I demerged the young girl looked slightly confused. She couldn’t remember having eaten the cake! I was a bit unfair there I guess as I had all the pleasure of finishing the cake and she didn’t!
‘I noticed that when merged with a person that there was no ability to fly or do things as we do as insects. The only capabilities I had were those of the person merged with.’
‘Another interesting aspect to this was that when merged with a person, I could tell from their stored thoughts what sort of person they were. I didn’t stay merged very long with either person but I had access to their memories, it was a great insight into the human psyche. I could feel their world. I could sense their intentions and attitudes to others. Humans are so different to us; I must say I didn’t really like it. I guess we will know more as we experience merging again in the future’.
‘This is just amazing Pearl’, said Louie. ‘Can you explain to us how it all happens?’
‘Yes partly’. Pearl shrugged. ‘I have to admit I can’t fully explain it’.
Pearl thought about her theory and sorted it out in her mind before continuing.
‘Recapping on some of the things I have said before. When we go through the quartz my theory is that we end up in a state somewhere between being an insect and a human. In this halfway state our molecular structure seems to be that of an abstract form of quartz. To me this is the reason why we have a translucent blue appearance. There are forces that are at work as with the quartz in the tunnel that make our fists glow blue when we clench them and apply pressure. Our clenched fists give off some form of radiation similar to the quartz in the tunnel that acts as a catalyst for transformation to another form. I think that when both fists are clenched and held near a living thing, time can neither go forward or back, the two fists cancel each other out. On this basis the time is now and transformation takes place to the human form’.
Pearl could see by the look on the faces of Louie and Lulu that they were completely lost.
Pearl noticing the lack of comprehension said. ‘To try and make it simpler consider this. When we come through the quartz we are neither insect nor human. We are in a form waiting to be transformed to one or the other. We have two choices, we can go back through the quartz and become insects again or we can use the radiation from our two clenched fists and go in the other direction and take on the human form’.
‘It is a bit hard to understand’, said Louie. ‘But I am really excited by your find Pearl’.
‘Thanks Louie’, said Pearl. ‘Yes I am really excited too; there are some important things that can be done which I will talk to you both about some time in the future when we have tested things a little more’.
‘You will find’, said Pearl trying to explain further. ‘That as with many things in life, we don’t fully understand them but using them and becoming familiar with them makes questioning it no longer relevant’.
‘Where do we go from here?’ Lulu enquired.
‘What I suggest we do’, said Pearl. ‘You two take it easy for the rest of the day. In the morning go and check the Factory then let’s meet at the tunnel at 11.00 a.m. We can go through the quartz and try it together! It would be good to have you two with me; I am still wondering if I actually imagined it!’
Lulu and Louie had of course both been through the quartz many times. What Pearl had explained to them was something to be explored and presented no real fear to them. It potentially added another exciting dimension to what they could already do.
‘Gosh Pearl’, said Louie. ‘If only we had known about this when the council had tried to put the water pipe along the stream, we could have had a lot more fun with Bull Neck!’
‘Yes’, said Lulu all excited. ‘I could have merged with Bull Neck right at the start and turned the hose on his work mates!!’
‘You’ve got the right idea Lulu’, said Pearl laughing.
‘What I would have done’, said Louie. ‘I would have merged with Bull Neck and told his mates Fred and Blue they were fired! He would have been left with no one to help him!’
The three started giggling and laughing at the possibilities.
‘Stop it you two’, said Pearl desperately trying to suppress another giggle. ‘We have to be serious. It doesn’t look good for me to be behaving like this’.
Pearl pulled herself together and spoke seriously for a moment. ‘This appears to be a very strong power that we have and as I have said before there must be a pact between the three of us that now and in the future any of the powers we have been gifted with are only used to do good for the insect community, the villagers or the planet itself’.
The three agreed. Pearl knew she could depend on Louie and Lulu.
‘Well you two’, said Pearl. ‘I think I have burdened you with enough information for one day! Let’s all go and try it out tomorrow’.
‘Oh no you haven’t burdened us at all’, said Lulu. ‘I just can’t wait for tomorrow to come now’.
Pearl thanked Louie and Lulu for having the time to meet with her. Louie and Lulu headed home as did Pearl.
As they were flying back up the stream, Lulu grabbed Louie’s hand and said to him as she had said before. ‘I just can’t believe how exciting my life has become since meeting you my wonderful bee. It seems as though it is about to get even more exciting!’
‘But Lulu’, said Louie. ‘It’s the other way around; my life was dull and boring until I met you! As you say, with what Pearl has found, life is certainly going to get interesting from here on!’
The pair laughed and flew on home in the mid afternoon sun.
Once home the pair lay out on the deck again and talked further about the possibilities of what Pearl had discovered.
‘Just think Lulu’, said Louie. ‘If I had merged with Cyril when he was annoying Mr McFarland about his tree, I could have phoned his boss, sworn at him over the phone and told him I was resigning! That would have been the end of Cyril, much simpler than what we went through!’
‘No what I would have done’, said Lulu mischievously. ‘I would have written out the prosecution notice so that it was Cyril himself who was to be prosecuted for cutting down the tree! Cyril wouldn’t have known about it until he was summonsed to go to court!’
‘Very clever Lulu’, said Louie. ‘You are too smart for me!’
Louie and Lulu had a very happy afternoon thinking up ways of how they could have done better using the new power Pearl had discovered.
