ATTACK of the BEE

When I was 5 years old, I was attacked by a bee. Not a swarm of bees, just one bee. In fact, I wasn't even attacked, the bee was just defending himself.

I, like many children, grew up with a natural dislike of bees. I had been stung before, and decided that it was better to kill bees before they could sting you. Not a good idea.

One summer day I was riding my "big wheel" trike that was shaped to look like a motorcycle. I was zooming up and down the sidewalk, making cool motorcycle noises with my mouth. And then I saw the bee. He was just sitting on the sidewalk. What a great opportunity to squash him! Then there would be one less bee outside, waiting to sting me.

I slowly crept forward on my trike, still making motorcyle sound effects, but quietly. The bee seemed not to notice me. And then my motorcycle sprang to life, speeding down the sidewalk, and squashing the bee underneath my front tire! I ran over that bee about 6 or 7 times with my trike. "This must be how the Lone Ranger feels when he catches the bad guy," I thought. Although the Lone Ranger never squashed the bad guy, he just sent him off to jail.

Finally, I hopped off my trike and looked down at the bee. He looked pretty dead to me. But I had to be sure. So I picked him up to get a closer look.

I looked at the bee. And he looked at me. He was STILL ALIVE!!!

With his last breath, the bee plunged his stinger into my thumb. OUCH, that hurt! I dropped the bee and started sucking my thumb.

I can't believe the bee stung me. The Lone Ranger never would've gotten stung. But he also would never have committed a hate crime towards a bee. I was being prejudiced towards insects. I was a Bee Bigot. Why did I try to kill the bee? He didn't do anything to me. I realized that I deserved to be stung by that bee. And from then on, I have always tried to be respectful of bees and other insects.

(Except when insects suck my blood and then fly away and pretend like they didn't just treat me like a capri-sun. Those ones I smash good...)