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I received a letter from Father for the first time in my life. That was only natural because we lived together and did not need to write to each other. In April, I moved to this country town and now live with Grandma. Many things happened this April. I am usually very healthy. But sometimes, I feel a strange cold in my chest and I suddenly start coughing and gasping. It happened repeatedly and I had to miss school many times. Finally, before the new semester began, we decided to move to Grandma's house in the country where the air is clean. Under this plan, I would start the new semester there and become a big brother when May came. Mother was expecting a baby. But, suddenly, Father was transferred to the Tokyo office for one year and Mother's baby was premature---too soon and too small---so she had to stay in the hospital for some extra time. Then April came, the only thing that happened according to plan. Our family had to start a new life apart from each other: Father was in Tokyo, Mother and Baby Sister were in the hospital, and I was in Grandma's house in the country. I didn't feel lonely. Father was working hard in Tokyo. Mother was taking care of baby sister at the hospital. So I decided to do my best here. I had made some friends here. Just today, Tsuyoshi invited me to play with him. But I declined. I was healthy. But I was not absolutely sure I would be so tomorrow. It had never occurred to me but I wondered what I should do if I started to gasp because of my chest. Father and Mother were not with me and the hospital was far away. I did not want to worry Grandma. That's why I didn't feel like going to visit Tsuyoshi's house beyond the mountain path. After I got back to Grandma's house, I laid down on the tatami floor. A country house is dark indoors even when the sliding paper door is open. When I was by myself, the time passed much too slowly. I got up slowly and thought maybe I would go to the field and help Grandma. Just then, I saw that a brown mass like a cloud was spreading in the sky. Before I could figure out what it was, the mass almost covered the entire sky, coloring it all brown, and it came very near me. When I realized that it was a group of bees, they hung in a cluster from the pine tree in the yard. I had never seen such a huge number of bees. I held my breath and remained quiet, standing there. 'Yes, I must tell Grandma,' I thought. I slowly closed the sliding door and ran out the front door to the field like a rabbit. I was carried away to such an extent that I had completely forgotten that I might start to gasp later because of my chest. Grandma who came back from the field with me caught her breath, saying "Wow, how about that?" She then said that Tsuyoshi's grandpa kept bees and we'd better ask him to see this. So it turned out that I went over the mountain path to go to Tsuyoshi's house that day, after all. Tsuyoshi and his grandpa came with me immediately. "They are honey bees," said the grandpa, "They have hived off. Kenta, do you want to keep them?" I did not know exactly what that meant, keeping bees. I knew what it's like to keep a dog, rabbit, goldfish, or beetle, but bees? Tsuyoshi was right next to me and said, "You can get sweet honey." That made me want to keep bees at once. It was OK with Grandma because she always said, "Sure, it's OK. You can try anything." But I wondered what Father and Mother would say. And I didn't want my baby sister to get stung by bees. Tsuyoshi and his grandpa lent me many things: A beehive, which is a new house for the bees, honeycomb plates, a hat with a net, and a smoke machine. I was excited. I had often come to the country and thought I knew a lot about insects and fish. But I knew nothing about bees. "Bees will only sting you if you tamper with them," said Tsuyoshi's grandpa. Since I wasn't afraid of bees so much and did not intend to tamper with them, I thought I would be able to get good honey. I visited Tsuyoshi's house and looked into many beehives. I borrowed books on bees from the school library. I suddenly felt self-confident. "Now I'm a respectable aquarist," I said proudly, saying the name of a profession I had just learned in a book. "You mean, apiarist," Grandma corrected. |
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