Mississippi Bee Queen

by

Paula Dillon

Cold, alone and hungry a runaway transgendered girl wanders onto a Bee Farm looking for work, so she could eat.

The hive was in a turmoil, with bees numbly rushing around on the comb. Due to overcrowding and a failing queen bee, two things were about to happen. One the hive was about to have a succession to replace the old queen and there had to be a swarm to reduce the size of the hive. Either of these events alone could cause havoc in a bee hive. When you have both at the same time, it could create utter chaos in a hive. If the old queen died first, the first queen to emerge could destroy all the remaining queen cells and she could try to hold the hive together. That would fail and result in a queenless swarm.

The hive had formed seven queen cells, four of them in close proximity of the main brood cells, and three queen cells were spread far and wide, throughout the hive. The hives reigning queen could be seen hovering near one of the far-flung queen cells. She was painfully vibrating her wings and her abdomen as if she were communicating with the pupae in the queen cell saying, “Grow strong my daughter, grow fast, hatch soon, hurry, hurry. You must leave the hive as soon as you can. I won’t make it till you hatch, my lovely daughter. You must lead the swarm out of the hive. One of your sisters is already buzzing how she will kill all her sister queens and take over the hive. Grow strong, fast, my child and flee the hive.”

This queen pupae, we will call her Azena for clarity, was the first laid, by four hours. She was a Caucasian or more specifically a mix of an Apis mellifera Caucasian queen and an Italian Apis mellifera ligustica drone. Her fratricidal sister, Melliferia is a good name for her, was of an Apis mellifera carpatica or Russian drone as their mother had mated with several dozen drones on her mating flight. The Russian bees being brought to the US because of their resistance to the Varroa mites and their good hygienic behavior.

Melliferia though had another contender who had been laid three hours before she had been. Nadine’s heritage is unimportant because her future was measured in days, but her sacrifice would be immeasurable in the history of this hive.

The old queen did die just hours before Azena hatched. Azena hatched two hours before the unnamed queen. Nurse bees immediately began feeding her honey and the worker bees frantically urged her to flex her wing muscles. It was as if they were saying, “Eat my queen grow strong, work your wings, we must flee.” The hive felt the murderous intent of Melliferia, they needed a queen to swarm with.

Melliferia finally emerged from her cell and instead of stopping to be fed, she immediately attacked to two other queen cells on her comb. She chewed the wax tops off of their cells and started ripping her rivals to shreds stinging them several times each. Queen bees don’t have barbed stingers like worker bees. They are able to sting their targets many times without ripping their abdomens to pieces. She was piping as she was doing violence to her sister queens. (Piping is a high-pitched song or noise queen bees make. Some Entomologist think it is the queen saying, “Here I am, I am Queen” as sort of a challenge to her sister queens, or it could be a call to the workers saying, “You have a queen now and it is me.”) Just like it is with the highlander there can be only one queen to the hive. The nurse bees gave her wide berth as she did her deadly deed. The whole hive was vibrating as if to say, “Please don’t kill all of your sister queens, we need to swarm, our queen,” recognizing her probable ascendancy to the throne.

Melliferia would have none of this, screaming, “Death to all of the pretenders.”

Just as she killed the second queen on the frame she emerged from, in her cell, the queen Nadine made her presence known. She was a little smaller, not quite as strong as Melliferia had been, but she was very agile and well fed and had more energy than the murderous queen. They engaged in a long battle between the combs falling to the hive floor. They rolled around trying to bite and sting each other while trying to avoid being ripped apart or stung to death.

A full forty percent of the hive urged Azena to flee the hive now. “Come queen we must leave now!!!”

Azena made it to the hive entrance. Thousands of bees were almost clogging the entrance as they fled the hive in swarm, but they all made way for Azena.

Nadine died, but not before severely injuring Melliferia. After giving a weak effort at piping after winning her battle, she was not met by nurse bees bringing her honey, rather she was met by a swarm of angry workers who balled up on her stinging her to death, because she was injured. Life is hard in the bee hive. They all knew they had one more queen in her cell that was within hours of hatching.

The swarm with Azena, flew high to a nearby tree to give their queen time to rest and gain strength. They remained in the tree for two days, the workers formed a protective shield around her from the elements. The workers had engorged themselves with honey before they had left the hive. They fed and groomed her.

Azena grew bigger and stronger till she was ready to mate. The swarm urged Azena to fly out from them, higher and higher. She entered another swarm, this swarm was not like the swarm of her sister workers, this was a swarm of male drones from numerous hives from miles around. One male drone after another mated with the virgin queen leaving their endophallus everted, turned inside out, hanging from her oviduct. She mated twenty-one times before she began to fall toward the ground from exhaustion. She headed back to where her swarm was.

Angela was hungry. It had been two days since she had been dropped off in Jackson Mississippi. It was late February and it was cold in Roanoke Virginia. One of the youth shelters’ counselors had dropped off the sixteen-year-old girl, in Jackson, on her way home to visit her parents. It had been against the shelters rules for counselors to do this, but Angela was different. It was a bit warmer in Jackson.

Angela Parsons was a foster kid. She stood about five feet six, had blonde hair that came between her shoulder blades and was skinny at about one hundred and ten pounds. She was fifteen when she ran away from her foster parents. Her own parents had died in a car crash in Baltimore Maryland, where they lived. They were both older parents. Her Dad had been forty-six and her mom had been thirty-nine when she had been born. There were no relatives alive when her parents died, so she was shifted into the foster system when she was just twelve. She went through three foster homes, before she just said, “Fuck it!” She gathered her birth certificate, social security card, pictures of her and her parents and her meager possessions and planned her escape. She took three weeks to ferret her belongings in a place where and when she could get them to get away.

She was different and her fosters just weren’t prepared for, or of the right mind to deal with a transgendered child. Since she was two or three she identified herself with other girls, rather than the boy that her birth certificate indicated she was. Her parents accepted the fact, when she was eight, but her first foster parents tried to beat it out of her. They didn’t use their fists, but she always found it hard sitting after they took a belt to her butt. The other fosters just tried to ignore the fact and never provided the things she wanted to wear and insisted on calling her Alan.

There was snow in Roanoke, when she left the city four days ago. She didn’t know where she was but at least the temperature was in the sixties today. What the day or date was she didn’t know, she was just thankful she wasn’t freezing.

She had to get some money and food or turn herself into the foster system or just die. She hadn’t decided which was worse at this point.

She was wearing her best clothes she had gotten from the youth shelters; a blue jean jacket, a thread bare flowery blouse, jeans, socks and ragged pair of running shoes. Her underwear was gone. It had gotten too funky for her to wear.

She had spent the night in an abandoned barn, a few miles away and now she walked down an old pot hole filled road. She found some edible plants, like chickweed and dandelions along the road. She learned the hard way which plants could keep her alive and which made her deathly ill for a time. Her stomach growled but she was alive.

Angela saw a sign by the road, “McNeil’s Bee Farm,” and another smaller sign that read, “Help Wanted.” She didn’t know what time it was exactly, but the sun had been up for a while and it was less than a quarter of the way up to being high in the sky. She took a chance the people were already up and working. She walked up the drive to an older style home. She was surprised to see a high-tech doorbell. It had one of those camera/speaker things. She pressed the doorbell.

“Hello, how can I help you?” The doorbell said in a deep masculine voice.

“Hi, I Angela Parsons and I saw your help wanted sign. I will do any kind of work.”

Dan looked at the thin waif of a girl, the screen of his phone showed him. Her height made her a teen, but she was very skinny and a little mussed. “Come around to the back and we’ll talk.”

Dan McNeil was fifty-two years old, he stood a couple of hairs higher than six feet tall and weighed in at two o five. He had close cropped salt and black pepper hair. His oblong face was tanned and weathered. He left his office in his warehouse and headed out to meet the girl. As he stepped out into the yard he saw quite a few bees flying around. It wasn’t unusual, the red maple was in the midst of a major nectar flow and pollen production, while the temperature was in the upper sixties. The bees were going crazy foraging.

Angela came around the corner carrying her blue jean jacket.

Suddenly the random mass of bees began to coalesce into a swarm behind the girl.

“Stop!” Dan ordered.

The girl stopped and felt hundreds to thousands of bees landing on her back.

“Don’t panic, just hold your arms out to your side. Whatever you do, don’t swat any bees.”

Angela’s back began to become very warm and her blouse was weighed down. She could feel a lot of bees walking around on her back. Inside she was scared, but the man’s warm but firm voice calmed her.

“Jacques! Get me a nuc (a five-frame hive for a new colony of bees) with a honey, a pollen frame, a brood frame and a queen clip.”

Jacques Boudreaux was a sixty-three-year-old Cajun. He was five feet four, with a grizzled spotty complexion and had a head of stark white hair. He had been born on the Atchafalaya river near Morgan City Louisiana. He was a very educated Cajun, having graduated with a Master’s Degree in Entomology. He could affect a strong Cajun accent when he wanted, but usually sounded like an old Mississippian.

“On it Boss,” a guy with a French Cajun voice said.

Dan walked up to the girl, giving her a warm smile, “Hi I am Dan McNeil and you seem to be wearing a swarm of bees. What’s your name again?”

She stood still and said, “I am Angela Parsons. I saw your help wanted sign and came to check it out.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen, almost seventeen in August.”

He guessed she was a tall fourteen or maybe fifteen. He would have called her out on it, but he wanted to keep her calm.

“Do your parents know where you are?”

“They are looking down at me right now from heaven. They passed away three and a half years ago. I ran from a foster home, a long time ago.”

Dan knew about the burgeoning problem of kids living on the street. Angela was the first he had met.

“When was the last regular meal you ate?”

“I guess it was at Roanoke, Virginia. I stayed in a shelter there for a week. I left about two days ago.”

Jacques returned and handed Dan the things he had asked for. Then he backed off and turned on his Go Pro 5, videoing his boss at work.

“Now I’m not going to cop a feel, but I am going to start collecting the bees off you. Things could get a little intimate. You’re not allergic to bee stings, are you?”

“I hope not, since I’ve been stung a couple of times already.”

Dan walked around her and kept talking to her as normally as possible. “Why did you run away, did they beat you?”

“No, my last fosters were just ok.” She hesitated to tell him the whole truth, but decided to push on a bit. “They wouldn’t let me be who I really am.”

Dan was a little confused, “What? Who are you?

“Can I tell you the truth without you getting mad.”

“I can’t say I don’t get mad at people. I don’t tolerate fools, but yes I promise not to get mad at you.”

“I’m transgendered. A girl in a boy’s body. I was born Alan Parson, but I prefer Angela. My parents just loved the Alan Parsons Project.”

“Ok, I can’t say that I am an expert on the subject of transgender children, being you are the first transgender person that I know personally. I am looking for the queen bee now. I think this is a swarm from one of my hives. When things get too crowded hive the old queen and half the bees in the hive leave to allow a new queen to set up house.”

Dan slowly separated the bees with his bare hands, digging gently into the biggest mass of bees. Somewhere near the middle of the mass is where you will generally find the queen. Bees don’t go madly about stinging people. They will sometimes sting to protect their brood, their food and idiots that greatly disturb them. If you handle calm bees gently, they will usually just ignore you.

“Don’t you usually fumigate bees to handle them?” Angela asked.

“You mean smoke them? I would, but that would scatter some of them. You don’t want them crawling somewhere the sun don’t shine, do you?”

“Not really. Just do what you need to do.”

“Ah there is the queen. She’s on your spine right between your shoulders. Stay still I’m going to catch her in a queen clip. Boy is she a beautiful queen. Just stay calm, girl.”

Dan took the clip. It looks sort of like a butterfly clip girls use to hold their hair in a ponytail, only it boxes up a queen bee without hurting her. He moved in and caught the queen with three other bees. He came around in front of Angela to show her.

“She looks to be a strong cross between an Italian bee and a Caucasian bee. She is the large dark bee in the clip, can you see her.”

“Wow she really is pretty. What are those stringy things? Is she hurt?”

“No, she has just been mated today. Those stringy things are endophallus organs pulled out of the drone bees. That is how they pass on their genetics.”

“That’s got to hurt the drones,” she giggled.

“Yep two to five seconds of ecstasy and then the agony of death,” Dan said, laughing.

Dan took the queen in the clip and rubber banded it in a wooden frame, which he put in the nuc.

“Aren’t you going to let her go?”

“Not today, I want that queen and the swarm to call that nuc home and begin to work the brood first. I’ll let her go in a couple of days. Her bees will feed her through those gaps in the clip.”

“What is a nuke? Is that a bomb.”

“No nuc is beekeeper slang for nuclear hive, spelled N U C. Bees need a warm dry place to hang their hats. A nuc provides them a warm, dry, safe home to live in.”

Angela giggled again, “I didn’t know bees wore hats. Ow, that one got me in the armpits.”

“It happens. I won’t tell you the worst place that I have been stung, it hurt like the devil.”

Angela giggled again, she knew where he was talking about, “Ruined your love life for a few days, didn’t it?”

“Yes and no. I am a lot like you, only it was my wife and daughter. They died in Starkville in a car accident going to Mississippi State University, while I was in New York on business. It was about five years ago.”

“Oh, I am so sorry.” Angela said, fearing she opened an old wound.

“No problem. Life goes on,” Dan said, a little wistfully.

Angela could tell he was a little hurt by it, but he was right life goes on. She could feel his pain, because she knew it too.

Dan began slowly brushing the bees off her back with his bare hands. The bees fell into the nuc and hid amongst the frames of the hive.

“I would guess that you had about ten thousand bees on your back. This is a very gentle hive.”

“Don’t tell me how many, now I can imagine being stung ten thousand times. How many times have you been stung.”

“Up to four or five times on some days that I work with my bees. Being stung comes with the job, if you know what I mean?”

In about twenty minutes he was down to the last ten or twenty stragglers, that just wouldn’t be caught. He took a bee brush, in hand.

“Ok there aren’t many left, but these bees just don’t want to go. I am going to pull your blouse out of your pants and away from your body and brush the rest away. So be warned you might get stung.”

Dan tugged her blouse, out of her jeans and pulled it away from her back. She felt him lightly touch her neck with the brush. He counted to three and in three relatively quick brushes he cleared almost all the rest of the bees. He put the lid on the nuc and Jacques came to take it away.

“Hang on a bit. Put your hair up in a bun around the hives. You have seven or eight bees caught in your hair. I am going to have to pick them out. Jacques put that nuc by my hives.”

He crushed the bees trapped in her hair and pulled them out one by one.

“Ok, your free of bees, how are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling fine, no hives, I am breathing ok. I’m just a little tender in places.”

“Come on inside my home. You can take a bath. Bees release a pheromone when they sting, to alert other bees. You need to wash it off.” which was true, but she also stank. “I will fix you something to eat too.”

He led Angela up to Samantha’s, his daughter, room. From her closet, he pulled out some jeans and a long-sleeved work shirt, along with a pair of her work boots.

“Sam’s bath room is there; her underwear is in the drawers. See if you can wear these things. You need to wear these boots, if you can, in the bee yard. Put the pant legs inside the neck of the boots and tie them up good. You can lock the bedroom door if you want, but nobody will disturb you. I will be downstairs, fixing you something to eat,” he said leaving her alone.

Angela set her backpack down and looked the room over. She loved this room from the flower print wall paper, to the dresser, vanity, bed stuffed with animals and framed pictures. This was a girl’s room. She undressed and checked out the dresser. Samantha had a lot of pretty things. She found some bras. Sam still had all her bras from 32AA to 36D. Angela found a heavily padded 34 B bra and grabbed some matching panties. She entered the bathroom and started drawing a bath. She couldn’t help but add some lavender bath salts, she found, to the tub.

Downstairs, Dan could hear when Angela started her bath. He figured that it would be a while, so he called his lawyer and had a hypothetical talk.

Angela was in heaven, she could have stayed in the bath for hours, except for the promise of food. Her stomach was basically empty right now. So even though she hated getting out of the bath, she did. The bra was a little tricky till she turned the bra around and fastened it up front. She then twisted it and got the straps over her shoulder. The panties fit well, being bikinis. She loved the nylon and lace. The shirt was a little big on her while the pants were a little tight at the waist and loose at the hips. Still she got them buttoned and zipped. She had to put tissue in the toes of the boots, plus wear two pair of socks to make the shoes fit right.

She looked at her reflection. She loved the illusion of boobs and wished that they were real. Maybe someday. She stopped and stuffed a couple of panties in each cup. It improved the look, not too big and not too little. The panties kept the cups of the bra from being mashed flatter. She smiled at herself as she put her hair in a bun. Her mom had taught her how to do a knot and a bun when she was still alive. Angela shed a tear. She dried her eyes and then headed downstairs, she was desperately hungry.

Dan was just pulling some biscuits out of the oven when Angela came in the kitchen. He had heard the old door opening.

“Butter these biscuits while they are still hot. I have some of my special honey for you. How do you like your eggs?”

Angela began buttering the biscuits, “Over medium, I can’t stand runny whites, but I like runny yolks.”

“I usually like mine that way or scrambled.”

Dan set an old one-quart mason jar of raw honey down of the table, “Try that with your biscuits and tell me what you think? Your breakfast will be ready in a minute.”

The honey was darker than she was used to and raw. Angela had never seen honey like this before. She took a honey spoon and drizzled some honey on the buttered biscuit. When she bit it her eyes got really big, the flavor just exploded in her mouth.

“Oh my god, this is good. I ain’t never tasted honey this good before.”

“When they process honey, they filter out the pollen and then pasteurize the goodness out of it, it loses something. Raw honey is better for you.”

By the time Dan set the plate of food down, Angela had already scarfed down three biscuits. The two eggs and four strips of bacon soon disappeared too along with another biscuit. Ideally, she shouldn’t have eaten more than two biscuits on a stomach not use to a lot of food, much less the eggs and bacon. The honey did wonders for her blood sugar levels. She felt a surge of energy. Her stomach ached a little from being stuffed, but she felt better than she had in a long while.

Dan eyes got huge as he saw her eat. The girl was almost in a frenzy as she shoveled, that is the only way he could describe the way she was eating, she was shoveling it down. Even Jacques, who was just a hair or two bigger than Angela, didn’t eat that fast and he was a fast eater. Dan had seen him finish off a three-pound platter of crawfish in ten minutes and eat dessert.

“Well if you are working for me, we have a lot of work to do before lunch time. It’s nine thirty and we have four hours of solid work to do. Follow me.”

“Yes sir,” Angela said, stuffing a last bit of honey biscuit in her mouth.

She got up and followed him out back to the warehouse, keeping a nervous eye on a row of about twenty hives. Dan found a pair of gauntlets for her, (long sleeve gloves, that beekeepers wear to protect their hands and forearms from stings) and a bee veil.

“My bees are plenty gentle enough to handle, but I want you to wear the gauntlets and veil till I know how well you handle being around them. When we get around a wild swarm we may both suit up in bee suits, but around here you won’t need a bee suit.”

Angela put the gauntlets and veil on. The veil was support by a Styrofoam pit helmet. Dan handed her some tools for her to stuff into her pockets, explaining what they were. He then handed her two buckets and they set out for his hives. Dan headed out without putting on any protective clothing.

They stopped short of the hives and he had Angela stuff the smoker with old dried leaves, of which there were thousands on the ground. Dan stuffed some more in and showed her how to light them. They approached the hives on an angle coming in behind the hives. Dan took the smoker and lightly smoked the bees to scatter them. He smoked the front and around the lid.

“These hives are my special hives. With a couple of exceptions, they are all direct offspring of my original hives, that I started here. I have been bee keeping since I was twelve, but these hives are from when I graduated from Ole Miss. Hand me the hive tool please,” Dan said. “Always approach the hives from the sides or the back. Bees make a sort of glue, called propolis. It is a mixture of tree sap and a secretion from one of their glands. Tree sap not nectar. Without a hive tool, I don’t think me and Jacques together could open some hives by hand.”

Dan inserted the hive tool, which is like a small wrecking bar/scrapper and pried in a gap, to loosen the hive cover. Angela could hear the creaking as the propolis cracked.

“There are many wrong ways to open a hive and one right way. After you loosen the cover, reach forward and raise it up away from you. If the bees swarm out it will be away from you,” He said demonstrating the procedure.

Dan went over a hive inspection step by step with Angela explaining what he was doing and why. Angela stood about four feet away and watched carefully as Dan worked. He showed her the various frames of the hives, what honey they had, the pollen stores if any, the eggs the queen laid, the capped brood, and pointing out the queen. The queen was a golden brown and had a white dot on her back.

“The white dot on her back indicated that she was born in 2016.” Dan said.

He stuck a piece of duct tape on top of the cover after her reassembled the hive and made some quick short-hand notes on what he had seen in the hive.

As they went from hive to hive Angela began to creep closer to Dan so she could better see what he was doing and how. She began anticipating what he needed and by the sixth hive Dan had her doing the inspection. She was nervous, but Dan’s presence gave her the impetus to go on. The ninth hive had a small to moderate infestation of small hive beetles.

“See that small insect there,” Dan indicated by pointing. “That is a small hive beetle. If they are left unchecked they will ruin a hive. My bees have them corralled up top, but let’s give them a little hand.”

He had Angela insert several beetle traps in the hive. While he placed a couple of beetle strips in the hive and sprayed the ground under the hive with beneficial nematodes.

“That was a good hive last year, but it got weak over the winter. I should have been into this hive weeks ago. I was just too tied up.” Dan made notes on the hive and on his smart phone to check back in a couple of days to see how they were doing.

“Hives are like that. They are strong in the late spring and early summer, but they taper off in August and September. By October they are beginning to winter. Bees won’t fly below about sixty-two, they begin to cluster in the hive in the fifties and when the temperature is forty or below, they will cluster tightly for warmth. Bees create warmth by vibrating their wings and bodies if they have enough carbohydrates, that is honey, sugar water or bee candy in their hives. If it is too cold they will starve to death with a hundred pounds of honey in their hives. If the inside of the hive gets too cold, they stop moving and begin starving. Late February here, my bees began making some early flights to scout out the lay of the land and see if anything is blooming.”

The next ten hives, Dan had Angela begin queen spotting. She started off slowly finding the queen, but then she got the knack of things and began spotting the queen before Dan. She spotted a queen with a green dot on its back.

“That is an old queen, she was born in 2014. Queen bees can live three to five years, while worker bees live about forty-two days.” Dan said.

He looked closely at the brood frames. The queen was still laying eggs like a banshee, but made notes about possibly re-queening the hive later this year.

Then they came onto a hive that had half the bees it should have. They both couldn’t find a queen and there were several queen cells that were open, while one was still incubating.

“I think we have found the hive that swarmed on you Angela. The hive was too big and apparently, the queen was dying. Put the hive back together and we will check on it in a week and see if there is a new queen on the throne.”

They finished up their inspection at about two and headed back to the warehouse. Dan showed her where to put her things and where to clean up a bit. He went into the office to make some notes. Ten minutes later they were headed to the house.

“So, what do you think about this job. Is this something you would like to learn to do?”

Angela thought for a few seconds, “I really liked working with you and I liked what you taught me. I just don’t have any place to stay.”

“I hypothetically talked to my lawyer. That was one of the things we talked about. You basically are emancipated. Your fosters haven’t provided you any money or support in the last six months, right?”

“Right.”

“There could be problems if you lived with me, you know a sex abuse claims, type thing and me with no legal custody over you, but I came up with a solution. I have another property with an apartment. You would work here and get paid. You would live there and rent would be you looking after the property and doing a little cleaning. I haven’t used that place in twenty years. It could be dreadful. When you get to seventeen we will get you a driver’s license and get you legally emancipated. You wouldn’t have to go into any foster home. You could live like you choose. What do you think?”

Angela started crying. She didn’t know if this was a miracle yet, but it was the closest she had ever been to a miracle. Dan was worried that he had gone too far too fast with the girl. He just didn’t want her to go back to living on the street. He couldn’t save all the homeless kids, but he could save one, this one.

“Deal!” Angela said. “I don’t mind living alone and it has been good, working here.”

“Ok. Clothes, pack up everything in Sam’s old room. It is doing no good sitting there collecting dust. Take it with you. She has some suitcases or you can use mine for a few days. Take whatever you want from her room. It’s not doing me any good and I am sure she would want someone to use her things. Holler when you get done. I will fix us some lunch.”

“Do you have some large garbage bags, that is all the suitcase I need right now.”

“There should be a box just beneath the sink.”

Angela found an unopened box of heavy weight leaf bags. She took it and headed to Samantha’s old room. First thing she loaded up all the underwear. That is the thing she missed the most living on the streets and in shelters. They only passed out basic stuff. She did put the other girl’s 36D bra’s in another stack. They were pretty, but there was no way she could wear them and stuff the cups.

She found a box of toys for girls, she wasn’t so innocent that she didn’t know what the toys were. A couple were just plain huge and one was odd. It was a dildo with a knob on the backside, it took a few minutes to figure out a girl would use it on another girl.

In the closet, she found a range of sizes from too small for her to clothes that might fit, to some really nice things she could grow into. She bagged everything. She did put the things she thought she could wear now, including work clothes and shoes, into a couple of suitcases she found. The girl had a lot of jeans and long-sleeved shirts.

She also cleaned out the bathroom, she got combs, brushes, body scrubbers, shampoos, conditioners, bath salts, razors, deodorants, bath cloths, towels, tampons and panty-liners. She also found six months of Birth Control pills, she took them too. She raided the girl’s vanity and emptied it too.

She cleared off the dresser top

Under the bed, she found a nice, but old laptop computer. Dan had said to clear everything out, but she would ask before she took that. She was surprised to find a shotgun on the other side of the bed. She didn’t take that.

It was close to five thirty when she began lugging bags downstairs.

“Samantha had an old laptop, can I take that?”

“Are you sure? That thing has to be at least eight years old.”

“I haven’t worked on a computer since I was twelve, so if it works we are about even.”

“Sure, I will get a new one for the office over there, but you can have it. If there is stuff on it that would embarrass me, I don’t want to know about it. Ok.”

Angela thought she knew what he meant, after finding the toy box, “I understand. Did you know she had a shotgun?”

“We all have them, for home defense. Leave that here till I teach you to shoot. We do get bears and some wandering vandals at times. Bears love honey, bees produce honey.”

They ate dinner and then loaded up a new suburban with the bags. Dan then drove over to his other property. It was about four miles farther out of town, but fairly hidden by trees. Angela had spent the night about a half mile away from there. They turned off the main road and Dan handed Angela a key to unlock the gate. The suburban crossed between the gate and Angela nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a loud buzzer. Dan was laughing as she closed the gate behind them.

“What was that loud noise?”

“That my dear was your door bell. This place is surrounded by trees, so you can’t see someone coming. When I worked here, I didn’t want someone to drive up on me, unnoticed. That cattle guard triggers the buzzer when someone drives over it.”

They drove just under a quarter of a mile.

“That building to your left is a Bee shed. I will tell you about it later. There is your honey barn and there is the warehouse/office/apartment.”

They drove up to the office door. Dan let them in. The lights worked. The office was about 300 square feet. It had a large picture window facing the parking lot and there were a half dozen dry erase board along the other three walls, with various pieces of office furniture throughout. It was very dusty but not really trashed. Dan checked the phones, they still worked.

“You start working at my place on Monday, so for the next four days clean this office and your apartment. Your apartment is through that door.”

Angela followed Dan through the door to the apartment. It was a one room efficiency. To the left was a kitchenette and a door to the warehouse. To the right under a window was a full bed and night stands. Along the wall they entered through was a desk. The far wall had a dresser, a closet, a pantry and the door to the bathroom. Although it was one room, it was larger than the office and it was a little less dusty. The bathroom only had a sink, toilet and shower. Besides the iron stains in the toilet, the floors needing a good mopping and the shower scrubbed, it was the cleanest room. The kitchenette needed cleaning. The refrigerator was surprisingly clean and it was cold. The microwave was clean and operational as was the induction stove. The water worked and there was hot water.

“Can we unload into the warehouse? I need food, sheets for the bed and cleaning supplies.”

“Sure, let’s get busy.”

He went to the desk and pulled on a yucky picture. Behind the picture was a key safe. Dan opened the key safe and pulled out a ring of keys.

“These will be your keys. You can unlock everything on this property with these keys. Put them in your pocket” He said handing her the keyring that held about fifteen keys.

He unlocked the warehouse bay door and then he drove the suburban inside. Angela lined up the bags by what she knew was in them and what she would need soonest.

Dan went around the corner and checked out the washer and dryer that was behind the bathroom. He showed Angela how to use them.

After unloading the suburban, they drove to the nearest Wally World. Dan bought her everything she needed for cleaning and sleeping. For food, she selected two weeks of the basic foods and microwave dinners. She explained that she hadn’t been allowed to cook in foster care, when Dan inquired.

When they returned to Angela’s new home, they cleaned and filled the fridge and proceeded to make the apartment livable. Dan used a shop vac to clear up the dust, while Angela attacked the bathroom. They mopped, scrubbed the walls, cleaned the kitchenette and made up the bed.

They sat when they were mostly done and talked about what they wanted to do tomorrow. Dan left when Angela fell asleep talking to him. She woke briefly when the Suburban rolled over the cattle guard.

Angela woke at about five. Since she had been living on the streets, she never got much sleep. It didn’t pay to be a heavy sleeper when someone could sneak up on you. She got up to use the restroom and then went to the kitchen. She was surprised to see a gallon jug of McNeil’s raw honey, by the sink. She cooked a can of biscuits and had milk, biscuits and honey for breakfast.

She thought about taking a shower, but she was going to get dirty today, so she skipped the shower. She took her keys and unlocked and opened the whole warehouse so it could air out. Angela took two of Samantha’s cotton scarfs, she covered her hair with one and her nose and mouth with the other before she attacked the office.

With a moistened wash rag, she began at the top of the walls and worked her way down using an articulated ladder to get all the way to the drop ceiling and to the ceiling fans. She was basically just knocking the dirt onto the floor and office furniture. She had finished the walls and the ceiling fans when she heard the buzzer go off several times.

A large flatbed truck and two pickup trucks pulled up, with about eight or ten people, luckily, she saw Dan at the wheel of the deuce and a half flatbed. Angela smiled and waved at Dan. He got out of his truck and waved back.

“I am surprised to see you up an at it already. We worked till almost midnight last night.”

“Living on the street, I didn’t sleep much. I don’t know when I woke, but it was still dark.”

“Jake, get those two mules running in the warehouse. Amanda get to mowing and cleaning up the yard. Bill hit the office and get it clean, Brenda hit the bee shack and the honey barn, get them clean…” Dan said, issuing orders to everyone he brought. “Angela come with me, we are going to build some bee platforms. We are going to start you a hive.”

Everybody got busy as bees working on their assignments. Angela helped Dan measure out four bee platforms. Dan setup up stakes and began to dig post holes with a post hole digger. After watching how Dan did it, Angela tried her hand at it. On her first try, the digger just bounced off the hard-packed dirt Dan just had to laugh and Angela just stuck her tongue out at him. She got it stuck in the second time and kept it up. Dan finished off three post holes and the one Angela was working on. He cut the 4x4 and had Angela hold them in place as he leveled them. They then packed in the dirt, rechecking the level when they finished and installed crossbars to hold the hives up off the ground.

Angela didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but she took orders and kept doing it.

A Kawasaki Mule rolled out the back of the shop and over to where Dan and Angela were working on the third platform.

“Boss I got this one working, I need to rebuild the engine on the other one, moisture got in the cylinder and it’s seized up.”

“Okay put it on the back on my flatbed and take it back to the shop, get it running but do it right. Replace the engine if you have to.”

About ten, Jacques drove up in his truck towing a large bar-be-que pit. He set up by the office and began cooking burgers and hotdogs. The flatbed truck left with the mule on it.

When the people finished one job, they found another job that needed doing without being asked. When Dan and Angela finished, they went into the warehouse and began checking things out. He showed her where all the switches were and where the breaker box was.

“These hive boxes, frames, bottom boards, inner covers and top covers all need cleaning and sanitizing, Angela. I will show you how to do that Monday at my warehouse. You can clean these up, when you work around here.” Dan said. “These six pallets of bees’ wax you can do whatever you want with, the wax it’s yours, but don’t throw it away. It’s worth eight to twenty dollars a pound for virgin wax. It needs to be melted and processed a couple of more times to get them totally clean. I will show you how to do that. This area is your wood working area. You can build your own hives, frames and such. Don’t use the equipment till you learn to use the machines. This is your walk-in freezer. We freeze our hives, frames and such during the off seasons. Freezing kills, small hive beetles, mites, wax moths and such, it gets down to forty below in there. You can’t lock yourself in, you can open the door from the inside.”

Angela followed Dan out the rear bay door.

“There is your incinerator, it runs on propane. There will be times you will need it.”

“This is your honey barn. After you harvest honey, you can extract it and bottle it.” Dan said, pointing out the various equipment from the decapper, storage tanks and extractor. “You won’t get any honey this year but…”

“This is your Bee shed. This building has a lot of functions dealing with bees and bee health. I will show you mine and you can decide if you want to go down those lines.”

“Here is the wax Melter. I built this when I was into dipping my hives and frames in paraffin wax. Don’t process bees wax here. I can teach you that later, if you want. It works better than paint alone, but it isn’t commercially viable to do on a large scale. It runs on propane.”

“You have three propane tanks; a man will be by Friday to pressure test them and to fill them.”

“A man will come by tomorrow to check out your septic tank and your drainage field tomorrow.”

From there they went back to the office, it was clean and in operational order. There were two computers there and an LED TV that was on.

“You got things looking good Bill.”

“The satellite dish is setup and going, I have this place patched in on the wireless internet. The computers, mirror server and printers are running. I was working on updating the dry erase boards, as the server syncs up with ours. Leave the server running 24/7 and turn off the computers when you are through with them.”

Dan turned to Angela, “We aren’t invading your space soon, but there are times when I lose power and internet while you have power and internet. I can run my business from here. You can also use the computers, internet and television in this room.”

Bill showed her how to long into the internet, helped her set up e-mail accounts, gave her limited access to the company business server and taught her how to look up information on their server. Dan gave her a list of phone numbers that she could call if she needed something.

A man came out of her apartment pulling a machine.

“Hi, I am Charlie Dunn. I just finished steam cleaning your mattress, box springs, couch, bathroom, plus your air ducts and all the hygienic surfaces.”

At twelve thirty everyone stopped what they were doing as Jacques rang the dinner bell. Angela got the chance to meet all the people who had helped get her place clean and in order, as they went down the line to get some burgers and dogs. They all greeted her and treated her like an adult. They guys shook her hand and the girls all hugged her.

Jacques had potato salad, beans, burgers, hot dogs, buns and a fried pastry dipped in a honey glaze. It was a help yourself buffet, set up on folding tables. Angela had to giggle as the people looked like a mass of bees feeding on a honey comb. She purposely went through the food line last. She got some potato salad, beans and a burger all the way and four honey bites, grabbing a diet coke on her way to a table that had been set up for eating.

Angela sat with the girls that had been working. All the girls wanted to know everything about her. She told them the sanitized truth, leaving out her transgender status. The girls told her what they did for Dan. Brenda Swanson was a beekeeper, she worked in the bee building. She produced the queen bees Dan needed and made up bee packages with queens that they sold to local beekeepers. She also did all the checks for Nosema Carenae, Varro mites, European Foulbrood, American Foulbrood and other bee diseases. Amanda was a beekeeper, but she liked to mow and keep the bee yards clean and clear. She would fill in when Dan needed an additional beekeeper, she just didn’t like to travel. Susan Jones was an office worker, she was glad to get out of the office today with Bill. She did the accounts, scheduling, payroll and such.

The food was wonderful, especially the honey bites. Angela really loved them.

When the feed was over everyone helped in on cleaning up. Jacques helped by hauling all the trash away with his equipment.

Jake came back with the flatbed, loaded down with a dozen nucs. Angela worked with Dan on how to setup the bee nucs and Jake worked on his own.

“Now this Nuc contains the queen that adopted you. Set it down where ever you want it.”

Angela choose the platform nearest the warehouse. Fifteen minutes later they had all twelve nucs in place.

“These are your hives, not mine. If you work with them, they will teach you beekeeping. They are the best teacher there is. Listen to them. All of them have honey and pollen and are good for a few days. Early tomorrow, lite your smoker and unplug all the hives to let the bees get out. Also in your number one hive, let your queen out of the clip.”

Dan then taught Angela how to drive the mule. He had her drive around her graveled parking lot. It was obvious that she was scared for the first few minutes and then she began to have fun. He then had her drive the whole property. She drove to the tree line and followed it around his property.

“This field hasn’t been worked in three years, I need to see what it looks like. Thirty years ago, I lined my entire property in bee friendly trees and I sowed the open spaces with Clover, Alfalfa, and perineal wild flowers for my bees.” Dan said Identifying the plants and trees. The Clover and Alfalfa looked good, the wild flowers needed reseeding.

Many of the trees were just coming into bloom. Dan explained what would bloom next and so forth and which plants would bloom when. He told her who her neighbors were, where they lived and what they did. It took them thirty minutes at a slow pace to come back around the front.

“Another way I check out my bee resources is by a drone.” He said, as he pulled a drone and a laptop out of his truck.

He booted the computer and set up his six-rotor drone, “This is a professional drone. You can autonomously send it out in a 400-foot circle and its camera will transmit to this laptop.”

Dan sent the drone out. It autonomously traveled in a 400-foot radius circle at fifty feet above the trees.

Angela and Dan watched the screen of the laptop. There were trees around many open fields. Dan stopped the drone and pointed out a field of lavender.

“Your bees will be spending their summer in this field when all that lavender comes into bloom. I can’t go far enough but you see that tree line. There is an apple orchard in bloom.”

“How far will bees travel for nectar and pollen?” Angela asked.

“Two to two-and-a-half-mile radius. That use to be a stock pond, the wall toward the riverside has collapsed. We need a water source for your bees. Open buckets and troughs won’t do, I will come up with a watering method.”

When the drone returned, they put it up and went to the office. Dan downloaded the MP4 files into the computers. He showed her how to watch the video on the computer.

“Angela, I talked to a friend who is at Mississippi State about you. She would like to come out to talk to you and offer you some help. She is a clinical psychologist and she has counseled transgender kids. If you want to see her, I will call her and she can be here on Saturday. What you tell her stays with her. She won’t tell anybody. It’s up to you would you like to speak to her?”

Her mom, took her to see a child psychologist before, so she knew the routine. They had talked about the whole process, not in graphic detail, still she got the picture. She had liked the person her mom had picked, “Yes I will talk to her.”

“Good I will call her tonight. I have got to get back to my office to get some paperwork done. Lock up before bed and call me if you need something.”

Angela kissed Dan’s cheek before he left. She parked the mule in the warehouse, and closed the bay doors. She then walked to the outbuildings and checked to see if they were secure.

Back in her apartment, she looked around, it looked a lot better than it did twenty-four hours ago. It even smelled better now, but she didn’t. She pulled in bags that contained hygiene supplies, underwear, shorts and t-shirts. She selected some and went to the bathroom. She really would have loved a bathtub but she was thankful for the shower. The warm water felt good and it was nice being clean. She took time to shave her legs and her armpits. She nicked her legs a couple of times, pressure and a bit of tissue paper stopped the bleeding, but she did a fair job shaving.

Dressed in panties, a bra which she had to pad out, shorts and T, she got to work. She first sorted out the underwear that she would use, discarding the overly ambitious bras. The stuff she could use went into the dresser the rest she re-bagged. She would need some more bras. There was a lot of shapewear, a couple of corsets and corset like things that she wanted to check out later that went into the dresser too. Next, she put the sleepwear, sportswear, t-shirts and sweaters that had been folded in also. The dresser was stuffed when she finished.

Next, she pulled in the bags of clothes, which she sorted out on the couch, into piles of work clothes, everyday clothes and dress up clothes. The closet was big, but not big enough for everything. She began a second sort by size. She tried many of the clothes on. For the fitted clothes, her waist was just an inch or two too big. She stripped down to bra and panties and went back to the dresser. She pulled out a high waist spanx shaping brief. The brief wasn’t easy to get on. It had a lot of spandex in it and was quite tight at the waist. She did like the way it looked on her. It held her tummy flatter and pulled her in on the sides. What she liked best about it was the fact that the little flesh between her legs was quite hidden. She practiced unsnapping the crotch and snapping it back together. She decided to wear something like this as often as possible. She was small, but now that she was eating, she was afraid of looking more like a boy.

She got back to the clothes and found that the spanx had made a big difference. About a third of the clothes had to go. They were from when Samantha was thirteen or fourteen and were way too small. Most of the newer dresses fit nicely. She hung them up on one side of the closet. Skirts was another story some had to go, there were mini-skirts she couldn’t believe Dan knew about. Angela’s mom would have skint her alive for wearing them. Sam had belts as large as some of the skirts. The spanx helped the waist of some of the skirts Angela wanted to keep. What Angela really liked were some of the ladies’ slacks. She liked the look, the feel and the way they fit her, she just need more rump and hips. Angela hung up the skirts, slacks and tops she was going to keep, along with a real nice skirt/pant/jacket suit. She then went through the work clothes. She had plenty that fit her, beekeepers didn’t much go for tight fitting clothes, which bees could easily sting through.

She bagged what she couldn’t use or want and carried them back to the warehouse. Next came Samantha’s makeup and hair care products. There wasn’t enough room in the bathroom so it had to be the desk. She needed a mirror on the desk. Everything fit in and on the desk. Sam’s jewelry went on the dresser. She had a lot of pierced earrings, Angela would get her ears pierced or pierce them herself.

Bag by bag, she kept what she wanted and moved the rest out. Lastly, she set the laptop up on the desk and plugged it in to charge. She had been around computers, but her fosters only allowed her limited supervised use. The charge light came on and she just let it charge.

She went to the fridge and made a small sandwich to eat with a glass of milk. After cleaning up, she checked locks and then went to bed. Someone had set up a clock radio, so she knew it was ten thirty. She needed to get a watch. She figured out how to set the alarm for six and went to sleep.

The next morning, she woke about fifteen minutes before the alarm. She took care of her needs. Looking into the mirror above the sink, her teeth looked horrible. She needed to start brushing her teeth, she had toothpaste, she just needed a toothbrush.

In the office, she found a pen and paper to make a list of what she needed. Toothbrush was the first item.

She dressed in work clothes. In the office, she checked out the TV. She found the ‘Weather Channel’. She knew roughly where she was, but not the nearest city or the name of the roads. She turned on the computer and logged into the company server. There it was on the company’s homepage. McNeil’s Bee farm. Dan McNeil President, blah blah blah, box 2459 rt396 Bolton, MS. She booted the browser and called up a google earth. She was able to locate his farm and worked her way to where she was.

She went to her hives a little after seven, wearing a veil. She stopped at her hive first and unblocked the entrance. There was a light rush out. When the exit settled down. She took off the top, located the queen, in the queen clip. She released the queen on the top bar. The queen seemed to stand on the top bar looking at Angela, then she slipped quickly between frames and got to work.

It was just a simple matter of unblocking the entrances of the remaining hives. Most reacted very well to being release and set about scouting. The last hive didn’t sting her, but several bees buzzed her closely, showing their displeasure at being caged before the call of nectar and pollen changed their attitude.

Angela walked a few yards away looking at the bees at each hives entrance, observing their behavior. Bees were coming and going just minutes after being released. Some of the bees had already found the Red Maple that was blooming just behind them. Her hive seemed to be in full forage mode. Her boss said, listen to the bees. She knew what he meant. The bees wouldn’t actually talk to her, but she could learn to read their behavior by listening to them. All the bees were ignoring her as they had more important things to do.

She walked back to the office. She had noticed one of the dry erase boards had “Bee Calendar” written across the top. She got the day and date off the computer and looked at the board. It was February 26. There was a blue line from the 24 th of February to 18 th of March marked Red Maple nectar flow and pollen. Early March also had hive inspections and many other tasks that needed to be done for the hive, like initiate swarm prevention measures, test for Varroa levels, etc. Other major pollen and nectar flows were listed and many other tasks throughout the months all the way to December 31 st.

Another board had a calendar marked Weather Conditions, each day had a line for minimum and maximum temperatures, wind speeds and directions, sky conditions, barometric pressure, precipitation and humidity. She needed one of those weather station thingies that they had in their earth science classes. She logged on the server and saw a pull-down tab for weather. McNeil’s Bee Farm had the current conditions listed and the year total for precipitation.

There was a large map of the area with individual circles around her apartment, McNeil’s Bee Farm, and three other minor bee keepers in their section of the map. The map’s legend told that the circles were about two-and-a-half-mile radius circles. Her bees overlapped a little with Dan’s bees and someone named Jack Brown. Also, areas were highlighted and the vegetation identified.

Another board was for pollination services and agreements, locations, deliveries of bees, number of hives, what they were pollinating, date due, water source, date return, in route and beekeeper assigned. At the top was the number of hives available, her jaw dropped when she saw the number twenty-one-thousand hives. Angela went back to the computer, but she didn’t have access to this data.

Another board listed four wintering farms, number of hives at each farm and condition of bees.

Another board listed bee health by location.

Wow, Angela thought, beekeeping was much more complicated, than it seemed, at first. She started the second computer and began researching beekeeping. She started by looking for the videos listed on You-Tube and began creating a playlist.

She started watching some of the videos, quickly rejecting some of the Ma and Pa small beekeepers and subscribing to some sponsored by this department of agriculture or another. She had fifteen subscriptions going by the time she received a phone call. The septic tank man called. She drove to the gate to let him in and got back to her studies.

She found several good series of videos by master beekeepers. She would talk to Dan about them, as some contained contradictory information about certain aspects beekeeping, but they seemed to provide consistently good information about general procedures and were in line with what she had already learned. The more she watched the more she realized what she didn’t know. She began a word document listing questions that she had.

Come noon she nuked a broccoli and rice casserole to go with a bologna and cheese sandwich. She studied the boards more closely as she ate and tried to make heads or tails out of the information present.

She cleaned up from her meal, and changed into a mini-skirt with a poet’s blouse and a pair of wedge sandals. She used Sam’s red lipstick. Angela also grabbed a nail file and a bottle of deep plum nail polish. She did her nails as she watched some more videos. There were hundreds of videos, so she wasn’t going to run out of information anytime soon.

At about four, the septic man knocked on the office door. Angela went out to talk with him.

“I checked your septic tank, and your field lines. I pumped your tank and added a bio-culture to it. I ran a rooter down your main field lines, they really needed that. I got all kinds of roots out of the line. You are good to go now. I suggest you add the recommended bio-culture to your toilet at least once a month. Don’t flush any feminine hygiene products down the toilet. They won’t degrade. The way your septic system in designed, you don’t have to worry about backups inside you building, there is an over flow behind the warehouse. Call me if you have any difficulties or you have an overflow.”

Angela signed off on the Man’s work. He certainly smelled like he had been working.

While she was outside, she walked by her hives, all of them seemed to be as busy as bees. Her special hive, as she thought of the one that got her into this, was the busiest of them all. The bees were visiting all the flowering trees behind the hives. She drove the mule to lock the gate and then drove around the field. The fields weren’t blooming, according to the board they wouldn’t start flowering till sometime in April or May, but there were bees in the trees along the fence line.

She parked the mule in the warehouse and saw that she had a quarter of a tank. It was after five so she called Dan.

“Hello Dan,”

“Hello Angela, how are things going?”

“I opened all the hives up at seven and released my queen. The septic man came, he spent about seven hours working. He pumped the tank and rooted out the field lines. He said things were fine. Also do I have gas for the mule?”

“Yes, you have gas. You have a yellow flammable liquid storage locker by the side bay door. We put twenty gallons in there, yesterday. Keep track of how much you use and notify me when you get down to one full can. We will get you some more. How did the bees react to being released?”

“Most just ignored me and went about their business. One hive though had four of five bees that buzzed me. My hive was very well behaved.”

“That isn’t uncommon, but keep notes on which hives are aggressive towards you, or if they attack in swarm.”

“The bees all hit the trees all along the fence line.”

“That is their main source of nectar for now. You can see what is coming next on the bee calendar in the office.”

“I saw that. Is it possible to get one of those weather station things?”

“Sure, I’ll have Bill come out tomorrow and set one up. Mrs. Preston will be out on Saturday. She is the lady I told you about. Mark down on your calendar next Friday we will inspect your hives, and call me, any time of the day, if you need me. Brenda talked to me about setting up a queen operation at your site. She may be over tomorrow to talk to you.”

“Ok Boss,”

“One other thing, I will set up a bee fountain, tomorrow, over by the bee shed. They should be alright till then, you have a couple of creeks nearby.”

“Ok, thank you boss.”

“Bye, see ya.”

Angela locked up and sat in the office watching TV for an hour or so. Before she showered and changed into one of Sam’s sleep shirts. It felt so good sleeping on a bed that hadn’t been used by hundreds of people in a shelter.

The alarm woke her at six the next morning. She cleaned up and dressed in a cute skirt and blouse, before doing her makeup. She used the bathroom mirror which was awkward, carrying her makeup back and forth. Angela wished she knew how to curl her hair. She found a pair of high heeled sandals and put them on. It had been over three years since she had last worn high heels. She knew the basic’s and so she practiced walking for about fifteen minutes.

In the office, she checked the weather on McNeil’s homepage and checked that by what the ‘Weather Channel’ showed for their area. She made note of a cold front that was expected to pass through, within the next forty hours. The temperature was expected to drop to the low forties at night, with the highs in the low fifties before returning to the sixties on Tuesday. She noted on the dry-erase boards the current temperature as the min for today.

She studied the YouTube videos on Spring hive inspection, which was pretty much what she had done on Dan’s hives. She took special interest in the hives with supercedure cells and swarm cells. They also talked about how to spot a hive that is preparing to swarm and how to stop hives from swarming. She then watched a video on running a queen operation.

At about nine-thirty Angela had to drive to the gate and let Bill in. He drove his truck in with a sixteen-foot trailer, that had a pipe that was longer than the trailer. It also had a machine on the back.

Outside the office, she talked with Bill.

“I am going to set up the weather station on this drill stem. That will put it up about twelve feet above the top of the warehouse. I will set up the thermometer in a box by the tree line. The various modules will respond wirelessly to a receiver in the office which will be connected to the computer. You can check the weather on the receiver and on the computer. Next I am going to ditch witch a water line for the bee fountains the boss has coming in later today.”

“Sounds like you have a lot of work to do. Can I help in any way?”

“No, I got it in hand, it’s a one-man operation. It would be a real shame, seeing how nice you look today. I will say this, though. The Boss has really perked up since you have showed up. It was hard to get him doing anything but his bees. These past few days, it has been good to see him live and interact with people. You’re good medicine for him.”

“He told me about his family.”

“That took the heart out of him. He has been going downhill slowly. Oh, Brenda will be here about eleven. I need to get to work.”

Angela went back to her video on working a queen operation. She found it a fascinating video. When she finished that video, she looked at the bee calendar. Two weeks after tomorrow there was a bee clinic scheduled in Jackson and a URL was listed for the clinic. She went to the website and read all the information about the programs. She made a note to see if anybody was going, so she could go. She made notes of the programs she wanted to attend.

Brenda arrived right at eleven. She hugged Angela in greeting.

“Helloooo Angela,” She said, exaggerating the words. “How are you dear?”

“I am doing fine, I am still getting used to the place and getting it setup.”

“Yes, if you need any help call me. I know what it is like moving into a new apartment without anything. I lost a home to a fire and had to move into an apartment. The home was a total loss.”

“I can’t wait till I get my first paycheck. I already see items that I need. I need a toothbrush. A makeup mirror and I don’t know what else I need. I had to lean over the sink to apply mascara. That mirror is too high.”

“Dan must have mounted it so he could shave. He is six feet tall. I may be able to help you there. Like most women, I collect makeup cases and many have lighted mirrors in them. You did a pretty good job with your makeup.”

“I was twelve when mom passed away. She was teaching me hair and makeup. My fosters only taught me basic hair. I need to get my hair styled. It’s been nearly two years since I last had it worked on.”

“Get with Susan on your hair and makeup. She once worked in a salon, till it closed. Then she went to work with Dan. So, tell me what do you know about a queen operation.”

It was a silly question, since she was young and didn’t know anything about bees earlier than three days ago.

“I actually watched several YouTube videos on it just this morning.”

“Oh, which one?”

“It was by Gordon Young.”

“That is a good one. What I want to do is start what is called a queen castle system.” Brenda said, explaining what she meant and presenting various pictures about her operations over at Dan’s place.

“You have everything at Dan’s place why start another here?”

Brenda saw the map on the wall, “When our queens fly to mate, they go over this way. There are two other beekeepers there and there. Bees from here are too far away from there to mate with drones from those places. Jack Brown is here Dan’s bees can’t get to his bees and his bees can’t get to our bees. He runs a very good small operation of about thirty hives. We can improve both our stock of queens by moving some here. Genetic diversity is usually a desirable thing. Dan needs a lot of queens He has just over twenty-one thousand hives, and we go through several thousand queens in a year. We also sell queens in March and April. He has four other queen operations and we trade stock back and forth. Having a fifth can help us in a pinch if one sites has a disaster. A tornado last year damaged one of our sites. We were down to three for a month.”

“Do you want me to work it?”

“Oh dear. Not yet I will teach you, but I will be working with the queens. Put on your walking shoes and I will show you where I want to set up.”

Angela changed into a pair of Sam’s walking shoes and went with Brenda. Bill had the drill stem in the ground and was setting up some weather instruments on it. Brenda led her back behind the bee shed.

“I want to build a fenced in area around here and move about twenty-four hives here. Ten of them will provide me with brood and the rest will be my queen castles. I should be able to produce four hundred queens a month from here from March to October. I will be here four days a week. Checking on them when I get rolling. Only Dan and I will have the keys to my bee yard. Is that ok with you?”

“It’s Dan’s property, so I have no problem with it and it will be good seeing you here. Are you going to the bee clinic?”

“Yes, I will be there. I am teaching the queen castle there. Jacques and Dan will be there too.”

“Good I want to go also.”

“I will tell Dan, he should give you a ride, if not you can ride with me.” Brenda said, as they walked back to the office.”

Bill was backing out a ditch witch off the trailer to dig water lines. Inside the office, Brenda gave Angela a list of videos on YouTube that Angela should watch and a few sites the provided good information on bees.

“Let’s go get a burger and then I can help you with the few things you need. Dan told me to get you anything you need. I can use his business credit card.”

Brenda drove them to a Golden Arches to eat. She explained where everything was in the small town. They also talked bees as they ate. From Macdonald’s they hit Walmart. Brenda helped Angela get everything she needed. They picked up a makeup mirror, toothbrushes, teeth whitener, and many other things.

“Do you use pads or tampons dear?” Brenda asked.

“I have Tampex and Always Dri-liners.”

Brenda picked up two more packages of each.

“How about underwear?”

“I am good with panties, I need bras. Sam was way too big for me.”

“What size are you, dear?”

“I wear a 36B. I could use about four more.”

They picked out six more and some silicone cutlets. Angela got her ears pierced twice at the Walmart Jewelry counter.

Angela was ready to go, but Brenda seemed to be stalling.

“What is Dan doing at my apartment?” Angela asked.

Brenda began giggling, “What, you think something nefarious is going on?”

“Nefarious, no. Underhanded, no. Surprising, yes.”

Brenda looked at her watch, “Oh I am supposed to get you a cell phone on the company’s account. So, you can contact the boss when you are out in the field or he can contact you.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“And I am doing a very good job at doing it.”

“They are installing the bee fountains right.”

Brenda’s eyes got big, but she didn’t say a thing, but smiled. They hit the electronics counter and Angela was handed an LG Nexus phone with an Otter Case and put it on McNeil’s Bee Farm account. Brenda programed in a dozen work related phone numbers into the phone.

“We need to go to Dan’s home. I need to log you into his WIFI and download about a dozen apps you will need, for work. I am not stalling on this, you will really be able to use this phone and the apps while you are learning beekeeping.”

They paid up and headed to Dan’s office. Brenda took Angela’s phone and used a password to let it log into the WIFI there. For the next hour or so, she installed the apps she wanted, including a handful of games.

“Ok I am going to teach you how to send a group text,” Brenda said.

She went step by step, letting Angela do the work to setup the group text. She then told Angela to type in a message saying who she was and anything else she wanted to say. Angela texted “Hello I am Angela Parsons. Assistant Beekeeper to Dan McNeil.” And then she hit send.

“Now the whole group knows your name and has your phone number.”

“What is my phone number?”

Brenda’s phone beeped twice when the text message came through to her phone. She showed Angela her phone and she memorized her phone number. Then she took a picture of Angela and added the picture to Angela’s number.

In a minute, Angela began receiving test messages welcoming her, from other employees and beekeepers in the county.

Brenda showed her how to check her text messages and how to reply to them when necessary. One text was from Dan, which read, “Tell Brenda to bring you over to your place.”

Back at Angela’s place, they took her things into her apartment, before checking on what was done. They took the mule out beyond the bee shack. A group of guys were just finishing up on two bee fountains.

They were really two two-tiered bird baths, but the pools were filled with river rocks.

“Hey Angela, Brenda.” Dan said. “What do you think?”

“Hi boss,” Angela said. “I like them, why so far away from the warehouse.”

“To discourage robbing behavior. If the fountains were by the hives the wild bees will find the fountains and maybe begin a raid on your hives. Hives can die out if all their stores of honey and pollen are stolen.”

“What are the rocks for?”

“To give the bees someplace to land to get a drink. If they land on the water they’ll probably drown.”

“When will they run water?”

“As soon as you send Bill a text to turn on the water and the pumps.”

Angela texted Bill and within a minute the waster started to slowly flow. When the lower pool filled the fountains up top began to burble with water. Within minutes a stray bee found the water, got his fill and took off.

“By tomorrow this place will be busier than a Starbuck’s offering free latte’s.”

“Brenda, we fenced in your bee yard and built eight platforms.”

“I’ve ordered some new stock. I have four Russian’s and some Carniolans coming in next week. I will get them started over at your place and move them here when they get settled.”

“Good, I notified Jack that we will be operating from here. We will set up the hives when you are ready. Monday, we have a lot of work to do. I will pick you up at seven Angela. We begin shipping bees out to Ohio and Illinois in two weeks and to Wisconsin in a month. Check with Gene and Tammy, Brenda.”

“I will have five hundred Queens if they need them, if not we can sell the rest at the clinic. I should have thirty or forty queens from your number one hive. They should be ready for mating by Wednesday.”

“Angela, Monday you will be cleaning hives, tops, bottoms, inner covers and frames. Tuesday. you will be learning how to make bee cages for queen bees. Tomorrow is Saturday have fun people.”

“I am going to be out of state for two days, checking out a possible pollination contract. If you need something Angela, call Jacques, Bill, Brenda or Susan. Oh, here is your first week of pay Angela.” Dan said, handing Angela three hundred dollars. I am impressed by how hard you work. Keep it up. We will set you up a bank account the Monday after this Monday.”

Angela hugged Dan and had him blushing. When they headed out, there was about fifty bees getting drinks.

Angela Parsons got dressed in her spanx, jeans, bra stuffed with panties, long sleeve blouse, socks and work boots. She had a bowl of bran-flakes for breakfast sweetened with a tablespoon of honey. That stuff was addictive.

She stopped in the office to check the weather. The temperature at six fifteen was forty-eight degrees. The barometric pressure was twenty-nine point sixty-five and rising. It had rained during the night; the twenty-four-hour precipitation total was six-tenths of an inch. The wind was out of the northwest at twelve knots. The relative humidity was twenty-six percent and the dew point was fourteen degrees.

It was obvious that these numbers were important in some way. Angela would learn just what these numbers meant. She did know the temperature and wind speed meant it was a bad day to open a bee’s hive. She also knew that if the barometric pressure is falling, it was likely to indicate a storm might be brewing. She also knew that the relative humidity indicated just how much moisture was in the air and dew point was the temperature at which dew formed. She looked that one up on the internet. “Dew point: the atmospheric temperature (varying according to pressure and humidity) below which water droplets begin to condense and dew can form.” Ok, she basically knew what all the numbers meant. She made a point of recording the data on her dry-erase board. She just needed data from later in the afternoon.

She got Sam’s blue jean jacket, it was less worn and in better condition than her own and a quilted vest to keep her just a bit warmer. She remembered to unplug her fully charged phone and take it with her, clipped to Sam’s belt. When she went outside it was a bit crisp. There was no activity around the hives. She knew her bees were well fed and could handle the weather as it currently was, with no problems. The sky was light and the sun was waiting to just peak its head out. She walked to the gate and unlocked it. She walked to the fence line and turned and headed to the bee fountains. The water was gurgling, but there were no bees, drinking. She walked to the back yard behind the bee shed, where the queen operation would be. She saw an eight-foot-tall chain link fence, enclosing an area about twenty-five feet by forty feet, that had eight bee platforms.

Her arms were getting a little cold, so she headed back to the office. It felt good to get a walk in. Better now that she was well fed and had a warm place to go to.

In the office, she pondered how to spend her time. She wanted to learn, the thing she missed most since running away was school. Now she was getting a taste of why it was so important. She was learning what she didn’t know and needed to know. She made a list of the things she wanted to know.

1. Beekeeping
2. Weather
3. Math
4. Science
5. English
6. Biology

Now that she had internet access she believed that she could find some of the information. She just had to find the better sites. She knew the internet was full of junks sites and misinformation. Maybe the psychologist could help with that. Well many of the things on the list she needed more information before she committed to learning. So, she started watching beekeeping videos. She started at the beginning and began taking notes of import, on a writing pad. She replayed one video because it was interesting and just what she needed to know right now. It dovetailed with what Dan had taught her so far.

She found a funny man, who was a master beekeeper, he liked to tell jokes as he taught his students about bees. She realized that he used humor to keep his students focused on him as he passed on important information. He was talking about bee behavior and what it could tell the beekeeper. He showed bees that were in front of their hive. She held her backside up in the air and she was fanning her wings.

“I just put the queen in a clip with a bunch of her bees in a five-frame nuc containing drawn out comb. Most of the colony is still in the tree. These bees just came out on their front porch and are sending their sisters a flare. They are releasing Nasonov, that is a honey bee pheromone that is like saying come on girls, get your butt in gear and get on down here, ya hear.”

He then showed another clip of video from inside the hive. A bee was engaging in weird dance.

“These kids today think they have invented a new dance. This bee is doing what we beekeepers call a waggle dance. She’s telling her sisters. Hey girls, I just found some mucho grande grub. Get a move on it girls we got to feed the hive. That girl could stay in the hive and her sisters know how far and in what direction the food is located. She can even give those girls a taste of the grub so they know just what they are looking for. Now that is a dance. Now look over there that girl wasn’t present at the previous dance, but she is echoing the original dance so more of their sisters know where to look. Sort of like one of those flash mobs ya hear about.”

His methods were a little corny, but they were very effective at teaching the students.

Angela was watching him talking about another bee behavior when she heard the buzzer go off. She paused her video and walked outside the office. A lady in an old but well kept, ford mustang was driving up to the warehouse. She stopped a few yards away. The lady, was about forty to forty-five, a little taller than Angela. She appeared fit and had a nice shape. She was dressed much like Angela was only she had a navy P coat.

“Hello, I am Margaret Finch. I am looking for Angela Parsons.”

“Why is she missing? I am Angela Parsons.”

“Good Mr. McNeil asked me to come out and see you. That is some buzzer you got there. I heard it all the way out at the road.”

Angela got a wild hair up her backside and said, “You say you heard a buzzer. I didn’t hear anything.”

Margaret laugh a warm laugh, “Ah, your either deaf or you’re trying to pull one on me. How are you doing today?”

“I am doing pretty good today. Why don’t you come into my office?”

Margaret laughed again, “Now you are sounding like a therapist inviting a patient in. Lead on doctor Parsons.”

Inside the office, Angela took Margaret’s P-Coat and hung it on a coat tree. They sat in some office chairs.

“So, is this where you live?”

“Yes ma’am. There is an apartment just the other side of that door. I look after this place and Dan teaches me beekeeping.”

Margaret looked Angela over. She really needed help in her appearance. Her breasts looked like a girl stuffing her bra to make an impression. Other than that, she appeared to be what she presented.

“Dan didn’t tell me a lot about you, so why don’t you start at the beginning.”

“Well I started out as a baby, I don’t really remember much about those early days. I must have some memory block about my tine before I was four.” Angela laughed.

“You don’t have to go quite that far back Angela, but it is good to know that you didn’t fall out of the sky as a fully formed teenager.”

Angela told the lady her story starting from when she was six. Margaret laughed again as she got the Alan Parsons bit. She listened closely when Angela told her about her parents and the way they treated her. Angela got her backpack with her pictures and things to show Margaret. Alan indeed was dressed as Angela and was in a picture with her mom. She explained that her dad took the picture. There was another picture of the three of them together.

“You know you ain’t the first psycho I’ve talked to. Sorry I meant psychologist. I get those words mixed up all the time.”

“Sometimes those psycho’s fit the bill. We have really crazy people tending to people.”

“About the time that the picture with me and Mom was taken. She took me to a child psychologist. They first tried to talk me out of being a girl. I had him losing his temper. That was fun. Then she took me to a Dr. William Green, he is a good one.”

“Was he out of Baltimore?”

“He was about an hour away from where we lived, so maybe one of the suburbs. We did word associations and such. It has been four years or so since I have seen him.”

“Why?”

“Part of the reason I am here today. I was twelve and Mom and Dad were out on a date. I didn’t have a baby sitter. Any way there was a police chase and suspect hit their car. Dad died immediately, Mom lasted a week and I went into foster careless. The fosters could care less as long as they got their stipend. The first foster family I lived with was the worst. They tried beating the girl out of me. The next two only gave me boy clothes. The last pair were strange.”

“In what way.”

“I could only have four pair of pants, four pair of underwear, four T-shirts, four button up shirts and four pair of socks. I had a pair of running shoes and a pair of dress shoes. They weighed and measured us weekly. Our food was measured out in grams, nothing extra. No snacks, no desserts, no junk food, you ate what they provided or you didn’t eat. They kept logs on our development. The food was quote “wholesome”, but bland. They accounted for every penny, saving receipts. One hour of TV a day, no computer, for us that is, no video games. They had a large library of books we could read. They did eat what we ate, I will say that, only a lot more. A year of that home and I had to book it. There were four of us at six hundred dollars a kid per month. They spent about three hundred a month feeding all four of us. At least they did take us to doctors and dentists. There was no love in that house.”

“So where did you live after that?”

“On the street or in youth shelter in bad weather. I ate in soup kitchens when I could, I dumpster dived and learned to eat edible plants, like Dandelions. The last shelter I stayed in was in Roanoke, Virginia. I stayed my two weeks there and had to go. One of the counselors gave me a lift from Roanoke to Jackson, now I am here.”

“How did that happen?”

“I was at wits ends. I didn’t want to go back to foster, but I was desperately hungry. A couple of places I worked for food. So when I saw a sign that read McNeil’s Bee Farm, help wanted, I took a chance.”

Angela then told Margaret about the bee swarm, the food, the honey and working the bee yard.

“He offered to let me stay here and clean this place up. I also start working in his bee yard on Monday.”

“So, what are your ambitions, what do you want to do?”

“I fell in love. I want to be a beekeeper. I want to learn what I don’t know.”

Angela showed Margaret the notes she made this morning, “I want to learn this stuff, till September. If I am legally emancipated I would like to finish high school. I want to take the bees where they take me. Dan said something to me that I am beginning to understand. Listen to the bees and they will teach you beekeeping. I want to do all of that as a girl. Can you help me?”

“Can I see where you live?”

Angela took her back into the apartment. Everything was very clean and in order.

“May I look in drawers, look in closets and such?”

“Have at it.”

Margaret did a cursory search of the apartment. In the bath room, she found tampons and pantiliners. She asked about those and Angela answered her. Margaret laughed.

“Be sure to make some of each disappear each month.”

She checked the pantry and fridge, “No cook able foods?”

“I can bake biscuits and boil water. That is all I know.”

“That needs to change. Learn to cook child. It’s not rocket science. Do you have a phone?”

“I have a phone up front and a business cell phone.”

“Give me your numbers.”

“Can you help me?”

“Open your mouth and let me look in.”

Margaret looked into Angela’s mouth, “You need to brush your teeth and see a dentist.” She saw what she wanted to see. Angela did have her third molars just beginning to erupt. She could pass for seventeen now.

“I just got my first toothbrush in a while and I brush and water picked this morning.”

“Yes, I can help you, as long as you follow my rules.”

“First, I will call you and you will call me, at least once a week. I will come see you once a month. I think I know of an online high school. It wouldn’t do to start in March in the middle of school. I will proctor you for any tests you have.”

“The online schools have you work at your own pace. I expect you to keep me informed of your progress. Do you agree?”

“Agreed.” Angela said, as she gave Margaret her phone numbers and programed Margaret’s number into her cell phone.

“You are now my patient and you are covered by client confidentiality. That means I tell no one what we talk about, without your permission, including this interview with two exceptions. The first if you tell me you are going to do harm to others. The second if I believe you are going to commit suicide. I don’t believe you would do either.”

“Now tell me what is in your bra?”

“Panties?”

“We must do better. You will be twigged if you keep doing this.” Margaret said, she pulled a measuring tape out of her purse. “Dealing with transgender patients, I come prepared. I have four sizes of breast forms, you can wear till you get better. Take off your blouse.”

Margaret measured Angela, your band is a 36. What size is that bra?”

“A 36 B.”

“That is a good look for you. You can grow later.” Margaret went to her car and returned with a box. “These could only fool a blind man, they feel good but keep them covered up. A company called Real Breasts make some of the best. I’ll order some don’t worry, they are paid for. Now lay down.”

Margaret glued two silicone breasts onto Angela, “Once every two weeks peel them off with this solvent and reapply them after twelve hours. Put your bra back on.”

The difference was like night and day. The bra looked like actual breasts were filling them.

“Let’s go get a pizza.”

Some things Margaret made Angela do was make a purse and fix her makeup. Almost every girl carries her purse with her almost everywhere she goes. Sam had a nice leather hobo bag, that had almost everything. They left the condoms in the bag and replaced the pantiliners and tampons. There was a makeup bag, that had everything a girl would need to fix her face on the fly. Margaret opened another small bag and pulled out a small plastic thing.

“This Angela is something some girls use. It is a fingertip vibrator. A girl can masturbate with this item. I am telling you, because many women would recognize what this is for. I would leave it in, but it is up to you.”

She also spent some time in how girls carry their bags. In Angela’s case, it also helped with how she carried her arms.

“When we are out eating, keep an eye out for how other girls do things, but try not to stare too much, you could wind up with the L label being stuck on you.”

Angela got in the car with Margaret, like she had always done. Margaret had her get out and get in the car in a more feminine manner. She picked up the right way of doing it quickly.

They went to Sicily’s Best Pizza. Angela impressed Margaret with how she handled herself. Angela had obviously spent more than a little time around girls. They talked quietly about the way other girls were dressed, how they carried themselves and how they acted.

“Consider this place like a stage, Angela. All girls whether they realize it or not are acting on this stage. They all are worried about how the world sees them and they hope, for the most part, that the world perceives them in a favorable light. Most trans girls are worried that they will be twigged or spotted. Genetic girls worry that they will be seen as too feminine, too butch or too snooty. The more successful realize this and just relax and be themselves.”

Angela hadn’t considered that all life was an act before, so she relaxed and looked over the crowd with a fresh eye. She asked herself, what role is that person portraying, what is that girl trying to say with her portrayal.

Margaret wondered what was going on in that pretty girl’s mind. Angela hadn’t responded to her last comment. Yet she looked more relaxed and appeared to be looking at other people, with a more critical eye.

“Oh my god. Dan is a genius.”

That comment surprised Margaret, “Tell me what you mean by that.”

“I already told you. I mean Dan told me to listen to the bees and they will teach you all about beekeeping. This is a hive and these people have their own role in the hive.” Without looking, she said. “The blonde girl to my right is playing the queen bee. She expects everyone to take care of her needs. The two girls with her are her nurse bees. They feed her ego and help keep her clean of innuendo. Those guys over there are drones, they serve the hive no purpose at all. Ideally drones don’t fertilize queens from their own hive. That group to the left are foragers, they are the strength of the hive. The hive lives or dies by the strength of their foragers.”

This time it was Margaret who was strangely silent, as she considered what Angela just said. She hadn’t told the girl, that she too was a beekeeper. She had met Dan at a beginner’s bee class. She had three hives. It relaxed her after the stress of working with her clients to tend to her bees. Margaret looked the same group with a different eye now, applying Angela’s revelation. The girl was brilliant. It’s going to be fun working with her.

The last test of the night came when Margaret and Angela retired to the ladies’ room. Angela was a little nervous, but she forged on. They had to wait a bit, there were already several girl’s waiting in que. Margaret took this time to chat with Angela. A good percentage of guys go into a restroom and never say a word to each other. To other guys they used this place to brag about themselves. A lot of girls continue their social roles, towards each other, in this room. So, Margaret got Angela talking about bees while they waited.

It took Angela a little time that night to get use to sleeping with her breasts. The panties she stuffed in her bra were compressible, the silicone seemed to bore holes in her chest if she laid down on them. They were a bit of a pain, but she could deal with pain. He breasts meant she was closer to her ideal. That night she switched from a stomach sleeper to a back and side sleeper.

Her alarm woke her this morning and she was a little groggy. She showered, brushed her teeth, water picked, put on a whitener strip and brushed her hair out. When she dressed, she worked a little bit with one of her new bras. She found that she had to stretch out the straps a bit. She then tried the back fasten routine. She had to lean to put her breasts into the cups. She took the ends of the band and stretched them behind her. It took a bit to get the hooks into the eyes, but she got it. A few tugs, here and there, of the bra got everything in place.

She looked at that bit of flesh, at the junction of her legs. If she were a guy, it wouldn’t be impressive, in fact it wasn’t impressive for a boy of eleven or twelve. She didn’t care about that though, she wished it was a tenth of the size it was. She really didn’t think she needed a vagina, she just needed a little less reminder that her body was wrong, that was what she thought right now. She put on her spanx. They fit a little tighter now. The spanx improved her waist and lifted her rump, rounding it a bit. She knew she had gained a little weight but she looked good.

She wanted to check the temperature but she had that big window out front. She knew there wouldn’t be anybody out front, but she couldn’t make herself go into the office in her undies. She put on a T-shirt. It was fifty-two outside, the humidity was thirty-six percent and the dew point was twenty-five degrees. The wind speed was seven mph out of the west north west. The barometric pressure was 29.82. The skies were clear, no precipitation.

It was another jeans, shirt and running shoes type day. She didn’t need cold air up her skirt.

She went out for another walk in the crisp cold air. Her bees were again huddled together for warmth, she imagined. Huddled sounded better than clustered. She made the same loop that she had the day before paying more attention to her surroundings, looking for things she hadn’t seen before. She picked a dandelion. She had eaten more than a few of these before and looked at it closely, more closely than she ever looked at one before. She picked a flower off a tree and looked at it. She collected a few other specimens out and carried them with her. She had seen some magnifiers and scopes in the bee shed, she would use them.

There were two research grade microscopes in the bee shed. One of the was the classic scopes that send light through a glass slide to view the specimen. The other was one that lit the specimen from above and you looked at the reflected light. That was the one she used to look at the specimens she collected. She turned on the lights near the scope and looked at the various flowers, changing magnifications to get a better look.

Then, beginning with the Dandelion, she began to sketch out what she was looking at. She had drawn a bit while she was in foster care, so she tried her hand at drawing the flower. She drew the various parts of the Dandelion looking back and forth between the scope and her sketch. She then cleaned up the drawing. She could do better she thought, but it wasn’t bad for the first try.

She then tried to draw a tree flower. It was different from the Dandelion, but there were several similarities, between the two of them. She wasn’t sure of the type of tree the flower came from, but she drew a nice representation of it, cleaning the picture up a bit after she finished it.

Her phone rang while she was drawing the veins in the petals.

“Hello,” Angela said.

“Hello Angela, this is Bill. I need you to do me a favor. Do you think you can reboot the server?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I will talk you through it.”

“Ok give me five minutes, I was out on a walk.”

“Ok call me back, when you are ready. I got some things I need to do at my end.”

Angela turned off the lights of the microscope and then headed directly to her office. When she called Bill, he walked her through doing a cold re-boot of the sever. In thirty minutes, they had the two servers humming perfectly.

“That went nicely,” Bill said. “I had a hiccup on this end and I am glad we had set up a mirror server. They are cross checking data right now, syncing up to each other. It would have been a nightmare with me having to drive back and forth, several times and half a disaster without the mirror server. Thank you, Angela.”

“You’re welcome Bill.”

It was one, when she had finished with the server, so she went into her apartment and made a ham sandwich and opened a bag of chips. She took the sandwich and chips with a diet coke and found a website on botany. She read about the parts of the flower and what they did. She found that some plants had male flowers and female flowers on different plants and some flowers had both sexes on one blossom.

After cleaning up from lunch she changed out the garbage bag liners and realized she had a problem. What does she do with the garbage. She called Dan. He laughed and said to put the bags in the warehouse for now, he would get a dumpster delivered Monday or Tuesday. One never knows what one needs till they need it.

Angela checked the weather, the temperature was in the mid-fifties and the wind was dead calm.

She practiced on her makeup skills doing more and more. She knew where she could get more info on makeup. She opened Sam’s laptop and booted it up. It had Windows 7 instead of Windows 10. She got an eyeful when she got to the desktop. The wallpaper had a porn scene with two girls, one was doing things to the other, like the toys she found. She wanted to get that off the desktop. It took a while for her to figure things out and now she had a large bee eating nectar or collecting pollen. She got the laptop logged into her WIFI and onto the internet.

YouTube did indeed have videos on how to do your makeup. She watched a few and tried to copy their actions. She was a little rough at first, but she began to improve. Unlike drawing, which was making marks on flat paper in front of you, makeup required you to work in a mirror and do things to your not so flat face. It was hard, but it was a learnable skill.

You tube also had a video on how to find and clean up your computer from things like her desktop, browser history and unwanted files on the hard drive. It took a long while. Samantha had lots of lesbian porn and female domination videos. Sam liked girls and she liked to dominate girls, wait a second, she also liked girly boys too. Too bad Angela couldn’t un-see things.

Angela felt sorry for Dan for a second, no if people consent, it could be their cup of tea, but it wouldn’t be Angela’s cup of tea. She deleted this video too.

She carefully reviewed Samantha’s bookmarks deleting without going to any sites that had anything to do about sex, there were a few. She would get someone’s help on this, but who, she didn’t want anybody who knew Dan.

All in all, she like working with the laptop, it was fun and worked well.

She rode the mule out to the gate, to make sure it was secure, and do a quick check of the place. She wanted to get use to driving. The mule wasn’t a car but it required similar skills. Which unknown to her was Dan’s intent. So, she treated it like a tool instead of a toy like most wild boys would do.

She locked up all the buildings and cleaned herself up for bed. She went to sleep early setting the alarm for five thirty.

Morning came she got up, cleaned herself up, ate, did her makeup and set her hair up in a bun. At six thirty she heard the buzzer and got ready, putting her phone on her belt and her keys in her pants pocket. She grabbed her purse. Dan entered the office as she came out of her apartment.

“Here, put a second set of clothes in this gym bag. Thing could get a little messy at work.”

She took the bag and put a couple of sets of everything in it and her running shoes.

At work, she was assigned a locker to put her things in. The locker had a combination lock built in.

She was assigned to work with Joe Kool. That really was his name. He had her make a horse trough of cleansing/sanitizing solution as he did the same. He then demonstrated scraping a hive body to get all the wax and propolis off, using a hive tool or a hardened scraper where needed. He then showed her how to sanitize the cleaned-up hive body.

He watched as Angela did the same with several hive bodies. He checked her work and approved of it. They both began tearing through a mountain of hive bodies, inner and outer covers, bottom boards and queen excluders. It was slow work and messy, but she had a rubber apron to keep most of the gunk off her.

Dan watched her, at times from the office. She was still working hard after an hour and a half. Joe had to work hard to keep up with the little girl, he had been skeptical at first, but she was a worker.

Angela was getting a little tired, she knew her arms would be sore tomorrow, but she kept at it. They took a cigarette break or at least Joe did. Angela got a cup of coffee. They had gone through a lot of hive parts, but only dented about fifteen percent of the total.

Jacques came into the warehouse, “Angela, get your clothes bag, tool bag and put three nucs, with 5 drawn frames in the back of my truck. We got a couple of large swarms to deal with.”

She apologized to Joe got the three nukes and frames, and the other things into Jacques truck.

There was a small ornamental tree in front of a home. The bees formed a beard that bent a tree branch down. The lady of the home was almost frantic. The tree was next to the driver’s side door of her car. She passed on going to work this day. Her boss got a good laugh as she texted him a photo of her situation.

Jacques approached the tree to ascertain the bees attitude. He wasn’t attacked. He backed the car out to give them room to work. Jacques gave Angela instructions and she followed. First, she took a dozen pictures as he setup two Go Pro cameras. They tried to spot the queen bee. They both knew she wasn’t on the outside, but it was a good try. Angela put the box under the swarm, swabbing a drop of lemon grass oil on the box, while Jacques bent the branch down, to get closer to the nuc.

“Step back Angela, I am about to make some bees a little upset.”

When she was back, Jacques gave the branch a hard shake. The beard fell into the box and he stepped back a minute. Ninety percent of the bees fell into the box and stayed there. Five percent of the bees were wildly flying around, but not stinging. The rest of the bees clung to the branch.

The lady clapped, as the two beekeepers approached the hive. Jacques put the lid on the hive, the bees on the ground were marching to the hive. Angela was looking at the branch, she caught a glimpse of something and found that she had a bee clip in her hand. Without thinking her hand parted the bees and she reached in with the other hand to clip the queen. It was a pretty caramel colored tiger stripped Italian queen. She handed it to Jacques, who marked the queen with a white bee pen.

“Dang girl, who taught you how to do that?” Jacques exclaimed.

“The humorous beekeeper. I watched him on YouTube catching swarms.”

Jacques rubber banded the clip in a frame and put the frame in the nuc. In another hour, the bees had all marched into the box. They blocked the entrance, taped it up and secured it in the truck bed.

The next call was to another home several miles away. The home owner reported a swarm. He showed Jacques and Angela where the bees were. Bees were going in and out of an enclosed soffit.

“That isn’t a swarm, that’s a colony.”

Jacques took a flexible bore scope and stuck it into the opening the bees were using. He found the colony and showed Angela and the home owner. The picture wasn’t good but the could make out several combs with bees on them.

“We need to deconstruct the soffit, remove the bees and the comb. You can then have someone repair the soffit.” Jacques told the owner.

“Can’t you just kill the bees and plug the opening.”

“I don’t kill bees and it wouldn’t matter if you did someone would have to tear open the soffit and remove the bodies and the comb. If you don’t, you won’t ever get rid of the roaches and the moths. They will find a way into your home and wreak havoc.”

“Let me think about it, I will call you guys back.”

Angela and Jacques went back to the truck and drove away.

“That son of a bitch ain’t going to call us. If the bees are lucky, he will call a good exterminator, who will tell him exactly what I told him. If not, he will kill them himself, get stung a half-dozen-times and ruin his house, but it ain’t our problem.”

Angela could tell that Jacques was pissed.

The next call was to a swarm in a police car. The cop had gone code seven at Mary’s diner and left his window open. There was a large swarm inside the car hanging from the headliner. Jacques had Angela glove up and put on her veil. They both needed get into the front of the car.

“Hey Sydney, I didn’t know you went around arresting bees,” Jacques said.

“We don’t,” said Patrolman Sydney Grooms Sergeant. “I was tempted to have Grooms drive his car back to the department, but that would-be cruelty to the bees. Took you long enough to get here Jacques.”

“I got lost in Louisiana, had to eat a mess of crawdads.”

In fact, the Sgt. Had told Jacques to take his time getting there. This was an object lesson for Officer Grooms.

Jacques and Angela had an un-official contest to see who could cage the queen first. Together they cleared the car of most of the bees. Jacques clipped the queen first only because he was in the passenger side. Angela being smaller was in the driver’s side. They used a bee vac to remove the bees. One more stick in Officer Grooms side was, he was a non-smoker and Jacques heavily smoked the car and sprayed Bee-Gone behind the dash, under the seats and in the back. That car would smell for weeks. They caught it all on Go Pro. That would be on YouTube in hours.

Back at the warehouse, they got the bees processed in. Jacques dumped the bees, from the bee canister into a nuc with fames and their queen.

Angela went back to work with Joe who had made some progress with the mountain of the hive bodies. They proceeded at a slower steadier pace, they both realized that it wasn’t a sprint, but a marathon they were in. It would take two more days to finish, but they had made a start of it.

Jacques went out and brought Dan and Angela some pulled pork sandwiches and some sweet tea.

“You and Joe made good progress with the cleaning and sanitizing. Good work on picking that queen out. I kinda expected you to be suited up handling bees.”

“Sorry I saw a flash of caramel and just reacted.”

“You saw how docile the bees were and you didn’t get stung so don’t worry about it, but not all bees are like that just be careful. Oh, and Jacques that video of you two working the police car is priceless. The cameras even caught the Sgt. ripping Shawn a new one. That home owner called back. An exterminator told him the same thing and his price was higher. I scheduled you to go over there on Thursday.”

“It’s rendering on YouTube as we speak boss. I had to do a bit of editing out the four-letter words.”

“Boss, do you have any aspirin,” My arms and back are a little sore, Angela said.”

He opened the desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of Naproxen Sodium, “I was meaning to tell you two, that you were going too fast, but I think you learned that yourself. Put that in your purse, you will need it. Why don’t you go to Sam’s room and take a warm bath?”

“No soap or shampoo up there. I took it all, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Nope, I told you to do it. Use my bathroom, Arlene’s things are still there or you can move it to Sam’s bath room. I’ve got to talk to Jacque and make some calls. Come back here when you finish and you’re ready to go home.”

Angela took Dan’s advice and moved what she needed to Sam’s bathroom. The bath was glorious. She soaked a good thirty minutes, reheating the water. The shampoo and conditioner were from Wen, and the body wash was honeysuckle. She loved Arlene’s deodorant. Spring Fresh deodorant gel.

Angela felt a whole lot better when she went to the office at six. Susan was just turning off her computer.

“Hey Susan. Brenda told me to talk to you about my hair. It hasn’t been trimmed or styled in two years.”

“Girl, I am going to spank you.” Susan threatened. “Be ready to come over to my place after work tomorrow and spend some girl time with me. You have such a lovely blond, head of hair. Learn to take care of it,” she said lightly pinching Angela’s cheek.”

On the drive home, Dan said, “I will help you inspect your hives in the morning depending on how cool it is. It’s too late today.”

“The Weather Channel said it could be in the low sixties tomorrow morning. It warmed up nicely today,” Angela said.

After Angela let them in, Dan drove to check the fountains. It was about an hour before sunset and the bees were lining up to take a seat at the bar. It was the most popular watering hole for miles around.

Dan dropped Angela off at the warehouse, staying long enough to see she got in before driving off.

Angela was up the next morning, about an hour before six. She took a warm shower and took a couple of pain pills, she was aching a little. It wasn’t a bad pain, but just sore muscles from working hard.

She put on her spanx and found a waist nipper that wrapped around the waist and had six hook and eyes that hooked up the front. She tried that, it was a stronger elastic and pulled her in nicely. She could wear regular panties with it. The jeans fit better too at the waist. She finished dressing and went to fix something to eat. She had two hard boiled eggs and toast with butter and honey.

Checking the weather. It was sixty degrees, wind out of the south east at five. The humidity was fifty-two percent and the dew point at forty-two. The barometric pressure was 29.82 and holding steady.

Dan arrived just after sunrise. Angela was waiting with her tools.

“I see you are ready. Let me do this first inspection.”

“Yes, sir Boss.” Angela said cheerfully.

Dan started at the far hive.

“This was the unruly hive,” Angela added.

The hive was just getting busy, he smoked the bees and used a hive tool to open the hive. A few bees weren’t happy about being disturbed. The honey frame was being used and nectar was being added. There was pollen being added, the queen was laying as there was some new capped brood. The queen was found on the last frame laying like a storm. They had plenty of room, but soon would need a ten frame, hive.

Dan went down the line checking one hive after another. The fourth hive appeared to be queenless.

“I will call Brenda, she will check the hive and prepare to re-queen it. The queen could be on a mating flight or she could have been killed. It happens.”

“You do the honors on your hive. We got to get a name for it.”

Angela smoked the hive and used a hive tool to open it. Her hive was busy. The honey frame was full. The pollen frame showed fresh pollen, the brood frame showed the brood had hatched and it had new eggs laid. Her queen was found on the next frame she was climbing out of a cell where she had just laid an egg. The last frame showed that it was being filled with nectar.

“Clean some ten frame deep hive bodies and get some drawn frames out of your freezer to thaw on Friday, five of your hives need to graduate to ten frame Langstroth hives.”

Angela made notes on her phone as they drove to work. Dan assigned her to cleaning duty today solo. Joe was out in the pasture with four other beekeepers doing hive inspections and adding boxes to the hives there.

She spent four hours cleaning and sanitizing. She made good progress and the mountain was getting noticeably smaller. After lunch Dan called her into his office. We are going to my big field.”

Dan handed Angela the keys to the Suburban saying, “you’re driving.”

After they got in the Suburban, he talked her through the process of driving. They belted in and Angela started the beast. She drove around their lot slowly. Angela was scared to death and thrilled at the same time. Besides being a little timid at the wheel she did well. He then directed her where to drive. It wasn’t on a county road. The hives were located on this property. They were just a little further away. The road led them through a forest of Red Maple and Willow around a large creek which they crossed on a wooden bridge and out into a very large pasture.

“I have four hundred acres here all in bee friendly plants. Only wild bees and Hank Simpson’s bees can get here. This field is lined a hundred feet deep with bee friendly trees. This field grows blackberries, alfalfa, clover, potatoes, goldenrod, sunflowers, lavender, etc. etc. etc. I have ag students who come out here to do the planting and harvesting for halves. I subsidize the seed. The only rule is I approve or disapprove of the plants and the pesticides. I have 400 hives scattered around the field. I train new beekeepers here. They pay me to learn and I get half the honey.”

Angela drove past people working the fields and bee keepers tending hives. There was a large pond to the east. She drove at ten mph down the road and they came to a bend. Jacques was tending a hive there. They stopped and walked over to him.

“How’s it going Jacques?” Dan asked.

“Going good, Dan. If we get good rain this year we are going to have a bumper crop, maybe up to 200 to 250 pounds of honey per hive here.”

“Oh my, that would be over twenty tons of honey,” Angela said, in exclamation.

“That is on a good year, my Dear,” Dan said.

“How’s those new beekeepers working out?”

“Fair to midland. Ole Joe is really getting after it.”

“He’s afraid of being shown up by a measly novice girl, I think.”

“Don’t know about Fred. He knows lots, but he has a heavy hand. Angela here could show him up in a couple of weeks.”

“Cut the corn Jacques, I know you are brilliant,” Angela retorted giggling.

“You cut me to my heart, My Lady,” He said laughing.

“Nah Jacques, she is just a smart kid.”

Angela drove again. She was beginning to have fun and drove more confidently. She got back around to the front parked it in Dan’s spot.

“You have a hair appointment. Go ahead and get cleaned up. Susan will get off as soon as you get back to the office.”

Angela took a bath and got cleaned up. She needed to do a couple of loads of laundry. She went down to the office after she got cleaned up.

Susan was waiting for her when she entered, “Don’t set your gear down. We are headed right out.”

Susan grabbed her purse and her keys. She led Angela out to a three-year-old Chevy Malibu, “Toss your bag in the trunk. I know you have been cleaning those hive bodies.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Don’t Ma’am me, Angela. My name is Susan. So how was your day, sugar.”

“It feels good working. I am a little sore. Those hive parts aren’t really heavy, till you lift a hundred of them several times.”

“The boss is just getting you stronger. Beekeeping ain’t heavy work till honey harvest. Then them boxes get heavy. A full medium super of honey weighs forty pounds or so. All of Dan’s hive might have four, five or six supers.”

“That would mean about a couple of thousand honey supers and twenty thousand frames.”

“You are quick sugar.”

They got to Susan’s home in about fifteen minutes. It was closer to Walmart. She lived in a nice country home. Two stories, on a brick pier foundation, that had a large porch with rocking chairs and a swing.

“What do you know about hair care and makeup dear?”

“Very little. Mom taught me to do my hair and I just started practicing makeup when they passed away. The fosters I had thought that makeup and salons were a luxury that I wasn’t going to have.”

“I have seen that a few times, so I know what you are talking about. Just sit in my chair and let me take a good look at you. You have wonderful hair. It needs a lot of work, but we got time. Dave won’t be home tonight. He’s a cross country trucker. Two weeks out and two weeks home.”

“Would you give me free reign?”

“Yes, I guess.”

Susan pulled out a style book and began pointing out pictures of what would look good on Angela. Angela pointed out a few herself.

“I like my hair long, I just need to put it up in a bun out in the yard. I got some bees caught in it that first day.”

Their selection came down to four and Angela said, “Would this one look good.”

“It sure would, let’s get started.”

First Susan waxed Angela’s brow. She had good bone structure around the eye’s. Susan gave Angela brows much like Ann Hathaway’s. She gave Angela’s hair a nice wave and added undertones to give it texture. After partially drying her hair, she styled it and then fluffed it up after drying.

“I know you can’t have long nails working the hives, but using gel coat polishes can help strengthen the nail. I’ll teach you how to do them.”

She cleaned the polish off and then shaped and buffed Angela’s nails in a short oval.

“Now this polish doesn’t dry till you zap it with UV light. Then it’s hard as nails.”

“He’s spending a lot of money on me. I’m worried about that. He’ll go broke doing things for me.”

“Honey, that man is made of money. His father and him were in tech stocks back in the 70’s through 2010’s. He sold out after his family died. He is worth almost a hundred million, and don’t you think he ain’t getting nothing out of it.”

“You have been a medicine to him. He needed someone to help when you came. Don’t worry he ain’t no pervert and you are learning something important ain’t you.”

“Yes ma’am, he saved me too.”

“Then let him do for you girl. He ain’t trying to get in your pants and he don’t want ya to be a kept woman. He wants to see you strong and independent. He’s learning to do things he should have done for his own daughter. He was always away doing business, instead of doing things with his wife and daughter. It might not have made one hill of beans different about whether they lived or died, but he blamed himself so much.”

Angela promised herself to work hard and to do well, as Susan worked on her makeup.

Angela was staring in the mirror looking at herself for over a minute. She never got a word out, her eyes were as big as saucers. She would start to speak, but then she would look like a Gourami fish. It wasn’t a look Susan expected, but she had seen it before, when she had shown a girl who thought she was plain, look beautiful.

Besides the clothes, Angela was ready for the red carpet.

“Why are you here in this town Susan? You are a miracle maker.”

“I could be Angela, but this is my home. I got family all around me and a man who loves me. That is what home is.”

“Yes it is,” Angela said, a stray tear falling down her cheek.

“Now don’t go crying and ruining my work girl. Let’s go out and eat. I don’t feel like cooking now.”

Susan started fixing her face, “Now I got ya a makeup kit with everything I used on you and then some. Now you go ahead and practice all you want. You got enough to last ya.”

When Susan looked very good too, Angela asked, “Take a picture of me with my phone, please. It will give me something to shoot for.”

They went out to eat. For the first time in a long time, Angela was beginning to love being around people. She and Susan had the time of their lives, just eating and talking.

When she got home she texted Margaret and attached the photo, before she started a load of laundry. Before she got the washer started her cell phone rang.

“Hello Margaret, Angela said without pausing to see who was calling.”

“Hello Angela. What happened?”

“I don’t know. What do you mean?”

“Who did your hair and makeup?”

“A lady at work. She was a beautician, but now she works for Dan.”

“Well you look marvelous dear.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“ARRRGH!!! I am the psycho not you Angela, and don’t you forget it. Tell me all about it girl.”

They chatted for about ten minutes while Angela worked.

“Oh, I have called Dan, you have a doctor’s appointment of Friday and a dentist appointment on Monday. He cleared it. I will pick you up at nine, both days.”

“Okay take care Margaret.”

“You too.”

Angela started a second load of clothes and started drying the first. She wanted one of those rolling clothes hanger racks like stores used to move hung up clothing, at least she had a folding table at hand.

The next day it was a little warmer when she got up. Dressed and fed. She brushed out her hair intending to leave it down till she got to work. The only makeup she used was lipstick and mascara. She went outside to look at her bees. All the hives were busy except one. Brenda had left a note that the hive was queenless and that she had a queen coming in on Wednesday. She got her gear when she heard the buzzer.

Dan smiled when he saw Angela. She reminded him a lot of Sam. Yes, he knew that Angela could never replace Samantha in his heart, but he was determined to save Angela and maybe save himself at the same time.

At work, she finished cleaning and sanitizing the hive parts. She then went to work with Roger who was building hive supers. They took lumber and laid out marking templets on the wood. Roger would use the saws and do the cut outs and a dado blade to do the finger joints and the frame rests. They cut wood for about forty supers and then then both worked on jigs to square the bodies, glue and staple the hive bodies. He then taught her to make frames. He used the saws to cut the frame wood after Angela marked the wood using a template. They made four hundred medium frames. It was surprising how fast they could work together. They didn’t finish the frames by quitting time but they got two hundred squared and finished.

When Dan took Angela home after work, the office lights were up and Brenda’s pickup was sitting up front.

“Brenda must have re-queened your hive today.”

“Yeah, she left me a note that she would.”

They both got out of Dan’s Suburban and headed into the office. Brenda was sitting in front a computer tapping away.

“Hello Guys,” she said. “Just checking package orders and orders for queens. How were your days?”

“Busy, I am getting a new appreciation for the work beekeepers do,” Angela said.

“Especially Commercial Beekeepers,” Brenda said. “Hey, Angela did you use the microscopes in the bee shed?”

“Dan said I could, did I do something wrong?”

“No not at all. I was just wondering about these drawings,” Brenda said, handing Dan the two drawings.

“Crabapple and Dandelion. These are pretty good drawings.”

“I was walking around the property and I was picking flowers to see what the bees were eating. I did some drawing of specimens in science back in middle school and high school. So, I put the flowers under that microscope so I could draw in better detail.”

Dan looked closer at both drawing, “These are excellent. You did a great job drawing the petals, getting down to their veining. The stigma, style, anther and filaments all look very well drawn.”

“Can, you label the parts so I can learn them.”

Dan took a mechanical pencil and began labeling the plant parts. He did the same with the dandelion.

“I’ll tell you what Angela,” Brenda said. “Next Wednesday. I will help you dissect a bee, and show you what Nosema Carenae and Varroa Destructor look like.”

Brenda got up and hugged Dan and kissed Angela’s cheek, “Well I need to get home and fix my kids dinner. I will be back to check that new queen on Friday.”

“I have a doctor’s appointment Friday and a Dental appointment on Monday. So, I won’t see you. Take care.”

“If you are really interested in learning there are some old Bee Journals in those cabinet and I can bring some of my old college textbooks. Keep up the good work girl.”

Angela kissed Dan’s cheek before he left.

She fixed something to eat and then went out to the warehouse to clean and sanitize some hive bodies. She also checked the freezer which was full of drawn comb in medium and deep frames. It was cold there so she got out of there in a hurry.

Friday, she got up at six thirty and went for a walk around the property and opened the gate. The hives were in full swing with the temperature in the mid-sixties. This walk gave her a chance to stretch out her muscles. She had never done as much work as she had in the past nine days and she felt good. At seven she came back to her apartment took a shower. She put on a mini-skirt, blouse and a pair of Sam’s kitten heels, before doing a full makeup job and brushing out her hair. She put her birth certificate and social security card in the wallet in her purse.

This was normal, this is what she should have been doing for years.

She was ready when the buzzer went off. She was locking up the office, when Margaret pulled up.

“Looking good, girl,”

“So, do you, Margaret.”

“I’ve got to compete somehow, so how are you doing”

“Good, I’ve worked harder than I ever have and I feel good.”

They chatted as Margaret drove them to the big city of Jackson.

“Why Jackson?” Angela asked.

“I have some doctors that work with my clients and that is where they are. I have already given them a buzz on you, so they know what to expect. They won’t embarrass you.”

“What are they going to do?”

“They are going to give you a complete physical, from head to toe and we will discuss where we are headed from there. Also important is that these doctors are a little more accepting of alternate lifestyles. This is the conservative South after all. Not all doctors are as accepting.”

When they got to Jackson they pulled into the University clinic. Where they went to the office of Dr. Cyrus Jackson, endocrinology. Margaret helped Angela with the mass of paperwork that comes from the first trip to a doctor’s office. Angela signed her name as A. J. Parsons.

“Why did you sign your name as A. J.?”

Angela opened up her purse and took out her birth certificate, “Because that is how my birth certificate, lists my name. I was Alan to my parents, but legally I am A. J.”

Angela was called, “Can you go with me?”

“If you want, yes.”

A nurse took them to an area to take all of Angela’s vitals. She then led them to an exam room saying. “Take you clothes off behind the screen and put the gown on. The doctor will be with you in a few minutes. It was closer to ten.

“Why is a few minutes so long to doctors.”

“I have always wondered about that too Angela. It is hard to be exact when you have several patients waiting.”

There was a knock and then the door opened. A man in his late forties entered, saying. “Hello, I am Dr. Jackson and you are A.J. Parsons?”

“Yes, Dad was a fan of Alan Parsons, Mom took mercy on me and made it A. J. Parsons, I like Angela though. I have my birth certificate, if you want to see it.”

Angela showed him her birth certificate.

“I see you are sixteen and where are your parents.”

“They are deceased. They were older and they had no living relatives. I was placed in foster care but I ran away. The fosters wouldn’t let me live as a girl.”

She gave him a short story of how she came to be here.

“You are her psychologist Margaret.”

“You know that I am Cyrus.”

“Just have to check. You know the legalities. Well Angela so you basically support yourself and are gainfully employed right.”

“Yes sir.”

“Then you are qualified to make your own medical decisions. Let’s have a look at you.”

For the next hour Angela was poked, prodded and put under the microscope, so to speak. The doctor took off the breast forms for his thorough exam. He paid special attention to her genitals.

“Has your penis always been so small?”

“Yes sir.”

“Have you taken any drugs on a regular basis?”

“Not since my parents passed. Mom used to have me take vitamins.”

“I guess it would be too much for you to know what they were?”

“Flintstone’s vitamins.”

“Did you use any marijuana or other illegal drugs on the street?”

“No sir.”

“What did you eat?”

“Food at the shelter and l learned to forage,” she then told him, what she thought the names of the plants she foraged were.

Dr. Jackson had her describe a few of the plants, as some of them had toxic look-a-likes. He then ordered chest and head x-rays, a bunch of blood tests and a urine test. It was another hour before all the tests were completed.

“Ok young lady, you can get dressed. I will be back with you in a few minutes.” Dr. Jackson said, as he left.

“Just put your breast forms in the cups,” Margaret said.

Angela got dressed and the Doctor came back

“Well young lady. You appear to be healthy. Your x-rays look good, you heart and lungs sound good. I am a little concerned about the size of your genitals but I will wait till of the tests to come in. I will see you again in two weeks have my nurse schedule an appointment.”

Margaret then took Angela to another medical specialist, “This is a prosthetic’s shop, that I recommend to my client’s. They do the best color matching I’ve seen. Their breast forms look and feel authentic. You could almost go topless and not be twigged, but don’t.”

Margaret introduced Angela to the proprietor of the establishment, “Angela this is Ms. Wendy Brinks.”

“Hello Ms. Brinks.”

“Hello, but cut the crap, just call me Wendy. Come back with me into an exam room.” She said laughing.

“Take your blouse off but leave your bra on, please.”

Wendy took several measurements of Angela with her bra on and several more with her bra off. She used a machine to determine the skins tone, by reflective light.

“Now let’s talk size. For your age and body shape the forms you had on, gave you a good appearance. With them you are a 36B. Now if it was me, I just might push that to a 36C. What do you think?”

“Could I see what I would look like with a C cup?”

“Sure, just lay down on my exam table,” Wendy said, a she fumbled around in some drawers. “A lot of transsexuals go too big with breasts. They think it will help hide a larger waist. It won’t. You don’t have that problem though.” Wendy brought a box over to Angela. “Now I am going to attach these with Adhesive pads. If you plan on wearing breast forms full time you use a medical adhesive the will hold them on for two weeks. Then they need to be taken off to clean the forms and the skin. Dead skin will build up and over time they will come off on their own.”

With the breast forms on, Angela sat up. She could tell that they were significantly bigger. She looked at herself in the mirror. She liked them, but she had liked the shape and size of the other forms too, “What do you think Margaret?”

“You are at an age where you expect significant growth, these will fit you better over the long run. Wendy what is the mean breast size today?”

“For natural un-augmented breast 34DD is the current mean. By that I mean 34DD is the most sold bra size. You Angela, don’t need to suddenly jump from a 36B to a 36D. A 34DD and a 36D are basically the same size cup.”

Wendy explained how breast sizes went from band size and cup size, “But like I was saying this looks good on you.”

Angela smiled, “I agree, I will take these.”

“Oh, no. Not these, these are just my demo forms. Now for nipple size and aureole color,” Wendy said, bringing out a tray that had a dozen different size and color nipples and aureoles. “Males normally have smaller nipples and aureoles. Women can have many different sizes and colors. On a computer monitor she called up a hundred pictures of women’s breasts.

Angela was overwhelmed by the differences, of course she hadn’t seen any naked women, “How would the medium relaxed nipple on the medium aureole in a deep rose look?”

“Like a good choice I think,” Wendy said.

Margaret agreed, “You don’t want to look like you are sexually stimulated all the time. The large nipples can be seen through the blouse even when you wear a bra.”

“The relaxed could still be noticed in some conditions, but they are “too be expected”. Women have them dude, so what, get a life,” Wendy said.

“Ok, then you have my choice.”

“It will take about an hour, but I need you to stay here so I can make comparisons. You can watch TV or talk.”

Angela and Margaret sat and talked while watching TV. It felt strange to be sitting there talking bare chested while talking with Margaret. She kept looking down at her breasts.

“So, what do you think, Margaret?”

“I think that they are not that much bigger than what you have worn. They look good on you. What Wendy is making right now will look much better.”

When Wendy came back with a box, Judge Judy was tearing into a ditzy female plaintiff. She had Angela sit on the exam table.

“Now I am going to have you put these on Angela, because you are going to have to do it yourself at home,” Wendy said, taking the demo breasts off.

She then talked Angela through putting them on and taking them off. Using a weaker rubber cement like adhesive. Angela did it a couple of times, before Wendy showed her how to use the long term medical adhesive.

“You have to schedule time to do this. It only takes about fifteen minutes to do it right, but do it right or they might look out of kilter. Don’t take them off too much as you can tear the forms. Clean them every time you take them off. Lay down for five minutes to let the adhesive set, that is very important. After the adhesives sets take a little more adhesive and make sure the edges ate tacked down well. Then you can use this makeup to further hide the seams. You can wear a bikini with them but I would suggest a one-piece swimsuit or a tankini that covers the whole breast. The breast forms don’t tan skin does. Use the right size bra, the wrong size bras can damage the covers. I brought you a right size bra. So, what do you think about my work.”

Angela sat up and looked at them, the breasts looked as real as people can make them. She finished dressing as Margaret settled with Wendy. The blouse she wore fit better with the new breast forms on. Angela didn’t know that the forms totaled up to nearly twenty-five hundred dollars.

“You know what we need to do now?”

“Food?” Angela asked.

“Besides food, your right, we need food. But we need therapy, retail therapy. You need new bras and some clothes of your own. I knew Sam, she was bigger than you are.”

“Not in the waist. I have to wear spanx or a waist nipper to wear her jeans and her shoes don’t fit me well. I have to stuff the toes with tissue.”

“I bet she was wearing them to reduce her waist to look better. Well keep wearing them it will be good for your figure.”

“Especially since I am gaining weight. I’m eating regular now.”

“Well you will on gain to what you should have been, with the way that you are working. Dan told me how you made another of his students sweat cleaning hive bodies.”

“I was just trying to do a good job and keep up with him. I didn’t want to look like a slacker.”

“And that is why you will do good. You put the word good before keep up. You wanted to do a good job and keep up. Always do good first then speed up as you get better.”

They stopped at a restaurant and had chicken Caesar salads and some natural strawberry sorbet

From the restaurant, they stopped at a lingerie boutique. Margaret taught Angela about the different types of lingerie and what they did to the body, whether it enhanced the bust, reduced the waist, lifted the tush or just to look sexy. They went through the store, Angela tried on many of the items except for panties and hosieries. She left the store wearing a waist nipper that better fit her and a really nice bra.

Then they hit the shoe store. For work she came out with a tall lace up boot that had a side zipper and a pair of rain boots for muddy days at the hives. A pair of running shoes and a pair of walking shoes, the walking shoes were dressier in black. Then four heels, four flats and a pair of ballet slippers.

That was all that Angela let Dan buy her. She would buy more when she got paid. What she got, she considered a necessity, like the breast forms, to her they were a necessity. The lingerie was a necessity. The shoes were an extreme necessity, well the heels were for fun. Angela liked the way her legs and tush looked with them on.

On the way, back home they stopped at Margaret’s home. She lived about thirty-five miles from Dan’s place. She had a large split level modern log home. It was spectacular. The home had a beautiful front yard of about a half acer of land and the back yards was about two acres. Near the back-fence line were three bee hives. They rode in a golf cart to the hives so Angela could get a look at them.

“These hives are different from the one’s Dan uses.”

“They are flow hives. I can harvest the honey without disturbing the bees. They cost more so they aren’t commercially viable. Watch.”

Margaret opened a panel to reveal a glass wall they could look through and observe the bees working. “I find it relaxing to come out here to watch them work.”

“I haven’t been keeping bees all that long but I try to watch mine every day. Especially the one that adopted me.”

“Tell me about that, how did you feel when the swarm landed on you.”

“I was scared as hell. I could picture me getting stung a thousand times. It was Dan’s voice that kept me calm. I still received five stings. If I had freaked out, it could have been much worse.”

“Yes, it could have, but from what I know bees don’t usually attack to sting from a swarm.”

“I didn’t know that then. I do now.”

Margaret opened the windows into the other two hives and Angela looked in. She stopped on the last hive.

“Margaret, do you know that you have some emergency queen cells in this hive?”

“Where?”

“Right over there.”

“Oh, my. That is my newest hive.”

Angela took out her cell phone and called Brenda, “Hello, Brenda. I am looking at Margaret Finch’s hives and I see some queen cells on the bottom of the frames.”

“Those may be emergency cells. Did you check for the queen yet?”

“No, I haven’t,”

“Look for the queen and see if there are any eggs laid and call me back.”

“Do you have a work shirt and hive tools?”

“I have a bee coat, smoker and hive tool. Let me get them.”

Angela took off her blouse beside the bee hive. Margaret came back with her hive tools and bee coat.

“You know most women don’t undress outside.”

“Yes, they do. How many times have you seen a woman take off her pants and shirt at the beach.”

“That is different they have a swimsuit on.”

“Which covers more this bra or a tiny bikini. That is one thing I’ve never understood. How some women are squeamish to be seen in a bra and panty when they usually cover more than their swimsuits.”

“Or they are alone in a locked house and they lock the bathroom door,” Margaret said. “It’s classical conditioning. Women are at their most vulnerable state, when they are using the toilet or taking a bath.”

With the bee coat on Angela began to disassemble the bee hive, starting at the inner cover and top. Next, she smoked the honey super, even though there were no bees there. She lifted the honey super off and removed the queen excluder. In the top brood box had about half honey and nectar, but no brood or eggs. They were three emergency cells that were capped on the bottom of the middle frames, that looked viable, but no queen and more than a few small hive beetles, but not a whole slew of them. The young brood seemed to wander around. She lifted the deep brood box and set it aside. There were a lot of bees in the bottom brood box running around. Angela took frame after frame out inspecting the them looking for eggs. She didn’t find a queen, not even in the bees who hung around the hive walls and on the bottom screen.

Angela called Brenda back, “There are three emergency cells in the top brood box that are capped. The hive has a bunch of bees just eating honey. The pollen stores are low. It looks like a weak hive to me.”

“How old is the hive?”

“Seven months, I started it with a package late August. They did well on the golden rod flow and I fed them weekly through the winter,” Margaret answered.

“There are two things you can do. First see if the queen cells hatch and second get another package and queen.”

“What would you do?”

“Hard question. I would harvest the queen cells and see if they emerge in a queen castle and start a new package. If the bees are queenless they are likely to accept a new queen and the bees in the package. If you wait the queen bees could abscond, especially if they know the queen cells aren’t going to hatch. Adding a new package could give you a strong hive.”

“Well I don’t want to lose this hive. I will pick up a bee package and let Angela harvest the queen cells.”

“Are you going to be at your home in, say, two hours.”

“I was going to take Angela home.”

“Stay there Angela, I will take you home. Put the hive back together but leave the honey super off.”

“Well are you up for dinner Angela.”

“As soon as I take off this high fashion bee coat, sure.”

Angela took off the bee coat and put her blouse back on.

It was about an hour and a half before Brenda showed up. Margaret had made Rueben sandwiches for the three of them. Which consisted of corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing grilled on homemade rye bread with steamed asparagus, she grew and hot German potato salad.

“I always love coming over to Margaret’s place to help with her bees,” Brenda exclaimed. “She has a wonderful way of paying me for my time. To think Mark is taking the kids out to The Burger Stop, while I slave away eating measly food like this.”

“I’ve never eaten a Rueben sandwich before. This is so good,” Angela said. “And the potato salad is so scrumptious.”

“This is what you can do, if you learn to cook, Angela,” Margaret said.

As they ate Brenda, was taking a covert, long, hard stare at Angela. The girl just seemed to grow right before your eyes, “You look nice today, where did you guys go.”

“Margaret wanted to talk with me about my parents and how I got along living on the streets. She wanted to know if I had PTSD whatever that is.”

“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s what some people suffer from when they lose a loved one or like you, also because you were put into the Foster Care system.” Margaret said. She did indeed want to know about that, but she intended to broach the subject in a roundabout manner. Angela was smart, very smart.

“Did you crack open a hive dressed like that?” Brenda asked, looking at Angela wearing a white chiffon blouse, black mini-skirt and black high heels.

“Doesn’t everybody wear clothes like this when they work with bees?” Angela asked, facetiously.

“Yes, she did,” Margaret added. “Although she did wear my bee coat, with the veil off and no gloves.”

“I could just see that on the cover of Bee Journal. Well the food was good, but the bees are calling.”

Brenda got the package of bees and they headed out to the hives. “Oh Angela, don’t leave a honey super sitting next to a hive. It encourages robbing.”

“Yes ma’am, I didn’t know that, but there wasn’t any honey in it the honey was all in the brood boxes, but I shouldn’t do something that could become a bad habit, right.”

“Right,” Brenda said. “Well I want to see you open that hive girl.”

Angela approached the hive and Brenda took out her cell phone and began recording video in 1080 hd. She pulled frame after frame showing Brenda while Margaret held the phone. Margaret even took her phone in close to get a better look at what the girls were seeing. Angela pointed out the emergency queen cells for the phone.

They then got into the lower brood box.

“There is one last test for a queenless hive,” she said, getting a queen cage out.

“Putting the queen cage on top of the frames and seeing how the bees react.”

“Where did you learn that?” Brenda asked.

“The Humorous Bee man on YouTube.”

“I didn’t know that,” Margaret said.

Brenda set the queen cage on top of the frames in the brood box. In about twenty seconds the hives bee started coming out and started ministering to the queen in the box. Brenda picked up the queen cage.

“If the bees were out to kill the queen, they would be trying to tear a way into this queen cage and you couldn’t easily push them away from the queen. I can lightly push these bees around, see.”

Brenda pulled out a dental pick and handed the queen cell and the pick to Angela, “Ok Look at the screen, Angela. Can you see that one end is block by candy?”

“Yes.”

“Take the dental pick and remove the cork on that end of the cage. Don’t try to pick away the candy the bees will release the queen themselves.”

Angela did as she was instructed to. Brenda then had Angela place the cage between frames. She then placed a pollen paddy and a sugar water feeder on top of the hive, before closing it up.

“You know Angela, I agree with Dan and Jacques, you have a way with bees and I can’t believe how much you already know. What is Nosema?”

“Which Nosema, there is a Nosema Apis and a Nosema Ceranae. A fungal infection in the gut of a bee. It steals Adenosine Triphosphate from the bee. Nosema Ceranae is the big killer.”

“Well, we have to get on back home Angela get your stuff.”

All the way home Brenda stole glances at Angela, the girl seemed older and more mature every time she was around the girl. Her bust seemed to explode also.

“Are you wearing a new bra or something, you have a very nice shape now?”

“Yes, during a bout of retail therapy Margaret got me into one of those newfangled add two cup bras.”

“Ah that would explain it. Besides you’re acting more mature, you are looking more adult at the same time. Don’t’ change a thing girl you look good.”

Angela just smiled to herself, Brenda had done wonders for her ego.

The next morning Dan came out, he helped Angela do a hive inspection and was with her as she moved seven colonies into new living quarters. She put her special bees in a hive body that she had painted gold, and it was just in time for them. All the brood that Jacques had put in the hive had emerged and all the frames were now being utilized. He taught her to checkerboard the hive honey on the outside, then new frame, frame from the nuc, new frame and brood in the middle. She spotted her queen quickly. They seemed to stare at each other for a minute and then got back to work.

They finished the job in a little over an hour. The hive with a new queen looked good. It was a little behind the rest of the hives but they were working hard.

Angela did all the work as Dan gave her directions. When she finished that, they got into the Suburban and he had Angela drive it around her property a couple of times. He taught her how to parallel park between two trees. That took about an hour for her to get right, though she didn’t damage his Suburban or the trees. She was just misjudged her starting points, turned too much or too little and was just a little timid. A Chevy Suburban is about two-thirds the size of a main battle tank.

At the far corner of the property there was a gate between Dan’s property and the neighbor’s property. Dan had her stop and they went up to the gate. There was a large pasture and they could see a barn, a house and a large arena in the distance. They could see horses running across the pasture.

“That is William Moody’s place, he raises thorough breed show horses. His daughter Ashley, is fifteen and is a show jumper. His son Zachary, is seventeen and is studying animal husbandry at high school. They have a step mother about eight years older than them, her name is Megan.”

“Those horses are beautiful.”

“One of those horses could run fifty grand, if he’s a decent jumper. The best show horses can go for millions.”

When they returned to the office, Dan pulled out a four-bladed drone, “You’ve seen my two-thousand-dollar drone. This is a three-hundred-dollar drone. It has a camera that records. It uses a flash drive, but can connect to video screen on the controller. It only flies for about fifteen minutes. Get used to flying this, it is harder to fly and it isn’t autonomous, but it is good for training. Effective control with this drone is strictly line of sight. I think these drones can be a big bonus to the bee industry.”

Angela and Dan spent two hours putting the drone through its paces. She learned how to fly it around the yard, sending it out and collecting data and bring it back safely. He taught her how to use her computer to view the video and how to identify what they were looking at in the video.

Angela crashed quite a bit in the first half hour, but this drone was designed with minor mishaps in mind. The four arms were designed to carefully come apart in the event of a crash, without catastrophic damage to the craft. Surprisingly taking off was almost at hazardous as landing. The biggest sin is letting the battery run down at maximum distance from the controller and having to walk four hundred feet to pick up the drone. Angela had to learn how to get the maximum data in the time allowed and return it safely.

Before Dan left, he handed her a debit card in her name, with account data. He had set up a bank account for her had deposited her week’s pay directly into the account. Inside the office he helped her locate, assign a password to the account and how to access the funds online.

“Your balance is six-thousand-two-hundred-fifty dollars. Five thousand of that is only to be used for emergencies, business related expenses and education. I require receipts if you want or need to touch that five thousand. Emergencies are medical, motel rooms if you get stuck somewhere, food, legal expenses and such. Business expenses, are if you need to buy bee equipment, even if it is just to try something out for yourself, to see how it works or facility repairs, if something breaks down and Jacques and I aren’t around. Education is for bee education, online high school or any education, as long as you can seriously justify the expense to me. I won’t second guess you, but I will provide you advice on your choices.”

After Dan left, Angela fixed some food and sat down in front of the computer and did a google search for the best plants and trees for bees. She found a lot of information on the subject, then she cross referenced plants that grew well in southern Mississippi. She wrote down the common names and the scientific name. With a list of about fifty plants, she then looked deeper into why each plant or tree was on that list.

The best plants produced a lot of nectar and pollen. Nectar makes honey the bees’ carbohydrates, and pollen is the protein source for the bees, more specifically the larva and young nurse bees. Of the bees only bees that have just emerged from their cells and have become nurse bees can digest pollen and convert it to food for larva and worker bees. Forager bees are most excited about bringing in a load of pollen than a belly full of nectar. Workers pass off nectar to other workers who will add a glandular secretion to it before putting it in a honey cell. Forages bringing in pollen will rush to the nearest pollen cell and make the deposit themselves. Any nectar would do for a hive, but bees need a varied collection of pollens. One pollen provides some amino acids while another provides other amino acids and no pollen provides everything they need.

She began chasing rabbits as one fact she read piqued her interest and then another fact caught her eye. She saw how everything was interrelated to the health and prosperity of the hive. She would need some time to separate the facts into separate fields of study, but it was all interesting to her and was fun.

Angela then bit the bullet and searched YouTube for beginner cooking courses. She was beginning to like cooked food. She made notes to try some things out. She could cook somethings now but she needed more ingredients than she had. She made a list of things she thought she needed. She would check with someone else before she bought anything.

Sunday. she went for a walk in the morning wearing a pretty blouse and slacks. She did a pretty fair job with her makeup. After checking the weather and looking at her bees, she went for the first time alone outside of the property she was on. She walked down the road towards the Moody place. There were a lot of cars there and some that were just turning in. The parking around the arena had many trucks and horse trailers. She decided to take a chance and see what was going on.

The arena was a couple of hundred yards from the road. People around the arena were unloading horses, brushing them down and saddling them up. She walked around in a daze just looking at all the activity. Horses were being led in and out of a stable. Many of the people were dressed in proper riding attire, high boots, breeches, blouse or shirt and coat. it was hard to tell some of the male shirts from some of the lady’s blouses.

The arena had jumping obstacles set up and there were people and horses that were walking around the course, inspecting the obstacles and such. Some people were riding their horses round to exercise and loosen them up.

An older lady came up to her, “Hey Sugar, I’m Patsy Drake.”

“Hello, I’m Angela Parsons.”

“I ani’t never seen you around before. Are you riding in the event?”

“Oh no, I have never ridden a horse before. I live the next place over and I was just taking a walk. I saw all of the activity and wanted to check it out.”

“We have these riding events every two or three weeks. To get ready for some serious competitions. You are welcome to mix in, meet people and to watch these events. There is some refreshment over by the house and bleachers over by the arena. Now go on girl and meet some people.”

A very pretty woman, a very pretty teen girl and a handsome boy, all in riding attire, were doing a meet and greet type thing, near the buffet style tables. The woman was younger than thirty and the kids were teens.

“Hello welcome to our event. I am Megan Moody and this is Ashley and Zach. I haven’t seen you around before. Are you a rider?”

Megan was gorgeous and fit her riding attire very nicely.

“Hello I’m Angela Parsons. I work for Dan McNeil and I’m living next door.”

Zach smiled and said, “I’ve seen you ridding your mule around checking your fence line. What do you do for Dan?”

Zachery Moody was everything you would expect from a farm working male fit for a romance type novel. He was slim, but muscled and had short close-cropped hair.

“Yeah that was me you saw. I was just looking at what was growing around the property, I’m an assistant beekeeper.”

Ashley was eyeing Angela up and down. “I’m Ashley, you know, you would look absolutely smashing in riding attire.”

Ashley was the teenage, modern equivalent of a southern bell. She had long curly chestnut brown hair and incredible hazel eyes. Her figure fit her age. She was just at the cusp of blossoming as a woman.

“I’ve never ridden a horse before, I wouldn’t know which end goes forward.”

“Well just watch these riders today, we have several riders that will be going to the Nationals, riding today,” Meagan said. “Just get yourself something to eat and find a seat over at the arena. We are starting in about fifteen minutes.”

The food on the buffet looked scrumptious and it was apparent this was no average cheese and cracker type food. It was a catered affair with quality canapes, pates, meats, cheeses and small dessert bites. There was also sparkling grape juices, champagnes and wines in fluted glasses. She could take a champagne and nobody would know the difference. She did take a white sparkling grape juice though.

She selected about a dozen little bites and took her grape juice looking for a seat. She found most of the tables were occupied. One refined lady, seeing her plight offer the girl a seat at her table.

“Hello, I am Eleanor Whitmire.”

Eleanor’s appearance spoke of money. She wore a tan colored couture ladies suit and fitted calf high light brown leather boots with block heels. Her diamonds and jewelry were the real thing. Her makeup was impeccable as was her hair.

“I am Angela Parsons.”

“Well Angela, it’s nice to meeting you. It’s a lovely day for an Equestrian Event isn’t it.”

“Although it isn’t spring yet, it is a very nice day and this is my first equestrian event.”

“You don’t sound like you are from around here. You have a lovely, let me think Maryland or no not Delaware, maybe Pennsylvanian accent.”

“I was born and raised in Baltimore, ma’am.”

“So, what brings you into the deep south.”

“Bees. I am studying beekeeping from Dan McNeil.”

“He is a fine gentleman. His hives pollinate my peach orchards.”

“And where are your orchards, ma’am?”

“I have twenty thousand acres of peaches in Mississippi and Georgia.”

Angela ate as very properly as she could be, taking small dainty bite. She believed that she was expected to be able to hold up her end of the conversation without too much dead silence.

The woman noticed that she wasn’t from class, but that the girl was making a real effort to be polite. She thought Angela was just delightful.

When the girl finished her food, Eleanor suggested, “You must come with me and find some seats, the event is about to begin.”

Her seat happened to be at a patio table with an umbrella and cushioned seats instead of the bleachers.

“Since this is your first event, I will give you a running commentary. Just tell me if I am boring you.”

For the next two hours Eleanor gave a delightful commentary as rider after rider took to the arena floor. Ashley was a star in Junior girl’s division. She had a clean run, her first time through. Zachery wasn’t quite as good but did well with just four faults and Megan had eight faults in the adult division, knocking two bars off in the triple jump. In the second round, the best four riders in each class had a ride off. Ashley and another girl tied and had to go into a timed tie breaker. Ashley won when her opponents horse refused a jump, the horse hadn’t been square to the gate on his first try. The girl made a loop around and the horse made a second try, completing it easily. Ashley ran over to the girl and hugged her when she got off the horse.

There was a fierce competition in the Adult division in both the best male and the best female. Two seconds separated the winner from second place in the male category, with both horses having clean runs all the way through. And three ladies fought tooth and nail for their trophy. Two horses presented identical times while the third was only four seconds slower. Their second ride off, the organizers added another bar to each obstacle. Neither rider had a clean run, but the winner had four faults and the second-place rider had twelve faults taking out the triple jump.

Eleanor latched onto Angela as she went to greet and congratulate the competitors. Giving encouragement to the also rans and laurels to the winners, while introducing Angela to everyone.

“Where’s your vehicle Angela?”

“Oh, I don’t drive, I walked to here. I don’t have a driver’s license.”

“How old are you?”

“I am sixteen, I’ll be seventeen in August.”

“Well let me give you a ride home.”

Angela wasn’t given a choice. Eleanor led them to a huge Chevy Silverado 1500 with crew cab and a gooseneck hitch. Eleanor handled the truck well and drove Angela right up to her office.

“Your family lives in a warehouse?”

“No ma’am, I live here by myself and to answer your next few questions. My parents passed away when I was twelve. I ran away from foster care. Dan gave me a chance. I work here and at his place. He is teaching me beekeeping and no I don’t intend to go back into foster care. I can support myself,” Angela said, a little too indignantly.

“Good for you girl.” Eleanor said, reaching into her purse. She took out a business card and handed it to Angela, “Call me, if you need any help or you feel overwhelmed and want to talk.”

The next day Angela wore a pants-suit. She didn’t want to wear a skirt in a dentist’s chair. It was her worst day since, she had met Dan. Her teeth were cleaned, bleached and scaled. Scaling off the plague was a nightmare. Then came the fillings, she had three teeth that had cavities that had to be drilled out and filled with a composite resin filling. She had to gargle and swish her mouth out twice a day for a week with peroxide, but her teeth looked a hundred times better.

Angela went back home with Margaret. Together they checked the re-queened hive. The queen was out of the cages and she was hard to work, laying eggs. The bees were bringing in nectar and pollen.

Inside Margaret’s home Angela asked about cooking.

“It’s going to cost you another phone call each week.”

Margaret started out by teaching Angela some simple things to cook. Like baking biscuits from scratch, cooking an omelet, and making gravy and after eating comes cleaning up.

“To start with, what do you have?”

“I have pots and pans, a set of knives, silverware, glasses and plates.”

“No spices?”

“Catchup and yellow mustard, oh and mayo.”

“What did you eat?”

“Cereal, canned biscuits, honey, sandwiches and microwave meals.”

They spent a couple of hours on the basics of cooking. Margaret and Angela cooked a roast with potatoes, carrots, celery and tomatoes. She had Angela use the pressure cooker instead of a crock pot or slow roaster. For a down home touch, they also had fresh turnip greens and cornbread, with honey. It was a simple meal and nutritious. While they worked, they discussed simple meal planning and preparation.

On the way home, they stopped at a couple of cooking related stores to pick up some things and then to a grocery store where Margaret began teaching Angela to shop for herself. She then helped Angela sort things out in her kitchenet and pantry.

The next week was hard work, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Angela was out in the field, with Dan and Jacques working with the bees. They were doing spring, Nosema and Varro mite checks with Brenda to obtain a springtime baseline. Angela was working with Brenda, while Dan and Jacques were with their students the first day and then they rotated who they were with the next day and so on. They sampled every hive, numbering the specimen jars with the date and hive number. The students including Angela, did the bulk of the heavy lifting opening the hives up, as Brenda, Dan and Jacques took the two samples from each hive.

Friday, she was working with Brenda making up seventy-five bee packages, (a queen in a cage and three pounds of bees,) for the weekend and caged queens for sale the next day. Angela handled a few of the queens, just to learn how, but Brenda packaged nearly a hundred and fifty queen bees. Angela would get bees for Brenda who did the rest.

At home Angela tried to cook breakfast and dinner. She had mostly good successes and a few spectacular failures, but she was learning. YouTube was becoming an important tool for her. She just had to sift through the chaff to get to the wheat.

During the week, she arranged with Jacques for a ride to the bee clinic. Dan had to fly out to Wisconsin for business. Friday evening, she tried on more of Sam’s clothing and found a nice pant-suit. She could tell she had gained some weight, even with all the work she had done. It was in her legs, arms and rump where she saw it most, and not in the waist. Of course, she wore her spanx or her waist nipper at least sixteen hours a day.

Saturday Angela got up at five in the morning. She bathed and got cleaned up. Her breakfast was homemade biscuits, with butter and honey, plus a couple of hard boiled eggs. She set a couple of energy bars next to her purses to take with her. She fixed a pink leather crossbody purse with all her necessities, putting the energy bars in the purse not knowing where any food places were at the site.

She worked slowly on her face getting her makeup just right and her hair in a curly ponytail. She had to put on a corset to get the suit on and then her black high heels that had block heels. She fixed a medium size crossbody purse with her things.

She checked to weather here and in Jackson and saw it was sunny and in the low seventies. Her bees were going in and out, the Red Maple was still in bloom and some other trees were starting to bloom. She had just walked by the last of her hives, when she heard the buzzer. She was ready to go when Jacques rolled up in his F-150. The back of the truck was filled with bee things for sale.

Half the Bee clinic was taking place at a hotel and the other half in the middle of a high school football field. The football field was being used in the sale of bee packages and caged queens. The hotel took exception to the possibility of having thousands of bees flying around. The clinic went nine to five on Saturday and Sunday. Meetings would be held in various conference rooms, with the vendors setup in the main ballroom.

Angela registered, paid the entrance fees and received her schedule. She walked around the ballroom looking at all the displays and looking at all the people there. She was amazed that so many people were here because of bees.

There had to be four hundred people here from Mississippi and Georgia. Angela did buy somethings. She got a dozen bee clear plastic bee capture clips. She attached them to the strap of her purse. They looked like a bandolier of bee clips. There were people selling hives and hive parts of all different shapes and sizes. There were bee handling clothes, bee supplements, bee feeding equipment, bee tools, bee treatments. AFB/EFB test kits, genetic testing of bees, instructional beekeeping videos, books, periodicals and services. Jacques was selling some equipment, he designed.

Angela bought some of the books, periodicals and a decorative bee festooned tote bags. She also bought a belt she could hang all her tools on while she was working bees. She took cards and literature from a couple of dozen sellers

She attended the first beginner beekeeping seminar. The person running the seminar, had the people hold their hands up if they didn’t yet keep bees, were first year beekeeper or a two year or longer beekeeper. About fifteen percent didn’t keep bees yet, half were first year bee keepers and the rest had been keeping bees for two or more years. Then he asked them to hold up their hands if they had one hive (the majority, two or three hives (a third), five or six hives (about ten), ten or more, Angela held her hand up.

“Sir how long have you been keeping bees and how many hives do you have?”

“I have been keeping bees for a year, I have twenty-four hives, I inherited them when my great-uncle passed.”

“How about you sir.”

“I have sixteen hives and I have been doing this for two years.”

“And you, young lady.”

“I have twelve hives and I have been keeping bees for three weeks.”

Then he began his program about beekeeping and the importance of bees pollinating our trees and our crops. He emphasized that bees were absolutely necessary for our food supply. He touched briefly on the problems bees face with colony collapse disorder, Nosema and Varroa. Those topics would be covered by others here. He went into the critical role of the amateur beekeeper. Amateur beekeepers have been the backbone of the bee industry for years. Commercial Beekeepers can learn from what you do as you learn from them. You beginning beekeepers are important, we need you to learn, we need you to raise healthy bees and so on.

It was an interesting class, but it focused on the why, not the how to. The next seminar was on the hive inspection. Angela already knew much of what was taught, but she liked this seminar better. At one point the instructor put up a picture of a brood frame and asked who can spot the queen.

Angela was the first to hold her hand up. “There isn’t a queen on this frame you have a laying worker.”

“Give that lady a lollipop, tell us what you see.”

“There are more than a few cells with three or four eggs in them and the eggs are laid on the sides of the cells and not the bottom.”

“Queens lay their eggs in the middle of the base. Worker bees’ abdomens are shorter and they can’t get all the way in. That was a trick question. Seeing eggs in a cell doesn’t mean you have a queen. The next shot I guarantee there is an unmarked queen and she can be seen.”

Angela spotted the queen bee as did several other people. She let one of them answer.

“The queen was a smaller queen, maybe a virgin queen. She is in the top right quadrant.”

“Good eye.”

The instructor pointed her out with a laser pointer. They looked at another frame. The queen was harder to spot. Angela spotted the partial obstructed bee because of the attendant that was feeding her.

“Right dead center, an attendant is feeding her and others are grooming her.”

“Right. A queen bee almost always has a retinue of attendants. They take care of her, clean her and feed her. Sometimes you have to look at all the bees to find the queen.”

The instructor went onto the other reasons for hive inspections. He ran a video of an inspection.

“What do you see?”

“A crowded hive and a swarm queen cell,” Another beekeeper said.

“This hive swarmed two days later. We want to prevent swarms. Swarms are bad for us and our neighbors.”

Angela spoke up, “I helped my mentor remove a swarm from a police car. He left his window open at a diner.”

“You helped Jacques Boudreaux with that, removal. He told me about that.” He stopped for a minute to look at her. “Are you the lady a swarm landed on? Dan McNeil recovered a swarm off your back. You’re on YouTube.”

They broke for lunch. Angela found the hotel’s restaurant crowded with attendees. If Angela had had a car and could drive, she would have gone to the burger barn four blocks away. She braved the crowd and got a table. As she was ordering the instructor came by her table.

“Hello ma’am, I maybe shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t know how you felt about being pointed out.”

“I don’t mind. Did Jacques put the cop video on too?”

“Yes, he did, if you were in it you couldn’t be identified, anyway. He puts all his videos on line. There are too many people who are deathly afraid of honey bees and their first response is to nuke them with pesticide. His videos and many like them show that bees for the most part shouldn’t be feared. In that swarm video, you were wonderful.”

“I was scared shitless to tell you the truth.”

“But you didn’t over react. Not many people could do that.”

“That was my introduction to beekeeping two weeks and some odd days ago.”

“And Jacques took you out on a swarm recovery.”

“He took me out on three. One idiot wanted to kill the bees in his soffit rather than pay to have it disassembled and the comb removed.”

“Oh, bad call. That would have been roach city. I’m glad you are here. We need more young people like you to give a damn about bees and become responsible beekeepers.”

After lunch came the program that Angela wanted most. The seminar on bee diseases and parasites was divided into two sessions the first on Nosema and Varroa today and the second on European and American Foulbroods tomorrow.

They watched a video of a beekeeper doing a test for both Nosema and Varroa. She had done part of this before but then the video showed them in the lab. The physically counted the Varroa in the alcohol bath test. About three hundred bees were put into a lab bottle and about 300ml of alcohol was added to it. They agitated the bottle and the Varroa sank to the bottom so they could be counted. In the Nosema test ten bees were put in a baggy and crushed a ml of water was added for each bee, they then did microscopic examination where they counted the Nosema and even magnified the bees gut where they could be easily seen.

They also discussed the treatments available. There was a faction the presenter said, that didn’t believe in treatment and he gave their reasons. It was apparent that the man was from the treat camp. He stated that Nosema and Varroa hit hardest in August and September. Months when the hive is beginning to shut down for winter and were partially responsible for a large percentage of the winter die off of bees. Weakened foragers die early, nurse bees are pressed into foraging shortening their lives and there aren’t enough bees left in the hives to regulate the hive temperature come winter or they starve to death from low food supplies.

“If you don’t treat, you may never have a strong enough colony to produce significant amounts of honey. The colony needs to live two or three years to become strong honey producers. I won’t tell you that you must treat. I will say the bees deserve it.”

After the presentation, Angela got a ride to the temporary bee yard at football field with a beekeeper Jacques had introduced her to. He had closed-up shop and went to help Brenda. She was walking, without protection, towards the area where the bees were. Fifty yards away there was a small cloud of bees, circling the field. She could see one vendor making the packages or nucs right there by their truck, which explained all the bees in the air.

Angela couldn’t believe it when she looked down at several bees she was wearing and spotted a big light-yellow caramel colored queen which was unmarked. She captured it with a clip and continued walking to where she saw Jacques and Brenda working. She saw another beekeeper with a bunch of bees on him. He had been working on the bee funnel, that was being used to fill the bee packages. There on him was a bold tiger stripped Italian queen. She offered it to him but he was too busy.

When she got to Jacques and Brenda with her queens. Jacques just loved the light-yellow caramel queen. He inserted her into a queen cage with a half-dozen-workers he just snatched out of the air, while Brenda did the same with the Italian and a few bees she collected.

They switched out the queens in a couple of packages and gave the bees to Angela.

“We goin to create two more hives for ya Angela.” Jacques said, in his best Cajun drawl. “Put them in the bed of my truck and get a veil on at least.

Angela put her clips back on her purse and headed to Jacques truck. The longhorn hood ornament made it easy to spot. She put the two bee packages, where the sun wasn’t shinning on them and where they could get some ventilation.

Jacques and Brenda sold bee for about an hour and a half. Angela just watched the two of them work the crowd and sell their bees. Brenda brought her truck around and loaded up her things with their assistance. They both headed home. Jacques stayed long enough to help Angela start her new bee packages in two five frame nuc. Adding five frames of drawn comb to each nuc.

“Brenda will bring some hive feeders tomorrow and show you how to use and feed them. They won’t have a honey or pollen store ready for them and there is no brood, so they will start slower.”

Sunday Jacques picked Angela up, just before seven. He had to be there early, because he and a State Ag Representative, were doing the seminar on EFB/AFB.

Angela wore a navy mini-skirt and a floral print silk blouse, red jacket over her Navy pumps with a four-inch heel. She had done a superb job on her makeup. Jacques had to take a photo of her in this get up.

“Oooo doggy, I need to get my shotgun out. Girl, are you out on the prowl?”

“No, I just wanted to look good.”

“Like that guy on the TV said, “You look Dy na mite.””

At the hotel, there were fewer people visiting the vendors, but there was a crowd in the seminar on foulbrood. Jacques talked about the various types of foulbrood, there were the big two European and American and a lesser condition called chalkbrood. He gave the official history of who and when they were identified, along with simple ways of diagnosing foulbrood, although samples should be sent to the State Ag department for final confirmation.

Tim Burton from the State Agricultural Office then gave the people the law concerning foulbrood and the states stance on preventing the spread of foulbrood. Together they worked to answer a mountain of questions from those present.

The prevention of the spread of American Foulbrood was quite draconian. Upon the states determination of AFB. That is if the state finds more than two percent of the brood infected with AFB, all parts of the hive, the honey and all bees are killed and destroyed by burning. No if’s and’s or buts. Tools used on the hive must be heated above three hundred degrees. Clothes, gloves and shoes worn must be treated in a specific manner.

He showed a video of a nice-looking, well decorated hive being burned in the proper manner and the proper way for all clothing to be treated afterwards.

EFB and Chalkbrood can be treated and must be quarantined, till the state clears the hives or orders their destruction.

Angela was wide eyed as she saw the bees killed by being sprayed with diesel and the hive being burned.

The next week for Angela was very busy every day. She ran hive inspections for Dan’s personal hives adding honey supers to all the hives. There was lots of honey being made. She went out three times that week on swarm recoveries. One recovery started in the morning and went into the next day. Angela got another hive out of that.

When she asked about the number of hives she could run off the hundred acres, she lived on. Dan told her, “You’re not just counting your property, but all the property around you. I ran a hundred hives there when I worked that site. Look at your site map. There are sources of food for bees all around you.”

Brenda began setting up her queen castles, while Angela was at work, she would be there for a couple of hours every day now.

Friday Angela was informed that she needed to see her doctor on Monday and that she should pack a three-day bag. Margaret told her she would be spending Monday night till Tuesday evening at her place and told her not to eat after midnight. She was told that the doctors wanted to do a biopsy on her testicles, to see if they were functional. Her testosterone levels were very low. She would need one-day for recovery at minimum. Angela was to be picked up at six thirty.

“They aren’t trying to turn you into a male, Angela,” Margaret told her. “When something isn’t working, they need to know why, especially when it came to ovaries, uteruses and testicles.”

She told Dan who also told her she had a legal visit on Wednesday, “Your Lawyer will meet with you on Wednesday for you to file a writ of emancipation. He wants to talk it over with you.”

“What will the writ do?”

“Nobody can force you into the foster system after the court grants emancipation. No more looking over your shoulder for somebody out to get you. Right now, you are pretty much off the radar. When you apply for a driver’s license you will be on the radar. Next Friday hopefully I will take you in for a test to get your learner’s permit. After Driver’s Ed, you can get your Intermediate driver’s license and at 17 you can get your regular license. I need you to be able to drive to me or Jacques for this or that. Don’t worry I have several trucks on my personal insurance, I will loan you once you get an intermediate license and you will have your own insurance.”

Saturday Angela was tending to her bees. She had to feed four hives, so she set up and fed them all to reduce the chance of robbing bees. She had all the equipment. She had four hives to go when she heard horse hooves.

“Hello Ashley, hello Zachery, just let me finish up feeding my Bees.”

“You feed your bees. I thought with all these trees blooming you wouldn’t need to do that.”

“I wouldn’t but four of my hives are fairly new, and don’t have any honey stores. If I feed only four my other hives may start robbing since they are stronger.”

Angela finished up as the teens watched her. She only wore a veil this day. She dropped off her tools and her veil in the back of the mule and went to meet the two teens after checking that she was bee free.

“So, what are you two up to, today?”

“Just stretching out our horses’ legs. Horses should be ridden as often as we can to keep them from going cantankerous on us. Ashley saw the gate, I told her it was your place and she wanted to drop by.”

“You wanted to see her too, brother so cut the blarney. So, what did you think of the horse show.”

“I loved the show. It was the first horse show I have ever seen. I sat with that nice lady Mrs. Whitmire, who helped me understand what was going on.”

“You were sitting with the high faluting crowd. She’s the closest thing to royalty in Mississippi. She often has dinner with the Governor Albright,” Ashley stated. “Did she like you?”

“She gave me her card and asked me to call her.”

“Then girl you better call her. It would be considered rude not to. Call her Sunday after two. Be prepared to do whole lotta of listenin.” Zachery added. “She can talk a coon right out of a tree.”

“But only when something needs saying, brother.”

Angela had Ashley and Zachery tie off their horses on her mule and then showed them around her digs.

“Is this where you really live?” Ashley asked.

“Yes, this is where I really live and I love it. I was living on the streets, but this is a mansion.”

“Why were you living on the streets?” Zachery asked.

Angela told them the partial story. They didn’t need to know the reasons she ran. A much-subdued Ashley asked, “What was it like living on the streets?”

“It was scary at times, and it was very worrisome where my next meal was coming from, but I couldn’t stand being in Foster Care any longer.”

Zachery asked her, “What did you eat?”

“I did a lot of foraging for food in the wilds. I don’t want to go into a lot of details. I want to leave the past in the past.”

“I understand Angela,” Ashley said. “Now you need to come over to our place. Have you ever ridden a horse before?”

“Can’t say that I ever had. I was a city girl, till I ran, and there aren’t many wild horses on the route I took, getting here.”

Ashley looked Angela over, “How old are you?”

“I am sixteen and I will be seventeen in August.”

“Ashley brightened up, “We can be girlfriends. My nearest girlfriend is four miles away. If we want to hang, somebody has to drive us.”

“That is only a short ride on a bicycle.” Angela stated.

“Well we need to be getting home, Angela.”

Ashley went to a dry-erase board and wrote her phone number, “Call me, we need to get together.” Ashley hugged Angela and took off with her brother.

Angela watched the pair as they mounted their horses, “By the way Angela do you mind if we use our mutual gate to come visit you?” Zachery asked.

“No, I don’t mind, but let me check with Dan, it’s still his property.”

“Ok, well give Ashley a call,” and they rode off.

Watching the two of them ride off was amazing. The two powerful beasts they rode were beautiful, poetry in motion.

She spent the rest of the day cleaning up and doing laundry. She took time to practice cooking and the rest of her time she was cross checking the information she had learned in the seminar with official sites online. The seminars just gave overviews on this information, she was able to dredge out the meat of the information.

After her shower, she looked at herself in the full-length mirror, she had recently bought. She had put on a few pounds, in the weeks she had been here, but they were good pounds. She couldn’t see her ribs, her waist was an inch or two narrower, there was the beginnings of curves on her hip, rump and legs. She liked her legs the most, they were firm and shapely, especially when she stood on her toes. She was wearing her waist nipper almost all the time, so she put it and her panties on, before she went to bed.

The next morning, after checking the weather and doing a walking inspection of all her hives, she packed a bag for a three day stay with Margaret. Then she went to the office to watch some more YouTube videos. One she watched, was of a beekeeper recovering a colony that was built up in the floor boards of a house. The man was working inside the home. He had pulled up the carpet exposing the plywood floor boards. He used an infrared thingumajig to measure the heat that was radiating off the hive.

Angela thought, she needed to get one of those things.

The man used an electric saw to cut through the plywood carefully avoiding floor joists and nails. When he pried up the plywood there, revealing a massive comb, in a space that was about eight feet by about fourteen inches. She watched him vacuum bees, carve comb placing it in an open frame with rubber bands and repeat. He always said he was looking out for the queen. He found the queen, capturing her in a clip and then finished cleaning up. He had maybe ten pounds of bees and thirty frames of brood, pollen and about two hundred pounds of honey. She showed the hive he built from this recovery. The hive consisted of three deeps and a super. The hive had accepted the move and were working hard. A later video showed where he had made six splits off the hive.

Angela fussed around and then got her cell phone and Eleanor Whitmire’s card out. She had a full battery so she made the call to Eleanor.

Eleanor was in a business meeting with several executives from an ag co-op, when her personal cell phone rang. Gwen, her PA answered it.

“Hello,”

“Hello, I’m Angela Parsons and I am calling for Eleanor Whitmire.”

“Just a moment, let me see if she is able to talk with you.”

Gwen leaned over and whispered to Eleanor, “It’s an Angela Parsons, should I say that you are not available?”

“Excuse me gentlemen, I have an important call to take, I have full confidence that my Vice-president will be able to conclude our business. Gwen, I am only to be disturbed in an emergency.”

Eleanor took her phone and went to her office, closing the door and sitting before and pulling out a folder, before answering, “Hello Angela, how are you?”

“I am doing very well ma’am. How are you doing?”

“I am doing marvelous deer. I am sorry for taking so long to get to you. I was in the middle of doing something, I couldn’t quickly stop.”

“Believe me, I know what you mean, Ashley and Zachery rode up on me the other day while I was working on a hive. I didn’t mean to be rude, but I needed to finish what I was doing.”

“I’m sure they understood, they are good kids.”

Eleanor and Angela talked back and forth before Eleanor began to press a little for details. Angela hesitated, but answered her questions. The older woman skillfully elicited information, without seeming to have asked a question. As Angela answered her, Eleanor would make a mark on a piece of paper. She hated doing this, but a woman of her means had to know who she was talking to. She knew almost all the answers before Angela said anything. The things Angela held back were some of the important ones and Eleanor wasn’t about to pull them out of her. She would wait till the girl trusted her enough to tell her.

Angela was enjoying her time talking with Eleanor to. The woman shared her life experiences with her. Some of the things she shared were only known by a few other trusted people. They both laughed at some of the antics the other was involved in, as they shared more with each other.

Angela told her about going to the doctor on Monday, “What’s wrong dear?”

“I have some hormone problem, I don’t know enough to explain it but I hope to find out tomorrow.”

“What time will you be home tomorrow?”

“I won’t be returning tomorrow. I will be staying the night with Margaret Finch.”

“Well call me as soon as you get back and let me know how you are doing, dear.”

“Yes ma’am, I am about to lose battery power, but I must say that I have really enjoyed our talk.”

“Me too, dear. Call me anytime.”

“Gwen dear, whenever Angela calls, I will be informed, regardless of what I am doing. If I am unavailable do what you can for her.”

Gwen smiled at her boss and said, “Yes ma’am it will be my pleasure.”

In the morning, Angela showered and dressed in a long skirt and flats. Instead of eating she visited her hives. They were inactive as the sun hadn’t risen yet. She sat down on a bucket in front of her gold hive. She occasionally got a flash of a worker bee walking by.

She got up and walked to the gate to unlock it and walked to the office to get her things. It wasn’t too long till Margaret came to get her. Angela slept for the first thirty minutes on the road and woke just five miles from Jackson

When they met with the doctors, they had the hormone conversation. “You know the where both males and females both produce testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, in differing amounts. Their own sex hormone levels are much higher than their opposite gender hormone levels,” the Doctor said.

“Your testosterone levels are very low, while your estrogen and progesterone levels are pre-pubescent and we need to know why. Your testicles are small and feel abnormal. By your hormone levels, they don’t seem to be functioning. Now Angela, we aren’t trying to masculinize you. Whenever some body part doesn’t work, we need to know why. If you suddenly couldn’t walk that would be important to you. We want to find out if your testicles are useless or if they could function. We are going to take a needle biopsy and take a good look at the tissue. If what we see is not good, we may perform a single or bilateral Orchiectomy. Or removal of the testicles. I know you would probably want them removed, but we can’t do it till you are eighteen, unless it is a medical necessity. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

They talked some more of the medical full disclosure and the fact that she would only be under local anesthetic, etc. etc. etc.

Angela was wheeled into a surgical suite by wheel chair after she had undressed and put on a gown. She was helped onto an exam table and her feet placed in stirrups, she was prepped and given a shot to deaden the area. A doctor inserted a needle and withdrew a sample. They left her in the stirrups, with a nurse to hold her hand. Thirty minutes later they came back in.

“There is nothing serious wrong, but your testicles are non-functioning and present a hazard to your health. They need to be removed. We talked to Margaret and she concurs with us. Do you want them removed?”

“I’ve never wanted them take them away, at least my first foster father did something good for me.”

Thirty minutes later Angela was laying on a raised bed. Her legs wide open and a light dressing down there. She and Margaret talked.

“So, what did your foster father do to you?”

“He was mad that I put on a dress I found that one of his foster girls who had been adopted, left behind. He said, “I will show you that you’re are a boy and not a girl” He kicked me in the balls and said, “Real girls don’t hurt like that when they are kicked there. Boy, did it hurt. My foster mother gave me some pain pills and she put a bag of ice on me, for a couple of days. I hurt for about two weeks. I never said anything about it because I was afraid of him.”

Margaret was given instructions on Angela’s care and they left after two. At Margaret’s place, Margaret had set up a lounge chairs and umbrellas fifteen feet away from the hives. Angela loved watching bees. They had a long talk, where Angela talked more explicitly about her time in foster care.

When Margaret had to go inside for one of her other patients, Angela just sat there. A couple of bees landed on her and walked around a bit, “Hey ladies, how are you doing?” She said. The bees ignored her and just walked around on her forearm. The pain meds were wearing off, but the pain was just a dull throb. She had hurt worse than that. The bees got bored and flew off.

Angela had to change the dressing after she needed to use the rest room. The surgeon had folded the scrotum to create a pseudo labia that hid her diminutive penis. She, had no choice but to sit now to urinate and clean herself well.

She had to wear cotton panties with panti-liners. She could walk but couldn’t lift anything heavier that a gallon of milk for a week to keep from stressing the sutures. In ten days, the sutures would dissolve. She had another doctor’s exam in a week, to examine the surgery. If everything went well she could return to work on Tuesday next week.

At dinner Margaret said. “I talked to your lawyer, he said he will meet with you here tomorrow and I will take you home on Wednesday. I know you miss your bees.”

“Dan must think I am a slacker.”

“No, he understands. He knew homeless kids sometimes have medical problems. He said you still have your job and take all the time you need. That is all he knows of your condition, unless you tell him.”

“I will, he already knows I’m different. You know with those windows on your hives you ought to put some camera on your hives. You could blue tooth them to your computer and watch them throughout the day. Maybe drill a hole in the window covers for a camera and then light the hive with low wattage LED lights.”

Margaret sat there thinking about that, wondering if the LED lights would disturb her hives and wondering what kind of cameras would work in that environment. She really did like that idea.

The next day Angela was feeling better she was still sore down there but she could and had lived with worse pain, before. She dressed in pink mini-skirt and a heather gray silk chiffon blouse, over her bra, waist nipper and the white cotton panties she had to wear for five more days. Her shoes were her walking shoes, the doctors and Margaret insisted that she leave her heels home.

Margaret made them both southwestern omelets, that were quite spicy. Angela used to hate hot peppers till she lived on the streets, she changed her mind though because they were food she sorely needed. Now she has grown to like the touch of fire in her food. Coffee was another item she used to not drink, on the streets though it was warm, when it was cold.

After breakfast, she did her makeup to impress the lawyer. Margaret watched her and offered her advice on creating a look that was sophisticated, but not over the top. Angela liked what she saw in the mirror, she had learned a lot from YouTube and the people around her.

Darren Roberts arrived at Margaret’s home at precisely five minutes to ten. In the legal profession, you always had to be on time. He already had the base facts from Dan, a teenage transgendered girl wanted to be emancipated. He didn’t know what he would see though. He had seen a few males in female clothes before, they stood out like steamed broccoli in a bowl of rice. He wasn’t prepared though for what he found.

Darren was a charming man of forty-six years. He looked like a well-muscled rancher from one of those westerns of days’ past. He had salt and pepper black hair, a chiseled jaw and steel gray eyes on a six-foot hunk of a man. He earned his law degree from Cornell and really learned the law in the state house and senate, working with different representatives and senators. Those people can smile at you and shake your hand, while they cut your gizzard out. The state superior court and the court of appeals was worse, every one of them was a shark in a tank of guppies looking for their next meals. Dan was his first big client after trying to save the world in Mississippi.

Margaret led him into the kitchen, where a pretty young girl was sitting.

“Hi, I am Darren Roberts.”

“Hello, I am Angela Parsons.”

“Now that the niceties are out of the way. Where is my client Margaret?”

“She is your client.”

Darren started to stick his foot in his mouth, but years of training at the halls of government taught him to count to ten before he spoke, “I am sorry ma’am, I didn’t expect a lovely lady as yourself needing a lawyer.”

Angela giggled at the man, “Nice save, white boy. I really am your client.”

“Do you have ten dollars ma’am. As sort of a retainer. Then I will officially be your lawyer and be bound by the cannons of ethics.”

Angela paid him his due. He had her sign an agreement.

Angela and Darren then got down to business. For three hours, they talked. Angela showed him her document, Birth Certificate, Social Security Card and many other things she had accumulated over the years. He made copies of the items, including photos of her and her family.

He brought Margaret in to question her extensively, his eyes got big when he learned of the operation.

Several times Darren called his office and had his people get on this or look up that. Dan had already provided employment information. He also used his computer to check up law references and read to the statutes. He could do so much more for her than just emancipate her.

Before lunch he stated, “Give me two weeks and I will have all my work lined out and our paperwork typed out. Then you and I will have a court date, here in Jackson. If you have any problems on your status call me and I will work it out, Young Lady.”

Margaret fixed lunch for them. She cooked chicken parmesan, stemmed asparagus with hollandaise sauce and risotto.

Darren’s eyes got really big when he took a bite of the chicken parmesan, “Miss Margaret, I am going to have to ask for your hand in marriage. This food could grace any four-star restaurant in New York. My house keeper is a great cook but you are way above her.”

Margaret laughed. “Cooking is something I picked up while I attended NYU, and it’s going to take more than flattery to get a ring on my finger.”

When Darren got up to leave he said, “Again, Miss Parsons, forgive me if I made a bad impression on you. You have shattered the notion of preconceived notions.”

Angela shocked Margaret and Darren, when she stood up and kissed his cheek, “Consider yourself forgiven.”

Darren turned to leave and Margaret said, “Stop Darren. This little vixen has branded you.” Margaret took a tissue and wiped off Angela’s lip print on Darren’s cheek. “You might have a hard time explaining that at the office.

Angela just giggled like a little girl.

The big surprise of the day, came when a long stretch, fully restored and modernized 78 Lincoln Town Car. Margaret and Angela were sitting on the front porch talking at the time.

The driver got out and opened the rear door and assisted Eleanor Whitmire out of the car.

“Is that who I think it is?” Margaret asked in surprise.

“If you think it is Eleanor Whitmire, it is.”

“Hello Angela, it is so good seeing you. I was just on my way to Jackson to see the Governor, and thought that I would drop by to see how you are doing. Hello Miss Margaret, I’m so sorry for intruding like this, but I just had to know how your young charge was doing.”

“Hello, Mrs. Whitmire,” Margaret said. “Please sit down and join us, we just sat down to have some tea. Would you like a cup?”

“That would be absolutely divine, dear.”

Margaret went inside to whip up some tea, it had been a little white lie, but with a person like Eleanor, this was an expected diversion.

“You are looking lovely today dear. So, tell me Angela, how are you doing?”

“Thank you, Eleanor. I am doing good, I just had a bit of minor surgery, I just had to have and I’m not allowed to walk very far or lift heavy objects for a week.”

“Who is looking after your hives?”

“My boss Dan and Brenda Swanson are helping me out.”

“That’s nice dear. They must care a lot for you.”

“I think Dan saved my life.”

Eleanor and Angela talked till they were joined by Margaret. They had a nice cup of Oolong tea. After about thirty minutes Eleanor said, “I’m afraid that I must be going, I mustn’t keep the Governor waiting too long.”

After she got into her car, Margaret said. “Don’t listen to her Angela. The Governor would wait on her till the cows came in. You never told me how you got to know Mrs. Whitmire.”

Angela told Margaret about meeting Eleanor at a horse show, and how the lady was so nice to her. She also showed Margaret, Eleanor’s card and about calling the lady.

“I can’t say for sure Angela, but if you know Eleanor, she probably knows more about you than you know about yourself. Knowing who she is talking to is important to a lady like that.”

“So, you think she knows I was born a boy.”

“I can’t say she does, but I think, she knows who all your teachers were in grade school and middle school, besides who all your fosters were.”

Angela would check it out, she had her own smarts.

Margaret took Angela back to her place on Wednesday. Even though it was raining, the first thing she did was to look at her hives. All the feeders were half full to full and the bees were all hiding inside their hives warm and dry. Brenda’s truck was over by the bee shed, so she went there after dropping off her bags.

“Hey, Angela, it’s good seeing your.”

“It’s good seeing you too Brenda. How were my bees?”

“Your bees are doing good, especially your gold hive. I found the gold super you set aside for it and put it on your hive and I fed all your bees twice a day. Why did you start a feeder on all your hives?”

“I had your two bee packages, they didn’t have any honey stores, so I started them on a pollen patty and a sugar water feeder, so they wouldn’t starve. I didn’t want any robbing to start so I fed all my hives. That was ok wasn’t it.”

“It was more than ok, it was the right thing to do. Especially with this rain. It’s going to rain for two days at least. Rain can slow the growth of a hive.”

Angela looked at what Brenda was doing, “Your grafting queens today?”

“Yes, I am grafting larva and hoping the hive will turn them into queens. I know that I shouldn’t do it with this weather but I need to get it done. Pull up a stool and get ready to learn, girl.”

For an hour, Brenda carefully selected brood to harvest and place in some beeswax cups she had made. She melted some wax and then attached the cups to a nipple, insert a three-day old larva into the cup and attached the cup to a frame. She had thirty queen hopefuls. Angela held a large golf umbrella while Brenda returned the frame to the hive and the grafts into a special queenless hive.

“In eight days, I will cage all the queen cells and then place them in one of my queen castle cells and hope that they get mated,” Brenda said as they walked to Angela’s office.

“The bee inspector came by on Monday. He checked all of your hives and declared them to be in good shape,” Brenda showed Angela the report. “Put that in a file and keep it. It’s important. I updated your weather calendar and a few other things. Oh, and Dan has a surprise for you. Let’s go back into your apartment.”

Inside the apartment, Angela noticed she had a little more room and things looked newer. She now had two closets, and in her bathroom, she screamed. Dan had redone her bathroom. In two-days he added five feet of space and not only did she have a shower, she had a bathtub.

“Oh, my god, I love that bathtub. I need to get me some bath salts.”

“Done, look on your shelf.”

There was a collection of bath salts, oils and new towels.

“I told Dan, the shower is good enough for boys, but girls also like to take baths and just soak. So, a couple of weeks ago he had made plans to expand this apartment. It didn’t take long when you were away for a few days. He had eight workmen in here to get it done. He wanted to be here, but he’s in Illinois right now.”

“He’ll be back on Friday and he wants you back on his hives when you come back to work.”

Brenda and Angela sat and had a talk. Brenda never asked about the medical issues and Angela never talked about them. It was one thing to tell someone who knew and another to tell someone who didn’t know. Still she loved talking to Brenda. She talked like an adult talking to another adult, or a beekeeper to another beekeeper. She just loved it.

Angela put the new bathtub through its paces. The tub was a fifty-seven-inch clawfoot tub. It was an older tub and appeared to be refinished, but Angela found it to exquisite. It held heat well and she could be in the water up to her chin, leaning back to relax. The botanical salts were just wonderful and relaxing.

Before bed Angela checked the weather for the locale. It indeed was going to continue raining today and maybe all tomorrow and until at least ten on Friday.

Rain is a good news, bad news item to bee keepers. Rain insures that plants grow and grow in abundance, but rain also prevents bees going out to forage. The bee calendar is showing that the sugar maple was in bloom for another week. She locked up and then went to bed.

It was raining in the morning, her weather station showed one and three tenths an inch of rain from yesterday and two tenths today. The bee calendar said that spring sprung today, but the temperature was in the low fifties today. Angela made about twenty gallons of sugar water and she replaced the quart size feeders and added half gallon feeders.

After she dried off, she took a shower and dressed warmly for the day. Margaret gave her some online high school online sites. She registered for one, using her debit card and chose her classes and began studying. One thing good about this site. She wasn’t locked in to an eight to three schedule and she could study at her own pace. She signed up for the Mississippi required courses. She started out taking a series of tests, so she would be in the right grades for her study. She stopped for lunch and made mac n cheese with chicken strips and green beans. It was simple but good. After lunch, she finished her tests and she got an email listing her grade levels,

English 9 th grade
Math 9 th grade
Science 10 th grade
Social Science 10 th grade
Computer Science 10 th grade
She was also given a list of the appropriate classes she would begin, the next time she logged in; English Composition 1, World history 2, Algebra 1, Biology 2, and Computer Science 1.

She went ahead and began her classes. She started her Algebra class and her English composition class. The courses included a video of the class and a quiz sheet she had to answer for each class, with a reading requirement. The reading consisted of Kindle books she downloaded. She downloaded all her text books.

She wanted to get an iPad so she could carry her books with her.

Around seven she got a call on her cell phone, it was Eleanor.

“Hello, Mrs. Whitmire.”

“Hello, Angela how are you feeling.”

“Much better. I can hardly have any pain at all unless I move too quickly in the wrong direction.”

“Follow your Doctor’s orders. So, what are you doing tomorrow.”

“Not much, really can’t work with the bees in this weather. I do need to buy an iPad if I can get a ride in town. I am beginning to take some high school classes online. The books are all Kindle Books.”

“That is wonderful. I can pick you up at ten, we can shop and then lunch in the city and dinner at my home.”

“I wasn’t fishing for a ride with you, but I would appreciate the ride. I can’t wait till I get a driver’s license.”

“Wonderful. I was offering because I am free tomorrow. You know, you are like every teenager wanting to hurry up and learn to drive.”

“Thank you very much Eleanor. I will be ready.”

The next morning Angela checked the weather. The temperature was in the upper forties, she had seven tenths of an inch of rain yesterday and two tenths so far today. The forecast was for the rain to stop between ten and noon as the front passes through. Temperatures should begin to warm to a high in the low sixties by three.

She fed her hives and picked up some debris from the trees. All the bees were sucking up the sugar water. The skies didn’t look as dark and it was just sprinkling outside. She would feed them pollen patties tomorrow if the rain stopped and it was warm.

She went inside and began cleaning up. She corseted herself so she could wear her black pant suit, put on stockings and put on a frilly white blouse to wear under her jacket. She chose a pair of black stilettos to go with the suit and created a suitable daytime look with her hair and makeup.

With two hours to go before ten she started on her World History class and her Biology class. She had just started her Biology quiz sheet when she heard the buzzer. Eleanor walked into the office as Angela was finishing up.

“What are you doing, Angela?”

“I am taking some high school classes till I can start high school in the fall. That is why I wanted the iPad, my texts are all Kindle… Finished, I got an A on the quiz sheet. That and reading are their homework.”

“That is wonderful dear. I like that look on your.” Eleanor said, looking Angela over.

Angela closed her classroom and grabbed her purse.

Eleanor drove them to the store where Angela got her phone.

“Hi, your back, what can we do for you today.”

“Mr. McNeil bought me my phone here and now I need an iPad.”

“Sure, we will just put it on the account, which iPad do you want.”

“Give her the 128GB iPad Pro Emily. It is for her work, Emily.”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Whitmire.”

Emily set the iPad up out on Dan’s account and helped Angela setup her email, her amazon account and her bank account. They went to the Apple Store and picked out a dozen apps. Emily taught Angela how to use the iPad and many of the apps.

Angela’s hobo style bag was just large enough to contain it in its cover.

From the phone store, they went out to eat. Eleanor received first class treatment at the restaurant she chose.

Angela told Eleanor more of her story and had an idea, “After my parents died, I was placed with three foster families, The Brooks, the Carson’s and the Simpson’s,” which was true. “The last family was a little unbearable, but they were the best at the same time. They didn’t hurt us or treat us poorly, we were just a commodity to them. Betty Simpson,” false name. “Counted every calorie we ate.”

“Betty Simpson?” Eleanor asked, when the name didn’t match what was in her file.

“Caught you. It was Beatrice Simpson. How long have you known?”

“You really are something else, Angela. Yes, I know and yes, I checked you out. I knew a few days before you called. I don’t mind you being transgendered. Although I hardly believed what I read. You are such a natural girl… no make that a woman. You look between eighteen and twenty. By the way, where did you get that suit?”

“It belonged to Samantha, Dan’s daughter. It doesn’t bother you, that I am transgendered?”

“Should it? Twenty years ago, it might have bothered me. It has to do with my rearing, you know. Things were different back then, less flexible. We all learn as we grow. My feelings now are, you haven’t hurt anybody, you are a hard worker and without you telling me, I would never have believed it. Believe this Angela you are a far better woman than many I deal with.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Angela felt like crying and Eleanor put her arm around the girl.

“Now, now girl, don’t ruin your pretty makeup.”

“The medical reason I was at the doctor’s office,” Angela said, sniffling. “My mother and father let me grow up as a girl. I dressed as a girl and did girl things with Mom. My first fosters, all my fosters for that fact didn’t let me live as a girl. My first foster father though was cruel. He caught me in a dress, that one of his previous kids had left. He told me he could prove I was a boy and not a girl. He kicked me between the legs so hard. His wife gave me some good pain meds and iced me down, down there. The doctors found that my testis didn’t work and to keep them could prove hazardous to my health. They removed them Monday after a biopsy.”

“Oh, you poor girl. Why are people so cruel to each other?”

They finished their meals, but instead of going home. Eleanor drove them to a Nordstrom. She led Angela to the women’s section and asked a sales representative if Jenifer was on today. The girl left and Jenifer Woods came out.

“This is my niece; this suit is the wrong size for her. I want her decked out in teen and business fashion from skin out.” She said, making a list of what she wanted. “She is not to know the price. I will be back in four hours.”

Jenifer smiled like a shark smelling blood and got to work. Today would be a big payday for her. She had a lot to do and not a lot of time. Poor Angela didn’t know what hit her. She tried to explain that she didn’t need all these clothes.

“Honey it’s like this, I want to keep my job. If I don’t do as she said, I will be out of here. So be nice and get dressed. We have a lot to do.”

“Help me, I am being devoured by a clothing monster.” Angela said. All the girls just giggled at her plight.

Jenifer had three girls working with her. If one thing fit she got four. A seamstress came out to fit some suits leaving some room for the girl to grow. All her clothes disappeared. She was re-corseted and dressed from the skin out, they did let her change her panties in a dressing room. Angela never left the back where they were working on her. Everything was sophisticated chic. Angela even got loads of work clothes that fit a beekeeper. The most embarrassing was the sleepwear. Angela had to try on a couple of nighties.

When Eleanor returned, Angela was wearing panties, a padded brief, a corset, stockings, blouse, a D&G burgundy skirted suit/with pants, the skirt was a straight top of the knee skirt, her jacket had a peplum hem and a pair of burgundy pumps with a four-inch heel. She wore a ladies’ gold Rolex date-just watch. She had a bee brooch and wore bee earrings and her makeup had been adjusted properly. Angela was gorgeous.

“Jenifer have them bring the things down to the loading docks, I parked my F150 there.”

“Eleanor, I am mad at you.”

“You’ll get over it dear. That suit looks nice on you dear.”

“You shouldn’t have spent all that money on me.”

“How much did I spend on you?”

“They wouldn’t tell me, but this watch would take a couple of hundred-thousand box tops to get it.”

Eleanor had to laugh at that, “You can’t buy that watch with box tops, dear.”

Angela growled at Eleanor grabbed her new Chanel hobo bag and followed that woman.

Zachery was due a punch to the stomach for telling her to call Eleanor, God bless him.

“Slow down, Eleanor, I want to give you a piece of my mind.”

Eleanor stopped and turned toward Angela. Angela kissed her cheek and said, “Don’t do that again, ya hear, but thank you.”

When they got to the dock, they were loading three tall shipping cartons in Eleanor’s truck.

Angela found it a challenge to get in the truck with the straight skirt on. Thankfully the truck had an aluminum step or she would have never gotten in.

On the drive back, Angela got another wild hair, “Eleanor, stop by the office. I want to surprise the gang. I will be reading from my iPad like I am giving you your schedule. I want to see if they catch on that it is me.”

“Ok, there is a pair of reading glasses in my purse put them on, they are the half frame variety.”

Eleanor drove around Dan’s home and up to his office, his Suburban was out front. Angela put the glasses on and began reading from her iPad as they approached the office.

“Your phone call with speaker Jim Ryan is at two and you are scheduled to have dinner with the governor at seven. Mrs. Whitmire.” Angela said, once they entered the office.

“Also contact Jimmy Carter, I want to know how the Habitat for Humanity program is going. See if he can find time to talk to me.”

Everyone in the office looked up, all eyes were on Eleanor of course.

“Hello, Mrs. Whitmire.” Susan said. “What can we do for you?”

“Is Dan in, dear. I heard he was out of state.”

“Yes, ma’am let me go get him.” Susan made it all the way to the door. She stopped and looked back at the two women, smelling a rat. “Oh, my god. Let me go get Dan.”

“Dan, Mrs. Whitmire is here to see you.”

Dan dropped what he was doing and followed Susan, who was giggling like a banshee. Dan had been working on his table saw. He was brushing the dust off him as he entered the office.

“Hello, Mrs. Whitmire, what can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to know about your assistant beekeeper, let me see. Ah her name is Angela, I think?”

“Yes, she is Angela Parsons. I really like her. She is a hard worker and a quick study. She hasn’t caused you any problems, has she?”

“Would you recognize her if you saw her.”

Dan looked dumb founded by that question, “Of course I would know her.”

“Hello Boss.” Angela said.

Dan’s jaw hung wide open. He had never seen Angela dressed up like this, before.

“Close your mouth Dan, around here you might swallow a bee and that would be bad.” Angela said.

“Swallowing a bee could be quite painful,” Eleanor said.

“How… how are you doing Angela.”

“I am doing fine. I have to see the doctor on Monday, and then I will be back to work on Tuesday come hell or high water.”

“I would hug you girl, but I am covered in saw dust.”

Angela came over to him and kissed his cheek, “I just want to thank you, boss. Thank you for everything. Sorry for missing so much work.”

“You just take care of yourself kid. Now get out of her before I have you painting hives in that getup.”

“She would be the best dressed beekeeper in that getup,” Susan said.

“I’ll talk to you later Dan,” Eleanor said.

“Hold the boat, she ain’t going anywhere, till I get some photos of Angela,” Susan said.

“What happened to you girl?” Dan asked.

“I happened to her,” Eleanor said. “You treat her well or you will answer to me.”

Dan just laughed and held up his hands in surrender, “I’m not going to go up against you, Mrs. Whitmire, I will be a good boy.”

There was crowd of people waiting when Eleanor and Angela left the office. Most of the guys were wolf whistling.

“I think they are whistling at you, Eleanor.”

“You’re a sweet girl Angela, but I know better than that. My dear.”

The beekeepers weren’t allowed to hug her in her new clothes. Angela just gave promises of a hug to her friends.

When they finally got on the road, there was a car waiting on them when they drove up at Angela’s place. The car followed them up to the office. Eleanor had Angela unlock the bay door and Eleanor backed into the bay.

“Angela this is my personal assistant Gwendolyn Manning. Gwen this is Angela Parsons.”

“Hello, Miss Parsons.”

“Please call me Angela, and hello, Miss Manning.”

“It’s Gwen.”

“Gwen get Gus to unload my truck and have the girls clear out her closet and hang, fold and put her new things away. Angela give your keys to Gwen and she will see to it that the place is secure. You’re going with me to my home.”

“Don’t get rid of my jeans, my work shirts or my shoes, especially my work boots, I need them.”

“Of course, Miss Parson.”

It took Gus twenty minutes to carefully unload the truck. Then the girls dug in after being shown where the apartment was.

Angela then went with Eleanor to her place.

The girls bagged all of Angela’s old clothes, except for her good underwear, shoes and work clothes. Then they cleaned all the closets and drawers, before they began to work unpacking the cartons. Gwen organized it like a military operation. One girl found Samantha’s toys and wasn’t bothered by them. She just washed them in the sink, disinfected them with bleach and put them away in the nightstand by the bed, for Angela to use. After the girls finished with arranging and putting away the new clothes. The girls had to be creative with the space to get everything organized. They spent an hour cleaning and sprucing up, Angela’s living quarters and bathroom. Angela could eat off the floor if she wanted to. They cleaned and rearranged the kitchen space. They then cleaned up the office taking care not to erase the dry-erase boards. They put drapes up over every window. Gwen put the finishing touches by centering a large Pooh-bear on the bed.

She then packed an overnight bag with Angela’s new clothes; selecting a Chic outfit for tomorrow, her underwear, including a corset and her makeup. Gwen made sure of adding one of Samantha’s toys to the bag, so Angela could take care of business that night if she needed to. The other girls were already outside, so Gwen kissed the tip of the dildo, and dreamed about Angela using it in her vagina.

They locked up and secured the place.

Eleanor drove her truck less than a mile and a quarter to her estate. It was big, Angela remembered seeing it on the satellite map in her office. Eleanor’s property fell into Angela’s two-and-a-half-mile circle, at least most of it did. There was an orchard of peaches and other trees galore. Her bees would be foraging here for sure. There was, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Angela was looking so hard at the pollen and nectar sources she missed the home at first. Her jaw hung open when she did see the mansion. It was an old Plantation home, improved, from the 1840’s. Two servants met them as they drove up.

One of the servants opened Angela’s door and the other helped Eleanor exit the truck and then moved the truck to the car barn. Angela and Eleanor then went into the home. Angela could picture herself in an ante-bellum gown with lace gloves and parasol, walking up the steps to this mansion.

“So, what do you think of my home, Angela?”

“Oh, Eleanor it is lovely. It looks just like the pictures I have seen of the deep south plantations.”

“It is a pre-civil war Era plantation from my husband’s side of the family. It is the old Whitmire Estate.”

The head housekeeper met them at the open front door, “Rita, take Angela Parsons on a tour of the home. I have some phone calls to make, and Oh if Miss Parsons shows up at my home, she is to be treated as family.”

“Yes, Mrs. Whitmire.”

Rita took Angela on a tour of the mansion giving her a running commentary of what this room was and who that portrait portrayed. The furniture was all period restored, the crystal chandeliers were Schonbek, the massive grand dining room table came from the Black Forrest of Germany and could seat thirty people. There was a ball room almost as large as her warehouse. This tour was like walking through the movie mansion of “Gone with the Wind” except this wasn’t Savanah, Georgia.

They wound up in a setting room where Eleanor met them.

“So, what do you think about my home.”

“I am speechless, I expect to see Rhett Butler step through the door with Scarlet O’Hair on his arm.”

Eleanor liked this girl, Angela could imagine things like they were.

A servant appeared and stated, “Dinner will be ready in an hour and a half Mum,” the servant said in a mild English accent.

“Thank you,” Eleanor said. “Rita take Angela to her room for the night, so she can cleanup and rest a bit.”

In her room, a servant helped her remove her jacket, unzip her skirt and step out of it. She helped her unbutton her blouse and told Angela to lay down and rest a bit. She would be back to help her dress for dinner in half an hour.

Angela laid down and did fall asleep wearing her corset, panties, stockings and heels on a luxurious bed.

She was gently awakened in half an hour. A servant helped Angela cleanup her face, touch up her hair, do her makeup and dress in a lovely pink chiffon floor length gown. The gown just happened to go well with her burgundy heels. The servant took several pictures of Angela, including using Angela’s phone.

Angela was escorted down to the intimate dining room. She had to walk carefully so as not to step on her gown’s hem. The servant told her how to descend gracefully down the staircase and not fall by lifting the hem of her dress a bit.

She was surprised to see Megan, Zachery and Ashley Moody with a man who had to be William Moody. After introductions were made Ashley hugged Angela, who then cheek kissed William, Megan and Zachery.

Angela sat next to Ashley at the intimate dining table. Angela had to adjust her skirt as she sat, to keep it from pulling on her shoulders.

Dinner was a five-course affair. Her table mates talked horses, bees and politics as they ate. The meal was eaten at a leisurely pace. Angela was having the time of her life.

William loved it when Angela asked about his jumping horses. He would smile as he described blood lines, Stallions, and Mares. Meagan and Zachery were big on the training of the horses. Ashley was an excellent rider.

William asked how Angela got into beekeeping and Angela unashamedly described how she got the job with Dan McNeil.

“A toast to Angela,” Mr. Moody said, to those assembled. “I pray that you will learn and prosper. In your endeavors. This country needs more people who will pull themselves up, as you have.”

“Here, here,” the assembled people said, raising their glasses.

Angela raised her glass, “All I needed was a little help from my friends.”

The Moody’s left about ten and Angela found out that she was spending the night. She didn’t mind, because she was tired. A servant helped her back to her room and helped her to undress all the way. The servant took her to the bath room to a bath that had been prepared. Angela slid beneath the warm fragrant water and let her woes wash away.

She checked her legs and shaved them and her armpits and then she checked her breast forms, they were still well attached. She would have to take them off and clean them and her chest when she got home. She bathed and got out of the tub. After she dried off, she powdered herself. A servant helped her get dressed in a lovely white lace peignoir. Her hair was brushed out and braided. She was tucked in bed.

The next morning, Angela woke early enough to dress herself. She was just applying makeup when a serving girl entered her room. Angela was dressed in heels stockings, panties, bootcut dress pants, corset, a cream, long sleeve chiffon blouse with puffed up shoulders and a silver Concho belt. The servant looked her over and added a vest, some bangles and some long necklaces. The servant adjusted her makeup job a bit and pronounce her fit. Angela was escorted to the back porch for breakfast and met Gwen.

“Mrs. Whitmire sends her apologies, but she had to fly out to DC for an important meeting. Have a nice breakfast and I will take you home when you are ready. It has been wonderful having you here Angela, please do come back. I know Eleanor loved you being here. Just call me if you need a ride.”

Gwen lusted after that girl, but she would never admit it. She kept her work separate from her love life and Angela was underage. Also, unfortunately the girl was eight years younger than she was. When Angela would be eighteen, Gwen would be twenty-six, probably too old for the girl. Gwen could lust and dream, at least.

Gwen drove Angela home after breakfast, she stayed and watched the girl looked at her hives before she headed into the office.

Angela was wide mouthed as she looked at the office. The drapes, the flowers, the sitting area in front of the TV, all were new. The office looked quite homey now. Her apartment was a bigger shock. The place looked quite homey, the kitchenette was spotless and her bath was spotless and well kept. She loved the drapes over her bed and the pooh-bear on her bed. She laid down for a few minutes and gave the pooh-bear a big hug.

Angela got up when she heard the buzzer and a truck drive over to the bee shed. It had to be Brenda. Angela went over to greet her.

Brenda stuck her head out of the lab door, when she heard high heels clicking on the floor. It was a sound she never expected to hear in the bee lab. Her eyes got big as she saw Angela. She wolf whistled and said, “Oh my Angela what train hit you and replaced you with Taylor Swift.”

“I’m not as old or as tall as Taylor swift.”

“But you are just as good looking. Come on in and talk to me while I work.”

Brenda asked Angela how she wound up looking like a starlet posing for the paparazzi. Angela explained about the train wreck she had after spending the day with Eleanor Whitmire.

“That explains it. When Eleanor puts her foot down, people scramble at her bidding.”

“I like the woman, I didn’t ask for all of this.”

“Angela, she is a lonely woman. She never had any kids and her husband died twenty years ago. They put off having a family and then it was too late. Let her be nice to you.”

Brenda took Angela out to the Queen yard and had her open a few hives, all the while Brenda was videoing Angela. She could see it now. The Sexy Beekeeper Channel on YouTube.

Benda and Angela worked on the queen castles for a half hour. Brenda’s work on her queens was looking very good. She would have twenty-six queens in a week and they would see how well they are mated and they could be in Dan’s hives or on the market, by the end of the month. Brenda was amazed at how intelligently Angela talked about the hives, and the questions she asked. She had seen master beekeepers who couldn’t talk as clearly or as intelligently as that girl.

They two marked the queens as they came across some of the emerged queens. This year’s color was yellow. Brenda even added a two-digit queen code, denoting which line of queens they came from, making notes on her tablet. Brenda wanted feedback from Dan and her customers about how her queens were doing. She tracked her lines and kept long files on her bees. After they got back in the Bee shed she showed Angela her work.

It felt good to Angela to get back to handling bee. She had learned so much from Dan, Jacques and Brenda and she found bees so fascinating.

Angela went back to her office and got right back into her high school studies before dinner time she had been through one day of all her classes. She got A’s on all her quiz sheets. Before bed she began her reading for school.

Angela fell asleep dressed, with her makeup on. She was finding that she wasn’t super girl. She began to despair that she would be able to get everything she needed to do, done. But she drove herself on. Sunday morning, she set her iPad and phone on to charge, she dressed in her work clothes and went out to inspect her hives after checking the weather.

Her gold hive was beginning to make a lot of honey. It was amazing how fast it grew. She looked for small hive beetles, wax moths and varroa along with looking for all the queen problems that she knew of. They were growing but they didn’t appear to be overcrowded. She graduated her two nucs into ten frame hives, before going back to the office to do another day of high school.

She liked getting back to learning things, she took double classes in her ninth-grade subjects trying to catch up. The math and English seemed easier than when she was fifteen. It may have been that she was more relaxed now or just more motivated to learn than she had been. She then did her reading for school.

Angela cleaned up and went to bed early. She had a doctor’s appointment the next day.

In the morning. she dressed in a very soft feminine look. There could be no mistaking her intent in life. She did business professional makeup job and created a voluminous hair style. She wore her pink skirt suit with a blue chiffon blouse, over a corset, with pink four-inch stilettos. Margaret raved over her appearance.

Angela did her homework reading as they drove to the University Clinic.

“So, what are you reading?” Margaret asked.

“I started the online school you suggested and I am trying to get ahead in my studies.”

“Tell me about the clothes?”

“Eleanor happened. She asked me to spend some time with her. I wanted to buy this iPad so I could carry my text books with me to read whenever I have time. The next thing I remembered is being in Nordstrom and the sales lady was given Carte Blanche. I got a whole new wardrobe. Don’t get me wrong, I love the clothes, I won’t send them back, but she shouldn’t have done it.”

“I think she sees a possible daughter in you Angela. She seems to care a lot for you and she is able to help her loved ones.”

“That just makes it hard to refuse. I can see that I can make it now. I am good at something important. All these gifts are smothering in a way. I am beholden now to so many people for so much.”

“That is good Angela. Be gentle but firm to people, you may still need them later in life. Also, it is good that people need you as much as you need them. So, don’t be quick to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

“I had dinner with Eleanor and the Moodys the other day and spent the night at Eleanor’s home, it was just marvelous Margaret. I had fun. You should have seen the gown I wore to dinner. I really loved it.”

“Who are the Moodys?”

“They are my neighbors and they are horse people. William Moody is in his late forties. He is ruggedly handsome. Meagan Moody is his wife she is in her late twenties at best. She is gorgeous. Ashley is a year younger than I am and Zachery is a year older. Ashley is a really good show jumper, she is very pretty and Zachery is your classic, handsome farm worker, you would see in romance novels.”

“Do you read romance novels?”

“When it was the only thing I could get when I was on the streets. Some were alright and other were so soppy. I liked the historical romances the best. They had a better story around them.”

“How is your beekeeping going.”

“I love it Margaret. Working with Dan’s hives is great. Brenda is teaching me her queen business too.”

“How about time for yourself?”

“I catch some like at the dinner I went to. It was wonderful.”

“Don’t ignore your own needs Angela, you need time for yourself. How are your breast forms doing?”

“I took them off this morning and cleaned them and the skin beneath them. They are just sitting loose in my corset cups right now.”

“Good they might need to see you without them.”

They arrived at the University Clinic. Margaret was behind Angela most of the way in. Angela had such a cute posterior and her walk was fabulous. Margaret, bet she didn’t know the effect she was having on those around her. She needed to be taught to slow down a bit. She was walking like she had a problem that needed solving.

They only had to wait a few minutes to be called in Angela seemed to fade momentarily into the little girl. She held on Margaret’s hand tightly as they were led to the exam room. Angela did have to undress, Margaret helped a little with the corset. She noted the girl had been wearing a size 25 corset that had about an inch more of room between edges in the back. Her figure looked good with it. She also saw the padded brief use to create that spectacular derriere.

Angel finished undressing on her own and put on a gown.

The doctor came in and checked her heart and lungs, he noted a slight puffiness to her nipples and chest. He checked her crotch, the stitches had dissolved and she had healed up nicely. He then looked her over completely nude to observe her figure. He could tell from the marks on the skin that she was corset training.

He cleared her for work, but told her to start slowly and then work up to full speed. Margaret wondered if he knew what slow speed was to Angela. Margaret figured slow speed to the girl was fifteen miles per hour faster than the traffic. The Doctor also told her if she was going to corset train she needed to watch her diet. She was to eat small meals often and to eat nutritious foods and less junk foods. She still needed carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

“You are in very good health, Angela. I am going to start you on your feminizing hormones. A body needs hormones to grow properly. From the test, we performed, you haven’t been getting the levels of hormones you’ve needed.”

The doctor went over what he was giving her. She was getting a shot of Estradiol Valerate, one every two weeks, daily Estrace pills, low doses of Progesterone. He wanted to see her in two weeks.

Margaret and Angela left the clinic and went out to eat. Margaret got Angela to slow down a bit by stopping and looking in store front windows. Angela had to stop and come back to where Margaret was.

“This isn’t a race Angela, I can’t believe you can walk that fast in those heels. Relax slow down.”

“I’m sorry Margaret. Even when I lived on the street I walked fast. That is where I picked that up. I kept out of trouble that way.”

“How?”

“If you walk fast, you are more able to run and more people ignore you. It’s the people that sit around or walk slowly around that got picked on. They were easier targets or that is what I saw.”

Margaret didn’t know if that was true, but it was something to think about.

“Do you know how sexy you walk? Especially with the padded briefs you wear.”

“Humm, not really. It’s not something I do consciously.”

“Tell me, Angela, when are you the happiest?”

“That’s easy. When I open a hive up and watch the bees work. I find them fascinating. I could watch them for hours. Or when I am moving a handful of bees from a tree into a nuc. I’m not a thrill seeker, I won’t jump a bicycle or skateboard across a busy street. I feel a wonder when I have a handful of well-behaved bees. Next is when I am learning something.”

“So, dressing as a pretty girl isn’t on your list.”

“Dressing as a girl is a necessity. Dressing as a pretty girl is fun. It’s something I like to do. I love working with bees.”

“I see it’s the difference between love and like. Bees are love, being a girl is like.”

“Yeah it’s something like that. What I love makes me happy. What I like is good for me. Bees can make me happier faster than trying on pretty clothes.”

The drive home, Margaret let Angela study. She had learned a lot about her patient today. Glancing over at Angela, if the girl was reading as fast as she was flipping pages then she was a fast reader.

“How fast a reader are you, Angela?”

“When I was in foster care, books were my release. I got to where I was a fast reader. Like I read ‘The Fellowship of the Ring on one Saturday. I pictured myself as Arwen. A strong confident Elven Woman or Eowyn, Theoden’s daughter. She confused me though.”

“How so?”

“Eowyn was strong enough to slay the Witch King of Angmar, but she let her father be controlled by Grima Wormtongue.”

“I hadn’t thought about that Angela, you are very inciteful. Sometimes it is harder to help your friend or family, than it is to face a foe of immense power, I would guess.”

“Anyway, I speed read something and if I need more understanding or if things don’t make sense. I just reread those sections. I look for keywords, that catch my eye. I might stop if I don’t know the word and the sentence doesn’t give me a clue to the words meaning and look that word up. You know what Varroa is right. The first time I saw that word the word mite was next to it. So, I didn’t have to look it up. Nosema on the other hand I had to look up. I had to look up ATP, since Nosema steals ATP from bees. Am I making sense.”

“Sort of but I think I know what you mean.”

When they got to Angela’s place, Angela showed Margaret around.

“The gold hive had the queen bee that got me into this place. She is beautiful, darker than an Italian Queen. At a bee conference, I found the queens in those two hives. One landed on me and the other landed on a man working with bees. Those two hives I got from swarms that I recovered. The rest of the bees Dan gave me. His area is saturated with bees. Here my bees only compete with a beekeeper about a mile and a half in that direction.”

They went inside the office. Eleanor’s people made this space a little more livable. They put the drapes in, added silk flowers and cleaned the place to immaculate precision. She led Margaret into her apartment.

“I had a box with some of Samantha’s toys, if you know what I mean.”

“I can imagine it.”

“Well then cleaned and disinfected them. They then wrapped them in saran-wrap and placed them in my nightstand.”

Margaret had to laugh when she heard that.

“They arraigned my things better than I could have and cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. I wished that I would have had them my first day here.”

“Cleaning can actually be an artform.” Margaret said.

“Well I need to get back. Are you Ok?”

“Thank you, Margaret. You are a lifesaver.”

Angela went to her school and did one day’s work there. Something clicked in Algebra and it all became easier. She did a second day of algebra, to cement it.

Back at work Angela worked like a zealot for Dan, working long hours. When she wasn’t working with his hives she was working with Brenda learning how to run a queen bee operation. Brenda taught her how to graft larva into a queen cups they made from virgin bees wax and attached to a deep frame with three rows of larvae. She was also assigned reading by Dan and Brenda about bees, all the while she was trying to keep up with her school work, while she was also learning to drive. There were many days she got up at six to be at work at seven to get home at six and to get to bed at eleven, to just repeat the cycle. It was better though than when she lived on the street, but still she needed a little more time to herself.

In the middle of April, her lawyer Darren Roberts filed three petitions in the court at Jackson. The first was for a Writ of Emancipation, the second was a request for a gender change and the third was for a legal name change from A.J. Parsons to Angela Juliet Parsons. They were given a court date on the thirtieth of April.

Dan spent two days teaching her the safe way to process beeswax. One safety feature at Dan’s place and at Angela’s place was the use of a commercial steam kettle to melt the wax instead of open flame or electric heaters. The temperature of the wax could never rise above two-hundred-twelve degrees, although the kettle is regulated to raise the temperature to only one-hundred-seventy-five degrees.

They melted two hundred pounds of wax at a time and strained it through two filters the first run, into ten-pound blocks. The second melting they used very fine filters and the last run they used an extremely fine filter into four-pound blocks. Dan gave her the first four blocks of pure beeswax, she produced.

Angela did finally get a chance to visit the Moody’s two weeks after dinner with Eleanor. Saturday after she tended her bees, adding a second super to her hive, she drove her mule through the gate between their properties.

Zachery was exercising a horse on a lunge line and Ashley was riding her jumping horse around the arena. They both waved at Angela as she drove up, but they kept doing what they were doing. Angela found out that the kids used Saturdays to exercise the horses. That was their jobs. If they were going to own horses they had to be responsible horse owners like Angela was a responsible beekeeper. Ashley was the first to finish and rode up to the gate near Angela. While she was saddled, she demonstrated her skill in opening a gate, riding through it and closing it without dismounting.

She dismounted and led her horse to Angela where they hugged.

“Sorry I owe Peppermint thirty minutes a day of exercise, according to my step mother. I don’t mind it, it’s fun.”

“I know, it’s like my work with bees.”

“Zachery has an hour and a half to go. He is hoping to become a certified horse trainer,” then she hollered at her brother, “We will be up at my room, when you finish Zach.”

Zachery continued working with the horse as Angela followed Ashley into the barn. Peppermint was in horse heaven as Angela was co-opted into helping brush her down. The girls found all her itches as they brushed her. Peppermint was neighing and her legs would twitch as they found one good spot after another.

“Every other Saturday, Peppermint and I practice jumping. She is a good jumper, but next year I will have to graduate to a bigger horse. I will go from juniors to adult division, when I reach seventeen.”

“Peppermint is a really pretty horse.”

“Yes, she is.”

The two girls went up to Ashley’s room. Ashley grabbed a pair of panties and said, “I will be back in a few minutes.” She went into her bathroom and Angela heard the shower going. She sat on Ashley’s bed. Angela used this time to pull out her iPad and do some school related reading.

Ten minutes later Ashley came out of her bathroom wearing only her panties.

“I love horses but I don’t like smelling like one,” she said, getting a bra out of her dresser. After putting on her bra she invited Angela into her closet. “See if these breeches will fit you, they are a little large on me.”

Angela seeing Ashley in bra and panties, sat on a stool in the closet and took off her boots and jeans, so she could put the riding breeches on. They were very tight on her everywhere but the seat, “These breeches are tight on me.”

“They’re supposed to be. They are cut to show off our legs and derriere. Event judges can tell what your body is doing when you wear them. They cut style points off if you wear Gaucho pants.”

Angela easily buttoned them.

“What size blouses do you wear, Angela?”

“A four or a six.”

“Ooh pooh I wear a two.”

Ashley then ran her hands over Angela’s legs and rump, feeling the way, the pants fit. The breeches looked very good on Angela. Angela found them a little strange, the back seam of the seat tried to split her cheeks and they really lifter her there. Three weeks ago, she couldn’t have worn these, considering the way the pants fit her crotch. She now had nice lines down there.

“Why are you wearing spanx.”

“I have an athletic figure. I got tired of having no waist and a flat seat. I don’t understand why I have boobs, but no butt.”

Ashley laughed as she finally found something to put on. She dressed in an off the shoulder peasant blouse and a cute mini skirt.

“I would try to get you into my skirts, but the way those breeches fit you, it would be impossible. Your waist is too big and I know my boots would be even worse.”

There was a quick knock on the door and it opened. Meagan stuck her head in. “Oh, hi Angela, turn around let me see you in those breeches.”

Angela turned for Meagan. “You do look good,”

“Thank you, Mrs. Moody. Ashley wanted to see if I could wear them.”

“Yes, I was a little zealous when I bought them for her. Do you ride?”

“No ma’am, I have never ridden.”

“Well you must ride with us some weekend.”

“I only have half a day on Saturday, I really need to go home in a bit. I am taking high school online so I can go to the local high school.”

“Well make time girl, all work and no play isn’t healthy. I mean it. Keep those breeches, I don’t know if Ashley will ever grow into them the way she eats and exercises.”

“Oh Ashley, Daddy says for you to call grams. She wants to hear from you and Zachery.”

“Yes Ma’am, Mom. Right after Angela leaves, please.”

“Don’t forget.”

“So, a girl your size is on a diet and exercise.”

“The lighter I am, the easier it is for Peppermint to jump, but I have to be strong enough to maintain my balance on my horse. I do stomach crunches, push-ups, I run and I ride.”

Angela kept the breeches on, put on her boots and tucked in her blouse. Ashley ran a nice belt through her belt loops and fastened it. Angela looked at herself and agreed that the pants looked good on her. She just needed one of her nicer blouses to look good and just the right makeup.

“You don’t mind me having these pants?”

“It will be years before they fit me, right.”

Angela leaned in to kiss Ashley’s cheek, Ashley turned her head so their lips met instead. It was more than a quick peck.

Inside Ashley was jumping and gave Angela just the tip of her tongue to her lips. Angela was a little confused because she liked the kiss.

The two girls sat on the bed and talked for a few minutes. Angela found the girl talk exciting. She realized she had a lot of catching up to do to be a proficient girl talker. Ashley just put it off because of Angela’s life to this point.

Finally. Angela made her excuses, saying she had to leave. Ashley gave her friend a hug and a little more daring of a kiss, as they tongue kissed and another quick peck to the lips.

Angela felt a little flush as she left. She waved at Zachery, who had a different horse on a lunge line. She drove back to her place, her head in a daze.

When she got back to her office, she parked her mule and went in. She really did need to log into her school. She sat and looked at her breeches. The tan pants were two tone, tan with a darker brown reinforced area where the saddle leather would rub the pants. They had a lot of spandex stretch to them hugging her legs. She touched her lips where Ashley had kissed her and she was in a daze again. She needed to talk to Margaret about this.

She did double classes today in all her subjects, finishing at seven thirty. A double class only took her an hour and almost a half to complete. The only breaks she took were a short lunch and a snack at three thirty. She was breezing through her material.

Monday, she had another doctor’s visit. He gave her another shot, more pills and took blood to test for her hormone levels. She spent an hour with her lawyer and then lunch with Margaret, Angela just loved her cooking.

Sunday, she cleaned some more supers for her hives and took out ten medium frames for each super out of the freezer. After she finished that she did doubles in math and English.

Her court day finally came. Dan, Margaret, Jacques and surprisingly Eleanor Whitmire showed up. They all met in the judge’s chambers because of the subject. The judge looked at the three petitions and started with the Writ of Emancipation.

After Angela was sworn in, the judge asked, “State your legal name for the record.”

“A. J. Parsons, your honor.”

“Is it your intent to seek emancipation.”

“Yes sir.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen, I will be seventeen on August 9 th this year.”

“What do you parents say about this?”

“Your Honor I am Darren Roberts, consul for A.J. Parsons. The parents in question are deceased. I included their death certificates in the brief. A.J. Parsons was a ward of the State of Maryland.”

“I am sorry, please excuse my faux pas,” The Judge genuinely stated. “When were you last in the custody of the foster system.”

“I ran away from my foster home twenty months ago.”

“Why?”

“I am transgendered and they wouldn’t allow me to live as a girl, besides that, they weren’t bad, but there wasn’t any love in the house. The Foster kids were just a paycheck to them. They took good care of us but didn’t love us.”

“I see. Are you prepared to support yourself?”

“I am. Mr. Dan McNeil is my full-time employer.”

“And what do you do for your employer.”

“I am a Beekeeper.”

“Mr. McNeil, I see that you are in the court room. Is this true?”

“Yes, Your Honor. She has been in my full time employ for two months and in that time, she has become my best young beekeeper.”

“And where do you live A.J. Parsons?”

“I live in an apartment, by myself, that I keep up on my own, on a property owned by Mr. McNeil, sir.”

“Do you know that by seeking emancipation, you are giving up any claims of support from the State of Maryland?”

“Yes sir.”

“And what about your Education.”

“I am currently enrolled in an online high school, since it was the middle of the term, when I arrived in town. Here are my current courses and the grades I have obtained, your honor,” Angela said, handing him here grade report and a URL so that he could verify her enrollment and her grades. Which he did.

He saw that she had been behind in her education, but also saw that she was doing well. He heard of this school and knew them by reputation, as being above average.

“Is it your testimony that these are your actual grades and that the grades are your own individual effort.”

“Yes sir.”

“Have you brought any witnesses that wish to speak on your behalf?”

Dan McNeil, Jacques Boudreaux, Margaret Finch and Eleanor Whitmire all spoke on behalf of A. J. Parsons.

“I find that this minor child A. J. Parsons is an Emancipated Minor child.” The judge signed the order.

“The next motion I will take up is the Gender change.”

The judge asked if it was her intent to live as a girl. He asked if she had taken steps toward feminization. He was surprised that she had and that she had a bilateral orchiectomy already.

Margaret spoke up towards the medical necessity of the doctor’s actions and presented documentation of the reason.

“Do you have medical insurance, young lady.”

“Your honor all my full-time employees are insured by me. I have sufficient funds to see to their health care,” Dan stated

“I see, I grant the petition for gender change and I grant the petition for name change as well. Angela, I expect you to register for school in… Which school district would she be in Mr. Roberts?”

Darren checked his notes and answered the Judges question.

“So, ordered. My clerk will supply you with the required documents Mr. Roberts. Congratulations Angela Juliet Parsons. Did your parent happen to like Alan Parsons the singer?”

“They were crazy about him Your Honor.”

“Well congratulations and my condolences on your loss, Angela Juliet Parsons. I like the ring of that name.”

“Me too sir.”

They all went out to lunch at a very nice restaurant, on Dan’s dime. While they celebrated. Darren gave her the papers she would need to give her some legal rights most sixteen-year-olds don’t have. Like the right to sign contracts.

Dan took her from the restaurant to the Mississippi Department of Motor Vehicles where she took her driver’s written test. She had to use two of her new documents and her birth certificate, so she could take the test as Angela J. Parsons, female. The test took her fifteen minutes and she had to wait in line, for half an hour, to have her picture taken.

Her picture ID would come to Dan’s home address and he would get it to her. Dan had already arraigned for her to study driving, with a friend who was a defensive and evasive driving instructor, who taught business executives to drive.

“One warning Angela, William Carter is a bastard of a teacher. He doesn’t give a damn but that you learn it right. You do it his way or you hit the highway walking. If you learn to drive from him and do as well as I know you can, you can confidently drive anything, anywhere. He was a Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service driving instructor. He knows his shit and can find his ass without a map and written directions.”

The next two weeks were the worst and the best of her life. William literally scared the bejesus out of her. She met the man at a large parking lot at a closed factory that Dan owned. She and Dan were standing in the middle of the parking lot.

William drove in, driving a 2017 Dodge Charger Police Pursuit Vehicle, at high speed and drove donuts around the two of them, forward and backwards. He then three high speed bootleg turns in the vehicle coming to a stop eight feet from them in a drifting turn. The car was even painted in police colors, without an indicated jurisdiction and had a PIT (Precision Immobilization Technique: a technique to spin out and stall an evading vehicle) bar on its front bumper.

“Hi, I am William Carter. Dan tells me you need to learn how to drive. I’m not so sure you want me for an instructor, because if you do learn from me, that driving you saw from me will be your final exam from me. I don’t take talk back from anybody. If I tell you to do something I expect immediate compliance, no second guessing me young lady and no crying. I don’t have a heart to break and I don’t give a rat’s ass what you feel. If you want to learn from me get behind that wheel now.”

Angela did get behind the wheel. She was scared to death. Her personal hell for the next two weeks, began at that moment. He was as bad as Dan told her. He drove her hard for four hours a day, six days a week and she was a nervous wreck for an hour after class, but… She did learn. She started out with basic driving which she picked up quickly, then it got worse from there. William gave her his full DSS drivers’ course. She had her ups and downs. On top of everything his car was a five on the floor, manual transmission, rear wheel drive. It wasn’t till the last day, that she thought she might survive.

Angela drove William back to the parking lot where it had all begun. He hadn’t been kidding about the final exam. Dan and Jacques were standing where Dan and Angela had been standing two weeks earlier. He told her what to do and when to do it till she did a drifting turn to a stop. She got out of the car and kissed the ground dramatically.

“Dan, you owe me eight tires and a transmission, but she will do. In another twelve years, she might be a good driver, but she passes. Young lady don’t drive like that unless your life depends on it, but you know you can do it if you have to. Also if I hear a rumor of you drinking and driving there will be hell to pay. I will personally kick your ass. If you want to get drunk, do it at home.”

The driving test was a breeze. The trooper who gave her, her test, was a son of a bitch, who liked to fail teens on their first try. The parallel park test the cones were eight inches shorter than the book stated that they should be, Angela took ten seconds to park the car. She should have aced the test, but he was a son of a bitch and deducted two points for bullshit. She, Dan and William, who came to the test, all knew it was bullshit and the trooper knew that they knew it. They knew she could have drifted into that parallel park in about two seconds.

Angela paid for her own insurance and was given the use of a 2015 silver Chevy Silverado 2500, 6.6 L V8, four speed manual transmission, crew cab, with a retractable locking truck bed cover, Rhino bed liner. It had a frame hitch and a gooseneck hitch. The only restrictions on her license were daytime only and only one passenger under seventeen till she turned seventeen and got her regular license. She immediately loaded the truck with nucs, frames and a set of beekeeper gear.

Angela’s first stop after hugging Dan and Jacques, besides loading up her gear was to the Moody place. William was barbecuing steaks when Angela drove up, everyone looked up as she pulled in. Ashley was the first to recognize her and she ran shouting Angela’s name.

Ashley nearly bowled Angela over as she jumped into a hug.

“Since when did you get a license Angela.”

“Just today Ashley”

“Hello Angela,” Mrs. Moody said. “New ride.”

“It’s a loaner for work.”

“You must stay for dinner,” William said.

“I don’t need to intrude.”

“Sit your backside down and grab a plate. We’re about to eat one of my steers. How do you like your steak, screaming, whimpering or medium.”

“Medium, I guess.”

They all set down to eat. Angela had to explain why she hadn’t been over in three weeks. He life had just been so hectic. She left out the legal stuff, but told them all about getting her license and the driving instructor from hell, that could find his ass without a map and written instructions.

“Let me guess, William Carter,” William said. “I heard about him.

“He was good, but I was an emotional wreck after each class behind the wheel. He has the personality of a bull shark.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to your boss for a couple of weeks. I just didn’t have time,” William said.

Angela felt a cold chill thinking this can’t be good. She didn’t have any reason to worry. The man greeted her.

William continued, “I think I have a swarm, somewhere around the barn.”

Angela, was relieved. She was afraid it would be about her. She looked at her watch it was five-ten, “I can check, but I wouldn’t be able to capture the swarm. It’s a big no-no handling bees after dark. They get so cranky.”

“Look up there at the barn. That big door up high is the hay door. Look at about forty-five degrees from the top left corner near the roof line.”

Angela did look, she didn’t see a swarm, but she couldn’t be sure, but she may have seen some flickering shadows. “I can look after dinner, but I won’t disturb the bees today, if there are any. If it is a swarm, It might be gone tomorrow.”

Angela sat to the left of Ashley at the table on the porch, as they ate and talked. Angela couldn’t ever remember eating a steak before. As a kid of twelve she lived on burgers or Mac-n-cheese. The steak was delicious. Angela felt Ashley’s hand on her knee. Her fingers were gently massaging the underside of her right knee. It felt good. She tried not to react and then she felt the girl’s left leg rub up against her leg.

Meagan caught Angela’s attention, “You know Angela, your life is so interesting, you ought to write a story about it.”

“I already have. I wrote a fictionalized story about a girl who became a beekeeper.”

“Did you put us and Eleanor in it,” Zachery asked.

“No I couldn’t figure out how to put a strong figure like Eleanor or a family of horse people in it without making it too true to life. I wouldn’t do that to you people.”

Ashley’s hand was now up on her inner thigh about as far as it could be, without it being obvious to the others at the table, which was mid-thigh. She could feel Ashley’s well-manicured nails drawing circles on her inner thigh.

Angela really enjoyed the meal and the company. The steak, potato salad, corn on the cob and the beans were delicious. The conversation felt really good to her also. It had been over four year since she had had such conversations with her own family.

After dinner Ashley volunteered to take Angela up to the hay loft. Angela took her headlight and cell phone with her. She looked at Ashley’s cute ass as she followed the girl up the two by four ladder. Ashley gave her a brief but passionate kiss when Angela cleared the ladder. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was wonderful. Ashley opened the hay door to allow as much light in as possible. Light from the setting sun help illuminate the loft a bit.

Angela could hear bees. She put on the headlight and got her cell phone out. She climbed up a few bales of hay and looked over the top. This wasn’t a swarm, it was a full-blown hive, hanging down from the ceiling almost to the floor a minimum of eight feet long. It had been there for years. She snapped a few photos of the massive hive. Ashley had Angela take a few photos with her cell phone.

Angela sent her pictures to Dan as Ashley did the same to her family’s phone. Angela received a phone call as the Moody’s met in the barn.

“Hello Boss,”

“Hello Angela, where are you?”

“I am in the Moody barn, where I received a surprise.”

“Is it as big as it looks.”

“I would guess that the comb is eight feet by six feet by eighteen inches.”

Dan whistled, “Oh my gosh, let me talk to William, if he is there.”

Angela handed her phone to William, while she helped Meagan and Zach understand what they are seeing, while Ashley looked on. Ashley’s hand was on Angela’s, back, but drifted down to her rump.

“Angela,” Mr. Moody said. “Dan wants to talk to you.”

“Yeah, boss.”

“Jacques and I will meet you there at seven thirty, bring a change of clothes. It’s going to get messy.”

“Roger boss.”

Angela went home, she parked her truck in the bay next to the mule and loaded some ten frame brood boxes, frames, bases, inner and top covers. Inside her apartment, she packed her duffle.

The next morning Angela was up early enough to look at her hives. She would inspect them tomorrow. It was sometimes hard, she wanted to open her hives every day. But a beekeeper who did that could drive their bees away. Bees were happiest when left alone.

Angela pulled her truck out and closed the bay door. It took longer to open and close the gate than it did to Drive the short distance to the Moody’s entrance. Jacques was already there when she arrived. William Moody was up in the loft with Zachery. Angela could see them both there. They were just looking. Angela started unloading her equipment. She would wear her veil, but take her jacket and gloves up there. She put on her tool belt. Just as she finished Dan drove up.

Angela led the way for them to the hayloft. She could see four Go Pro cameras had been setup.

“Just climb up on those bales and look over the top. You will be able to see the bees and comb.”

One at a time Dan and Jacques went up to take a look.

“I think you might be seeing two or three colonies that have built together,” Jacques said.

“I’m not sure, I guess it is possible. I do see three separate sections of comb, but they are so close together,” Dan said. “Jacques you Angela and Zach stay up here. Zach drop the grapple fork down William and I will send up the equipment.

With Zachery on the guy rope, William and Dan got the equipment tied onto the rope and pulled it up to the loft, where Zachery pulled it inside. Jacques set up a folding table set up the brood boxes and stacked the open frames behind him. He then set up the bee vac.

Zachery pulled off his shirt and grabbed a pair of hay hooks and started slowly moving bales of hay around. Creating room for the three beekeepers to work.

“Angela, we will start out with you, vacuuming up bees and cutting comb. I will take the comb and pass it to Jacques to rubber band it in frames. Zachery, you should go down.”

“I am staying up here and watching.”

“Ok, but if the bees get unruly you are down the stairs, no argument.”

Angela climbed up the hay bales with the vacuum tube and her tools. She had six queen clips, just in case. She turned her head light on and set a wide beam and started vacuuming up bees, starting at on an end comb. She had to work in stages, vacuum and cut comb, which she passed to Dan. Vacuum, cut, vacuum and cut. Jacques had co-opted Zachery into helping him rubber band comb in frames. The first comb was just honey and pollen. Jacques sorted it out into separate frames. Angela was vacuuming bees off a brood comb when she stopped. She took a queen clip and reached into a mass of bees.

“I’ve got a queen,” she said, passing it back to Dan.

She then began cutting brood comb, there was a lot of capped brood. This hive’s population was about to explode. Zach was having fun, working with Jacques who was doing his Cajun, swamp water routines, as they were attaching comb. Angela hit another honey comb. This one was very heavy and much wider. She tasted the honey, it was very good. She kept cutting and vacuuming.

“Take a minute Angela,” Jacques said. “I need to change capture cages in the bee vac.”

“Ok, I just finished the third comb.”

“Change places with me and wash the honey off of your gloves,” Dan said.

“I am going to be looking like a straw man. The hay is sticking to the honey on my clothes.”

“Ok Dan, go,” Jacques said.

Dan began the vacuum and cut routine on more brood comb. His last cut on this comb was near the ceiling. He stopped and called for a queen clip. Angela handed him one. Oh, she is a pretty one.” He said, passing the queen to Angela.

It took four more hours. They had seven deep brood boxes, five deep honey supers, caught five vacuum cages of bees and four queens. On top of that there were a dozen capped queen cells. It was decided that the bees should go to Jacques place as he lived farther away. The bees would have left Angela’s place and returned here in days and Dan’s place was just inside their flight range. They sprayed the whole top area with Bee-Gone. A slightly repulsive spray, at least for bees.

Dan and Angela went over to Jacques place and began to make hives. They needed to get nurse bees on the brood frames asap. They split the bees four ways and made four hives. The confusion of all the bee together in the cages overcame the bee’s propensity to kill the queen that wasn’t theirs queen. Each hive had two brood boxes and a full box of honey and a second empty box of drawn comb.

Angela was running around crazy as Dan and Jacques was chasing her, spraying her with water hoses to get the honey and straw off her. Finally, she resigned herself to getting soaked. They let her take her cell phone off of her belt.

It was unusual to have honey at this time of the year, but Jacques was setup to process it. They had twenty deeps or about eighty pounds of honey to harvest. In Jacques bee shed, Angela was taught how to hand crush the bits of comb they had bound with rubber band. Angela got most of the honey out of the comb, but Jacques had a crusher that got most of the rest out. They strained it, not filtered it, they left the natural goodness in the honey. They had just short of eight gallons of honey. They took two each and Angela was to deliver the last two to the Moody’s.

“Take the rest of Sunday off Angela.” Dan said.

“Gee thanks, boss,” Angela giggled, “I look forward to taking the rest of my day off, off.”

Angela called Ashley and told her that she was dropping off two gallons of honey. Ashley and Meagan were both waiting at the backdoor Angela looked the mess. She didn’t stay long. Meagan took the two gallons, while Ashley snuck a quick kiss in. Angela parked her truck and stripped off in front of the washer. She took the rest of her clothes and made a load.

She took a quick shower and washed her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror. Full frontal she looked feminine, even with her leg spread apart. She dressed in underwear, shorts and T and then set a load to dry and another to wash.

She took the honey into the kitchen. She had eaten a gallon of honey in three months and now she had two. Her gold hive might actually make two medium supers of honey if she left them with two supers. The bee calendar showed two more major nectar flows one in late June and then Goldenrod in mid-August and into September.

The barometer made Angela look closer at the Weather Channel. A line of thunderstorms was headed this way. She called Dan and Jacques, who went to check the tie downs on their hives. Angela just had to look out her window to see hers. She ran to cheek, the queen castles and got back just before the weather hit. She cut the lights off and just watched the flashes in the sky. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time to watch. The latest word was that the storms would continue through Monday evening.

Ashley called Angela, “Hello Angela, can we just talk. I get nervous with this kind of weather.”

“Sure, just let me sit down. I was just watching the weather.”

“The weather scares me.”

“Why is that Ash?”

“My momma was killed in weather like this.”

“I am so sorry, what happened?”

“She was outside on her way to the barn, to check on the horses, the wind ripped off the hay door and it slammed into her. She died two days later, from the internal injuries. I was ten-years-old and hurricane Gustav hit us.”

“Well let me tell you something, I am afraid of the weather too. I was crossing through a wooded area, I didn’t know where I was. A strong thunderstorm hit, lightning was striking all around and there was nowhere safe for me. I was drenched to the bone. I found a depression in the rock wall to hide in. I know I wasn’t hurt, but I can still picture the lightning striking all around me.”

Ashley and Angela talked until Ashley’s cell phone battery began to fail, “Thank you, for talking to me,” Ashley said. “My battery is about to die.”

“Call me back later, if you need to talk. I don’t mind.”

The next morning it is pouring, Angela calls in that she is going to be studying school work if it is raining, Susan tells her not to worry. The boss is on the phone about this or that.

Angela put on a nice mini-skirt and a blouse and started up her online high school. After her classes she got a phone call from the online school. They want her to find an education professional to proctor an exam for her in two weeks. They tell her most of the students usually go to a local high school and get an instructor or an administer to administer the test.

She called the local high school and talked to the vice principal, a woman named Madeline Monning. She told the vice principal that she was a legally Emancipated girl of sixteen and that her parents were deceased. She wanted to enquire about having someone proctor some exams for her and that she also wanted to register for school for this fall.

When the vice principal inquired about why Angela wasn’t already enrolled, she explained to Mrs. Monning that until March, she was a homeless teen and was living on the street. Now she had a job and a place to live and wanted to continue her education. Mrs. Monning asked if she could come in today for an interview. She gave Angela the address of the high school.

Angela Dressed in her burgundy suit and heels, did her makeup in a business professional look and programed the GPS in her truck. From the outside, it was a rather nice building for being a rural school. It didn’t look more than ten years old. She found the visitors parking lot and entered the building through the light rain. She was directed to the office by the security officer.

Madeline Monning didn’t know what to expect when she had talked to the girl on the phone, but this well kempt woman wasn’t on the list.

After greetings, they two began a question and answer session. Angela presented her Mississippi driver’s license and her writ of emancipation for identification. The vice principal asked for two references.

Angela gave Margaret Finch as one reference and she called Gwen if she could use Eleanor for a reference so she could register for school. Gwen checked with Eleanor.

“Angela is that you?”

“Yes Ma’am. I am with the vice-principal Madeline Monning and she asked me for two references to register for school.”

“That is unusual, hand her your phone.”

Madeline Monning’s demeanor changed greatly when she realized who she was talking to, “I just wanted to make sure, that what the girl is telling me is the truth, Ma’am. No Ma’am she won’t have any problems, registering for school. Thank you ma’am. Oh while I have you on the line. I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t ask about the summer fund raiser, we are raising money to help students that need assistance. That is very generous ma’am. Thank you.”

Madeline shook her head and laughed, “You could have given me a warning.”

“I didn’t expect to get through to Eleanor. I was talking to her PA.”

“Gwen is one smart woman herself. Now you say you are working, who is your employer,”

“Dan McNeil of McNeil’s Bee Farm.”

“Do you live with him.”

“No ma’am, but I do live on a property owned by Mr. McNeil. I do get my mail through the office.”

“What kind of work do you do for him?”

“I am a beekeeper. I attend to forty hives for him and I assist the other beekeepers.”

Madeline thought the girl might be just an assistant beekeeper and was inflating her job a bit, “So have they found the root cause of Colony Collapse Disorder.”

“Some people point to the pesticides Nicotinoids, but many experts still don’t agree. There is a myriad of possible bee diseases that afflict Apis Melliferia and that contribute to the cause. I think the cause might be a multifaceted problem, encompassing drought, disease, pesticides and parasites that might have led to the decrease of the bee population.” Angela said blowing smoke up Madeline’s backside. Angela had always been a bit of a smartass. Her motto was, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

“Alright you win. What was the last school you attended?”

Angela answered her.

“We will request your records and the records from the online school. I will contact the online school and have the tests sent to this school. I will call you a week before the test. You will also need to be tested by us for placement. Is that agreeable Miss Parsons?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“I think the school is going to be a more interesting place with you around, Miss Parsons.”

The final bell of the day rang before Angela left the office. When she was walking down the hall she heard her name called.

“Angela!” It could only be two people and one of them was Ashley.

“Hi Ashley.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Registering for school this fall.”

“You look good, for a teacher. I am going to have to teach you to dress like a student.”

“I just wanted to make an impression on Mrs. Monning.”

“Come with me, Mom should be waiting for me. Zach is already at his job.”

Ashley and Angela went out and met Meagan. There was just a light mist as they left. They walked to where the parents waited to pick up their children. Meagan greeted the two kids.

“Hi Ashley, hello Angela, what are you doing here?”

“Registering for the fall, Mom.”

“That’s good Angela, everybody needs a good education.”

“Yes ma’am, It is good seeing you but I really need to do my shopping.”

“Ok, see ya Angela,” Ashley said.

Angela really needed to do her shopping, but she also wanted to explore the area. She had been in the area for three full month and she hadn’t even been to town to just wander around. This wasn’t a major metropolitan town, but there was a mix of low cost shops and upscale stores. Considering people like Dan, the Moodys and Eleanor lived around here it might be expected. She stopped at an ice cream shop and bought a shake. She hadn’t had one of those in a while.

Despite the rural nature of this area, she liked the slower pace of this city when compared to Baltimore. If you needed more than this town could provide, the city of Jackson is just thirty or forty miles away. You just might drive that far in Baltimore just looking for what you wanted.

Angela stopped at a gas station and fueled up and then hit Walmart. She really wanted to do her shopping. Angela went down every isle at Walmart. Every Isle. She bought quite a few things, mostly odds and ends that she didn’t know she needed till she saw them. She bought her food last. The bed of her truck was filled with bee stuff so her things went in the back seat.

As Angela approached her warehouse, she saw a four-seat gator parked out front. The gate had been locked so it could only mean a Moody was around. Angela looked and sure enough she saw two Moodys. Meagan and Ashley Moody were coming around the side.

Angela got out and used her key to initiate the bay door. She turned and hugged both Meagan and Ashley.

“Follow me on in,” Angela said, as she pulled into the bay. “This is my eight-thousand square-foot garage.” Angela said giggling.

She pulled to a stop and opened the door to her apartment. When she turned back Meagan and Ashly were already emptying her truck.

“You did go shopping Angela,” Meagan said.

“Yeah for some reason, I just can’t stop eating. I tried it for a week and I just had to eat. If you know what I mean.” She said with a tease in her voice.

Angela had ten bags, but she only needed to make one trip, thanks to her friends.

“So what are you two doing today?”

“Ashley asked me if you two could have a sleep over on Friday. I told her I wanted to talk to you first,” Meagan said, as she and Ashley were putting up her food.

“I want to have a long talk with Ashley first, if I can.”

“Privately I assume.” Meagan stated. “Smart girl, Ashley can be such a trickster at times. Don’t play strip poker with her.”

“I have a TV just through the door. The remote is on the coffee table.”

Angela took Ashley’s hand and led her to the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

“We need to talk Ashley.” Angela said, taking a long slow breath. “Ashley, I have to tell you something. You, your family, Mrs. Whitmire and all the people around here. Are the best thing that is happened to me, since January the twelfth at eleven-thirty-five when a police officer told me my parents died.”

“I need to know if I can tell you something and you have got to promise not to tell anybody.”

Ashley found one of Angela’s razor’s and nicked a finger and one of Angela’s fingers. She put the two fingers together. “I promise, if you promise.” Then she put her finger in Angela’s mouth and Angela’s finger in her mouth, till they stopped bleeding.

“Ok if you break that promise, I am going to have to leave this state, it is that important.”

“Don’t leave please. I like you so much.” Ashley said, frightened. “I don’t have many friends, because I am always riding or practicing jumping.”

“For the most part, what I have told you and your family is the truth. I have left out one detail. In my heart, I have always been like the Angela you see now.”

“A really ritzy dresser?”

“No Ashley, it would be a miracle it that were true. You see, I was born differently and no I don’t mean C-section or test tube baby. I was born Alan James Parsons. My body was male, but in my heart I have always been a girl.”

Ashley’s face was unreadable. She was looking Angela up and down, “I have to believe you. You wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble for a joke, but I just can’t see it.”

“The breasts are silicone. I had testicles, but they are gone. I was kicked so hard they ruptured.” Angela sat back on the sink’s counter after pulling up her skirt and lowering her panties a bit.

Ashley got on her knees a looked. Angela had what looked like a vagina, but at the back of the labia, there was the small head of a penis.

Ashley pulled up Angela’s panties up and her skirt down. “I’m a lesbian.”

Angela laughed, “I think Meagan at least already knows that, I know I did.”

“You think she knows?”

“Do birds fly, do bears shit in the woods, yes she knows. You might want to talk to her about it, but give it a month or two.”

Ashley was deep in thought, “Shit, you might be right. I think she is too, She married Dad to help us out, she was Mom’s best friend. I think my Mom hit from both sides of the plate too.”

“So, are you okay with me?”

“We are still kissing best friends though. You kiss too good.” She said, planting a wet kiss on Angela and mostly cleaned up her lipstick.

“You’ve still have a little smudge in the corner.”

“Leave a little too Angela.”

Ashley then mussed up Angela’s hair just a bit. “I’m leaving no doubt now. It’s better to leave no doubt than it is to leave doubts. If she thinks I’m a lesbian then…”

“I am too.”

They went to find Meagan. She was in the office watching the news. She looked at the girls and smiled, “Girls you need to fix your makeup. If you two are going to make this work, you need to be more discrete. No more hands under the table and clean up better after you kiss. Be discrete. I take it that it’s a yes. Just as long as you two stay here. I will agree to it.” Meagan hugged both kids at the same time.

Back at the bee farm things were in high gear. The bees were pumping out honey and the beekeepers were adding supers, cleaning super boxes and frames. Angela was on Varroa detail with another student and Jacques. They used propane powered foggers to fog the hives with an oxalic. Fogging each hive for thirty seconds. It kills the mite but the bees survive. You need to fog every seven to ten days to break the mite’s reproduction cycle. They hit all the hives during the shift.

The Varroa mite lays eggs on bee larva around day five, worker bees are capped around the tenth day after they were laid by the queen bee. While the Cell is capped and both the larva and the mite grow. Around the twenty second day the worker and Varroa mite emerge from the bee’s cell. Mites are safe from fogging while they are in a capped cell with the bee pupae. The day after the first fogging workers and drones emerge along with Varroa. The second fogging kills them and the third fogging kills more bringing the Varroa down to manageable levels. It is hard to kill all the Varroa without killing all the bees.

Varroa populations grow rapidly from late May to early August so hitting them in late May is strategic. It is all about timing when it comes to fighting mites.

Workers need to wear respirators that filter for organic acids while they are fogging out in the fields.

Jacques followed Angela home after work to fog her hives and the hives in the Queen operations.

Wednesday. she worked with Brenda in her queen operation. They were grafting queens. Brenda demonstrated her grafting technique. She grafted a dozen bee larva that were laid three to four days previous into beeswax queen cups, using virgin wax. The virgin was cups were previously attached to Queen cell bar frames Brenda would then watch over Angela’s shoulder as she grafted larva. Three-day old larvae are about the size of a comma on a typed page and are very easy to kill in the grafting process. Angela killed a fair few in the process, but she had very good muscle control. She just needed practice spotting likely larva and practice transferring them to the queen cups.

When they had thirty grafts on a frame they would put the frame into a queenless hive. Before the queens emerge they are transferred to a queen castle for finishing and mating. Mated queens are put in a wood queen shipping cell ready for Dan to use or for sale. Brenda and three other beekeepers were on contract with Dan. He had the right of first refusal for any queen they produced. He paid them for working for him, then he paid five dollars for every queen he used from them. The queens he didn’t buy they were free to sell on the open market at 25 to 35 dollars each. They made good money, working for Dan and he had a ready supply of queens from January to October. They were Dan’s best paid beekeepers.

“How come there is a variation in Queen bee prices?”

“The queens’ major blood line, how well mated they are and the productivity of my bees, the disease resistance and the reputations of Dan and I.”

“I may classify a queen as an Italian by looks or genetics but there are no pure-bred bees in the US, unless they were bred on remote islands. I believe that more diversity is needed in our hives today. Their mother may leave the hive and breed with twenty to forty drones, although eight to ten may be average. Unless we do artificial insemination. Artificial Insemination is the only way to assure you know which particular subspecies a bee is. The training needed to use the equipment is extremely difficult. You must remove a packet of sperm from a drove that is smaller than a period and insert it in the queen’s oviduct, without killing her. I wouldn’t want to try that.”

Brenda played a video on her laptop computer showing a researcher doing an instrumental insemination of a queen, from harvesting the drone’s sperm, to homogenizing the sperm from a hundred drones to inseminating the queen.

After the video, they took the queen cell bar frame and inserted it in their queenless hive.

After one Angela took the rest of her day to study for her online high school. She really wanted to be ready for her tests. She received confirmation from the school that Mrs. Monning was acceptable for her proctor and that they were mailing her the test packets.

The next day Angela and Dan went to another site of his bee operation, near Tupelo, MS. It was almost a carbon copy of Dan’s Jackson operation. She got to meet a lot of beekeepers there and to inspect a few hives.

She and Dan were invited to come with the AG agent there to a hive inspection in the area. It wasn’t one of those good inspections. Angela got to see, first hand, the inspection of and destruction of a hive infected with American Foulbrood.

The first thing that Angela noticed was the smell. The hive smelled of decay. She then opened the hive, taking each part of the hive and putting it in a burn barrel as she was instructed. The whole population was down to a few hundred bees. She got to the brood frames, where the smell emanated most strongly, The Ag man then did the stick test to cheek for the ropey consistence of a larval cell and a milk test, simple presumptive tests for AFB. The official tests are done in the State Bee Labs. The bees were then sprayed with diesel fuel and they waited several minutes till they were all dead, then the hive was burnt in the burn barrel.

Angela was crushed at the fate of the sick hive. The Ag man then did tests on several other hives, putting one more to the torch.

The next day they drove from Tupelo to Clarksdale, Ms. Angela got good look at this place.

“I have one other place near Hattiesburg, MS. That is why I am out of town all the time and why you are keeping up with my hives now. I was just getting where I can’t keep them up as I should. I had been switching from a beekeeper to a business executive. Since you came into my life though Angela, I am spending more time with my bees. Thank You.”

They were on the road home when three thirty hit. High school was just getting out. Angela called Ashley thirty minutes later and told her, that she would be home in about an hour.

Angela had just taken a shower and got dressed, when she heard the Moody gator drive up to the place. Angela met Ashley as she was coming into Office. The two girls hugged and kissed. There could be no other people on the place, after all the front gate was locked and she hadn’t heard the buzzer, but someone on foot could circumvent all of that. So, she was glad for the drapes, that covered the office windows.

Ashley taught Angela what girls do on a sleep over. They had dinner and then they did makeovers. Ashley got into Angela’s closets.

“Seriously Angela, we need to take you on a clothing shopping spree. Your closet is ok for Meagan, but your only sixteen.”

Ashley did find some nice things that she had to try on. One outfit Angela had fun corseting Ashley. She left the girl in the corset all night.

Ashley got even when they played “Truth or Dare”. Neither one of them would ever tell what they did that night.

Ashley hooked up her DVD/Blu-Ray player at about eleven. Both girls were heavily made up and wearing scandalous sleepwear. Angela nuked a bag of popcorn and they watched a couple of movies. They covered up with a blanket on the couch and watched “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and “High School Musical.”

They fell asleep in each other’s arms well before the second movies credits rolled.

In the morning, Ashley was the first up. She had to dash all the way to Angela’s bathroom. She came back moaning for Angela to get her out of this damn corset. Ashley had pulled the wrong tails on the corset and wound up knotting it tighter, instead of slipping the knot.

After cleaning up they dressed in Angela’s work clothes, Ashley wore a complete bee suit and then took a good look at her hives starting with her gold hive. Strangely her gold hive was on its third honey super. All her hives looked very good. The rest of her hives would produce enough honey to winter if Angela feed them, which she planned to do beginning with the August dearth.

She had ordered ten, eighty-pound barrels of dirty sugar, at Dan’s insistence. Dirty sugar is the tailings of the sugar manufacturing process and is unfit for human consumption. It is easier to sell it that way than to further refine it. It is often used in livestock feeds though.

Angela cooked breakfast for them. She cooked southwestern omelets, going easy on the jalapenos. Ashley help by chopping vegetables and putting the biscuits on.

The front gate alarm buzzed, “That would-be Brenda, she’s here to work on her queen operation.”

Brenda was invited in by Ashley and she joined the two in having a lite bite. The highlight of the breakfast, was the hot biscuits with honey and butter.

“I like this honey. Each honey has its own unique flavor depending on where the hive is located.”

“That is the honey Dan and I recovered from Ashley’s barn.” Angela told Brenda.

Brenda went to work with her bees and the girls changed to skirt, blouses and heels.

Ashley got permission to go to Jackson with Angela, to go shopping. Angela took a quick look at her bank account and saw that she was up to seventeen thousand dollars. She was depositing about twelve hundred a week with bonuses for working on Dan’s hives and only spending for food, auto insurance and gas.

The girls drove to the city of Jackson, with Ashley providing directions to Teen Fashion stores. The pair had so much fun shopping and trying on the latest teen fashions. The girls could both grace the cover of Seventeen magazine. Ashley had very good tastes when it came to teen fashion. She didn’t like the trampy looks or the dressed down looks many girls wore to school. They modeled the clothes for each other, leaving the fitting rooms and doing an exaggerated runway walk. Angela learned a lot about accessorizing the clothes. Wearing the right scarf, vest, hat or jewelry was just as important as wearing the right clothes, with the right makeup and hairdo.

Since the girls were spending, the sales ladies began offering their ideas and encouragement.

They both ended up buying a couple of outfits from skin out. They selected one set of matching bras and panties. The bra and panties were on the sexy, racy side. They agreed to wear their matching underwear where ever they were on Saturday. This being Saturday, they left the store wearing them.

They stopped at the mall’s food court to eat. The place was crowded with the under eighteen crowd, eating, drinking and watching the other under eighteen kids. Being two hot chicks they had to fend off the attentions of many of the male species, there. Ashley provided Angela with suitable instructions on how to say no without being mean. Although with one group they had to be mean. The boys were trolling the food court and mall security came and gave them assistance in how to leave the mall, the boys that is.

Angela did buy some horse riding clothes, a complete set including the knee-high riding boots and knee length spanx. The spanx were to help present friction rashes and help keep muscle soreness to a minimum. Ashley promised to take Angela riding tomorrow.

They left the Mall and hit a movie at the theater. The theater was one of those movie taverns where you could eat a meal while watching a movie. Ashley and Angela held hands for most of the movie, except when someone was around, like their waiter.

Ashley called her stepmother, when she was back in the area.

“Boys are lucky, they can go pretty much where they want. Zach, can just leave a note and drive to Gulfport with his guys, but I have to call in.”

“Calling in shows that you are responsible enough to follow the rules. You build up respect with Meagan, when you follow the rules.”

“I know, I almost wish…” Ashley almost said that she wished that she was like Angela. She stopped as she realized what that would mean.

Angela was perceptive enough to know what her friend was going to say, “I know what you mean, Ashley, but I would live in a convent if I could get my parents back, with all of their rules.”

They kissed for a bit and then Ashley drove her gator home with all her purchases.

The next day, Angela was in and out of a saddle inside a small corral, wearing her new outfit riding an English saddle. Meagan and Ashley tagged team Angela, teaching her how to ride properly. She was on a pony named cinnamon twist, because of her coloring. After an hour of instruction, the three of them went on a short ride of about a mile and a half. Angela was a little sore from the ride.

“Every rider gets saddle soreness when they first start.” Meagan stated. “The tight pants helps reduce chaffing and friction burns and help support the muscles around the legs and rump. You are using different muscles than you had been.”

“Can you come with us to a show jumping event next weekend in Memphis?” Ashley asked.

“Check with me on Wednesday, Ashley. I need to do things this week.”

“Mrs. Monning had called Saturday evening, she had received the tests and Angela was to come in on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Angela had called Dan and informed him. She also talked to Margaret over the phone.

Tuesday Angela dressed in one of her teen fashion outfits. She had a blouse, pants, vest and heels. Her makeup was school girl basic and she went with big hair today. She would take three tests today and two tomorrow. She met with Mrs. Monning in the school’s conference room. Each test was allotted an hour and a half. The tests were harder than she expected, so she wound up using most of her time.

Mrs. Monning looked over the previous test as Angela was doing her next test. She was surprised at the complexity of the tests and how well Angela was doing on all the parts of the test. Mrs. Monning didn’t say anything. Angela still had to come in and do testing, but she was certain that Angela would be starting in the eleventh grade in all her courses. She did well in, English, Math and Science. She needed work in history, but was passing and she was a little behind in computer science.

Wednesday, she finished her tests by noon. Very mentally stressed. It was a chocolate shake kind of day. She drove to the ice cream parlor and got her shake. School had been out for a week and there were quite a few kids there. Angela took a seat and sipped on her shake. A couple of guys hit on her but she looked older than many of the kids there. One lady pulled into the shop in her BMW convertible and left her top down. Angela liked the vehicle, but she liked her truck better.

“Oh my,” Angela said. A large of bees swooped in and took up residence in her convertible. “Lady,” Angela said, after going over to her. “I hope you don’t have to be anywhere soon. Your car just filled up with bees.”

The lady gave out a short string of cuss words. “What am I going to do?” She asked.

“Hi my name is Angela and I am a beekeeper, Let me call someone.”

Angela called Jacques, as Dan was out of town. “Hi Jacques, have you ever seen a eighty-thousand-dollar car filled with bees?” She sent him a picture. Jacques said, he would be there in an hour.

The bees were being a little bit of a horse’s ass. So she put on her full Bee suit and started her smoker. There was quite a crowd when Jacques and a student arrived. Seeing Angela in her suit, they too suited up.

“Hi Jacques, how are you?”

“Doing good, Angela. This is a one of my new students. Rick Samples meet Angela Parsons.”

The two said, their hellos and then Jacques asked, “What do we have here?”

“I think it is a swarm of feral bees. They were kind of testy. I got bumped about fifteen times just looking at them from ten feet. No stings though.”

The three of them went to talk to the lady.

Angela introduced the lady to Jacques and Rick. The lady introduced herself as Rebecca Comings. “I know this will take a while, but how long will it take to clear my car. I’m supposed to be somewhere in an hour. I already can’t make it.”

“It depends on how well the bees co-operate, it will take a minimum of two hours to clear all the bees out maybe four hours.”

“Please do what you need to do, try not to hurt the car, pretty please. Just get them out.”

Rebecca retreated into the ice cream parlor, people were setting up GoPro camera’s everywhere from many different angles. It would be the most videoed bees capture known, as more than fifteen YouTubers and a news crew filmed the capture, not counting all the cell phone videos. The ice cream shop was doing land office business. One brave soul asked if he could set one up on Angela’s truck.

The three beekeepers set their own camera’s up along with their bee vac. They took turns getting into the car and vacuum out the bees slowly. Police had come and set up a perimeter around the car, as there was a cloud of bees around them now. Rick was the first person to find the queen, but then Angela found two, Jacques wasn’t left out and found the largest queen.

“I think a hive ready to swarm might have completely abandoned their hive. We might have twenty thousand bees here,” Jacques said.

They got all the bees vacuumed that they could and had to wait for some to alight, before going for more.

Mrs. Monning was sitting on her car just outside the perimeter, watching the beekeepers work. She thought one was Angela Parsons, but wasn’t sure till the older one called for her.

Jacques talked to the Lady and asked if they could spray the car with Bella B, a repellant beekeepers will sometimes use. Rebecca looked at the bottle and smelled it.

“It’s not too bad. Use it if it will get me out of here faster. It doesn’t stain leather, will it?”

“We can spray it on the carpet. Your car had dark carpet. It shouldn’t stain it. Or you can wait till we get all the bees. I asked about it because I can’t guarantee the leather seats.”

“Use it. I need to go.”

First Jacques asked Rick to drive the bees to his home. Angela got in the car spraying under the seats and the floor mats front and back, while Jacques video-taped Angela working. Ten to fifteen minutes later, the bees had dispersed. They couldn’t detect their queens and the smell irritated them. Angela and Jacques put their things away in her truck. The lady hugged the two of them and got into her car as soon as it was safe to do so.

“Girl, where ever you are there is a swarm.”

“Honestly, Jacques, I was just relaxing after my tests at school. I looked up and saw the swarm. I didn’t bring the bees with me.”

“Your bees are much nicer than these. They aren’t African but they aren’t gentle bees. They did look good. I wonder where they came from?”

“I think they are feral.”

“Could be.”

Angela drove Jacques home. Rick was already dividing the bees into ten frame deep boxes. He had already caged the queens in wood queen cages. Strangely the bees were much more docile now.

“Something either irritated the bees, or they are a bipolar bee colony.” Rick said. “I’ve never seen bees change so quickly.”

They later found that a house fire had occurred a mile or so away. They figured the bees just fled.

Angela got home and then fixed a bite to eat. She had talked to Susan in the office. Susan told her to come to her home and get her hair worked on. She also told her she was good to go on the weekend to Memphis and reminded her about her Monday doctor’s appointment.

She called Ashley and told her, but she had to be back for a doctor’s appointment in Jackson at ten on Monday. Ashley said she would call her back.

Ashley called and said that they would be back by ten p.m. on Sunday.

“What do I wear?” Angela asked.

“Bring your pink and burgundy suits, along with a couple of casual outfits plus a bikini.”

“I don’t have a bikini.”

“I have a few extra. I have one that has a boy-cut bottom and has a fuller top.”

“Ok, what time do we leave?”

“Friday at five.”

“I will be there.”

When Friday came, Angela left work early at two thirty. She stopped at Walmart and bought a dozen pair of pantyhose, some women don’t wear them but she liked them.

She had packed the day before so she just had to clean up. She did her hair, makeup and got dressed. She moved everything to her truck and drove to the Moody place, locking her place up tight.

William took her bags and secured them in the bed of the truck, forward of the gooseneck hitch. Everybody was there at four thirty so Zachery loaded the horses and took off for the nearly five-hour drive.

Angela could tell that her friend was excited. She and Meagan couldn’t stop talking about the show. Ashley fell asleep after they left Jackson. She was leaning on Angela. She had to put her arm around the girl’s shoulder.

They hit a truck stop near Winona to get a bite to eat and check the horses. Zack watered them before they got on the road again. They pulled into the fairgrounds first to the stables to feed the horses. Zachery spent the night in the horse trailer. It was a combination horse trailer, with living quarters, big enough for one person. There was a bed/kitchen/shower and toilet, along with an electric generator. William bought it so they had somewhere to change at a riding event and so they could look after their horses. Zachery also liked to socialize with the other grooms, some of them female, that put arriving horses in their assigned stalls and take care of the horses.

Some of the horses even have their own body guards, 24/7. Since the era of Tommy “The Sandman” Burns, aka Timmy Robert Ray. Insurance companies who insure horses have gotten a lot smarter. They sometimes require bodyguards and order Necropsies on horses who have died and were heavily insured.

Angela and the rest of the Moody’s went to their hotel for the night. Angela and Ashley were in one room and William and Meagan were in another. Ashley was tired, so Angela put her to bed and watched a few videos on her tablet.

When they awoke at six, Ashley was spooned up against Angela. It had been wonderful sleeping with the other girl keeping her warm. She rolled over and kissed Angela, who awoke. They only had a few minutes though when a soft knock on the adjoining door came.

“We’re awake mom, I’m heading into the shower.”

Ashley and Angela both headed into the shower. They didn’t play long, because they had to be dressed for breakfast at seven.

Angela dressed in her pink skirt suit with heels, did her makeup and her hair. Ashley just dressed in jeans and t-shirt. She and her mom, would dress for the event in the trailer. Meagan was similarly dressed as Ashley, while William was dressed like Kenny Rogers dressed as a Southern Colonel, down to the beard and mustache, properly waxed. When Meagan saw the girls, she giggled. She went over to her bag and got a pink ladies top hat with a white veil, a light gray silk scarf and a lady’s walking stick that had a horse head handle.

Angela thought she looked smashing, but a little snobbish and standoffish. Meagan convinced her to wear the hat and carry the cane. Meagan just knotted the scarf and added some bobby pins to hold the hat better. She also did Angela’s lip and eye makeup, to give her a high society look.

They ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. When they got off the elevator, Angela gave her best high society expression. At Meagan’s prodding William offered Angela his arm. Angela and William weren’t the only ones dressed up neither were Meagan and Ashley the only ones dressed down.

Everyone including Angela received their stable passes and tickets for their seats. Zachery was flirting with a girl who looked between seventeen and twenty, she was very pretty and wearing her equestrian outfit, which she filled out very nicely. Meagan and Ashley headed into the trailer while William and Zachery went to inspect the horses and prepare them for competition. Angela just strolled amongst the crowd. She adopted many of the mannerisms of the people there. Many acted like real people, while some affected the don’t bother me, I’m better than you, demeanor. Angela could do that, but she didn’t like it. She adopted her adult, friendly demeanor.

It was early, so Angela continued to mingle with the crowds. The Dressage portion of the event was to begin in fifteen minutes. She found her seat and was looking around and caught a glimpse of Gwen and not too far away was Eleanor. She walked over to their box.

In her best Rhode Island accent she surprised Eleanor by saying, “Oh hello Mrs. Whitmire. How ARE you doing today.” She said emphasizing the ARE.

Eleanor looked around in surprise but she answered in a similarly droll tone. “Oh Miss. Parsons. I am doing well. You must tell me how your vacation with the Kaufmanns went on.”

“It was simply MAHvelous, dear. Skiing in Switzerland, touring the French Riviera, visiting Monaco was very enjoyable.

“Uggh you two, cut that out. I thought both of you were human. I’m not so certain now.” Gwen stated.

“Hello Auntie Eleanor, how are you really doing?”

Eleanor laughed and hugged her faux niece. An action that didn’t go unnoticed, “I am doing very well. I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

Rumors were spreading faster than the horses. Gwen moved behind Eleanor so Angela could sit next to Eleanor.

“I am doing very good. I just finished my tests from school and even though they were hard. I think, no make the, I know I did well. Tell me what is Dressage?”

“Dressage my dear is equestrian at its finest...” Eleanor gave Angela a shortened explanation of dressage as the event began. She gave her a running commentary as the riders began. Dressage was being used to narrow down the field for the show jumping tomorrow.

It took Angela a while even with Eleanor’s commentary to understand the subtleties of what she was seeing. Ashley’s turn came before Meagan’s. Eleanor was quite complementary of the young girl’s riding, as she performed her tasks, she praised her posture, and the way she moved her horse about the course. She said Peppermint looked good and her gate was outstanding. Both Ashley and Peppermint showed a lot of confidence. Angela just liked watching her friend.

Meagan came on as the adults started riding. Meagan and Chestnut Blue were good, but not as good as Ashley and Peppermint. Ashley scored a nine and Meagan scored an eight point five. They both scored well enough to pass onto the jumping event.

Angela’s phone rang a little before noon. Ashley was in her families box and wondered where Angela was. “Hi Ashley I am sitting with Eleanor two boxes over and one down.”

Ashley hugged both Angela and Mrs. Whitmire, Angela changed seats with Gwen and sat down with her friend.

“Dad is taking us to lunch in an hour. He is looking at a new horse for me, an Appaloosa gelding named Comanche Prince. Dad, Mom and Zach are looking him over with the vet. My parents, asked me to come get you and have you out back at one.”

Angela looked at her watch and saw they had an hour. “We have an hour then. Are you going to ride Comanche Prince tomorrow?”

“No I haven’t trained on him. We both have to learn to trust each other, before we compete.”

They were watching a male rider doing the Dressage. “He is very good. I would love to have that horse. The horse is Indian Sunset and the rider is Henry Blackfield. They were National champs last year. Indian Sunset is a retired racehorse. He place fourth at the derby two-years ago. That is a three million dollar horse. When he isn’t show jumping he is sitting stud.”

Henry and Indian Sunset, scored a nine point five, for their run through dressage. They watched a few more riders, before they left, to head to the stables.

They both gave Eleanor hugs and kisses before they headed to the stables. That had more than a few tongues waggling, wondering who the girl in pink was and what her connection to Mrs. Whitmire was.

Back at the stables Zachery was working with an Appaloosa on a lunge line. The horse was taking some low jumps while the men were paying close attention to the animal’s form. Then Meagan got on him and rode him around in dressage style and then through a few regulation jumps.

William saw that Ashley and Angela were back. He asked Ashley to ride the horse. Zachery gave his sister a leg up, she sprung up with a grip on the reins, landing softly in the saddle. Ashley leaned over and whispered softly in the horse’s ear while lightly rubbing his neck.

Ashley started off at a cantor doing figure eights, to get used to the horse. She then took four standard jumps with the horse. Comanche Prince was responsive to her and took the jumps well. She then did some of her dressage tasks.

Her father taught her how to react to a horse he was thinking of buying. She was to have a neutral response, when asked about the horse. She had keywords that told William that she liked the horse. “He needs training, but he will suffice,” told him that Ashley loved the horse. It wasn’t a done deal as William and the horse seller needed to barter, after he had a talk with a vet William trusted. That would take a few days because the vet took blood and other samples to test.

They left the exercise yard and the stables, heading out to a restaurant. After they gave the waiter their orders, the Moody’s began to discuss Comanche Prince. William pulled out a prospectus on the horse.

“The horse was five years old, as a racehorse he was only good as a racehorse. Out of fifteen races he had three places and four shows, but never won a race. He seemed to run better behind another horse. Mark Blaine bought him to use as a show jumper. He did well but he was never a champion.”

Zachery then spoke, “I have looked at the tapes of Mark riding Comanche Prince. He was always a little heavy handed with the horse. One thing I do know is that the horse has good form. Mark weighs in at one-eighty-five to your one-fifteen. You have firm hands but you are softer at the reigns. I can’t say he will win for you, but it is possible.”

“He wants four and a quarter for him,” William stated.

“Peppermint only cost forty-two,” Ashley said. “We can use her as a brood-mare, Comanche Prince is a gelding. If he can’t jump he is just a pretty horse. I like him but I’m not sure he is worth the price. Also in timed jump off he isn’t chasing another horse.”

“My feelings exactly. Mike lost four events in timed jump offs. He seems to love jumping, but he is a little slow accelerating off a jump. He will give you clean runs but… I think he is good, but at that price no. I will wait on the vet report, before negotiating.”

That evening after watching some more dressage and eating dinner they all went back to their rooms.

“You girls, have fun, but you young lady need to be asleep by ten.” Meagan said. “You need to be sharp tomorrow.”

Ashley kissed her step-mom’s cheek and went with Angela into their room. Ashley turned on one of the movie channels and they both got into bed after taking a joint bath and dressing in panties.

“You look bigger Ashley.”

Ashley smiled, “Yes I have grown from an A cup to a B+ cup over the last two months.” Ashley said. “I think you have grown too.”

“A little maybe. I have only been on estrogen and progesterone since the middle of April. My doctor said that I shouldn’t see any substantial growth for five to eight months.”

“Put on a bra and let me see.”

Angela put on one of her bras. Ashley felt the tightness and fit of Angela’s bra.

“Have you always used the middle hooks in the back?”

“Yes, that is what I was taught to do. So I could loosen or tighten the bra if need be.”

“Look down between your bra and chest. Your breasts are pushing your bra away from your chest, just between your breasts. When you buy bras that area should be flush with your chest. You have grown. You’re at least a D cup with those breast forms on.”

“I have grown. I just didn’t notice.”

“The way bras fit are the ways girls usually learn they are growing, unless they are fanatical about measuring.”

“I don’t have my solvent or adhesive, so we can’t see. I had to take them off and clean them early, because they itched like the devil and I couldn’t scratch where I itched.”

“How old were you when your foster father kicked you down there?”

“I had just turned thirteen, so nearly four years ago.”

“That may have been before puberty set in.”

“It was, that is why my voice never broke.”

“My girlfriend is becoming a woman.”

They kissed for a while and shut the TV off to go to sleep.

The next day, they found a slightly disheveled girl coming out of the Moody trailer. She grinned sheepishly as she scurried away. The girl was a cutie. Zach was just pulling on his shirt.

William had a talk with him about keeping safe and using a condom, while the girls were all in the trailer getting dressed. The first time that Angela saw Meagan just wearing her panties, she longed to look just like her. Meagan was beautiful. Meagan began with putting on a corset. It wasn’t for reducing her slim waist, it was for her posture while riding. It kept her sitting more upright. Ashley didn’t wear one, at least not yet. Then came their beautiful riding clothes. They both wore spanx long leg underwear, to prevent chaffing. They then out on their blouses, breeches and boots. Meagan did their makeup and put their hair in ponytails that were folded back and tied off with black ribbons secured with bobby pins.

Angela went to their box and saw Gwen who smiled and waved at her. Angela joined her.

“Eleanor is with one of the governors of the event. She will be back shortly. How are you doing?”

“I am doing great. I have learned a lot about horses and horse riding.”

“Eleanor use to ride herself till she broke her back in a fall. She has never ridden again, although she still supports riding programs.”

“Hello, my niece,” Eleanor teased. Loudly enough for many to hear. She did it intentionally because of the rumors her sources had picked up.

“Bonjour tante Eleanor comment allez-vou aujourd’hui?” Angela teased back.

Eleanor laughed, “Bon faire mon enfant. I didn’t know you spoke French.”

“I’m afraid I just used my entire vocabulary. I picked that up from a cartoon.”

Word spread around that Eleanor had a niece that grew up in France. Someone added that she went to Kingsworth International School in Paris. Her parents were international travelers after all. She IS such a refined young woman. They speculated about if she was going to go to Oxford or Harvard to finish off her education.

The jumping event started off with the junior division, the top eight boys and eight girls would participate. Then the top eight men and women would ride.

The big competition in the junior division was in the under sixteen girls. There were two national champions riding.

The first round there were four clear runs. Ashley was one of the four. In the second round. Ashley started out with a clear run. She was followed by a national champion. On the double jump her horse swung wide and stumbled severely injuring his front left leg, falling and unsaddling the girl. The horse was helped off the field by a vet and the girl had a dirty face and was in tears. The horse was put down out of sight of the crowd, after the girl gave him one last hug.

The remaining two girls had clear runs so a jump off was required to determine a winner. The national champion went first and posted the time for the other girls. The second girl got lost in the maze of jumps and made a wrong turn. Ashley then did her run. These were the highest fences she had faced in competition. She started out well but then Peppermint did a stutter step, halfway through the course, approaching a jump so she could get off on the right hoof. That cost Ashley a couple of seconds on the recovery of the jump. She finished second. As Peppermint rode back to the stable she limped a little. Still it was Ashley’s best finish at this level.

“Tante Eleanor, Peppermint is hurt.”

“I think so too. Let’s go see if she is ok.”

Angela took Eleanor’s arm as they headed to the paddock. Ashley was hugging and petting Peppermints neck while the Vet was checking her left foreleg and talking to Zachery and William. Meagan was exercising her horse and didn’t know what was going on.

“She didn’t break anything but she’ll need to take it easy for a couple of months. She’ll recover but, William, I think she’ll be a good broodmare,” It was the vet’s way of saying, she may never be as good as she was. “I want to take her back to the equine hospital for x-rays,” he said, after wrapping her leg.

They unsaddled Peppermint and brushed her down, while the vet went to get his trailer.

“That is one hell of a horse Ashley,” William said. “I saw her hurt her leg landing off that jump where she stuttered. She kept on running for the rest of the run. It had to have hurt her.”

“I tried to pull her up she just kept running. So, I let her have her head. I would have let her stop.”

“I know Baby. She wanted to do this for you and for herself. I got a line on another horse. Vet said, that Comanche Prince was loaded up on Cortisone and pain killers. Soon as she gets the ok with the vet, we will breed her with my stallion.”

“Sunday’s Child and Peppermint. Her first foal will be Peppermint Sundae.”

“Good name.”

“Call me William when you get home, I might be able to help with a horse,” Eleanor said. Mrs. Whitmire owned a couple of stables and had her fingers on a hundred horses that were very good. “You’ll have to train hard to get ready for July Ashley.”

Meagan rode well, she just wasn’t as competitive. She was eliminated in the second round with four faults. She was devastated when she found out about Peppermint.

They stayed in Memphis long enough to get Ashley’s ribbon and cup for second place. Sunday’s Son was visibly upset that Peppermint wasn’t in the van with him. Meagan and Ashley got him calmed down for transport home. The horse seemed to understand when the two women rubbed him and said she was ok. She just has to spend some time with the vet.

Angela held Ashley on the way home.

Angela took off her breast forms and soaked in the tub. Her breasts seemed to lift a bit when she submerge her chest. Without the forms she was just under a AA size cup, but her aureoles appeared larger and her nipples were about twice as large. She could feel the breast buds were firm.

The doctor confirmed Angela’s Diagnosis, after he inspected her chest, “I will recommend you for breast augmentation in two months. When you turn eighteen I will sign off on your Vaginoplasty, if Margaret Finch concurs. Start massaging your chest when the forms aren’t attached, so your skin is more flexible and elastic. Use a good cream on it. It can help when it is time for surgery.” Dr. Jackson demonstrated the massage on her.

Angela was on top of the world when she met with Margaret at her home. They talked for an hour about this and that. Margaret felt sorry for Ashley when she heard about her horse.

“Horse riders and horses build an unusually strong bond over time. Be her friend because she will need it.”

Angela hurried home and reattached her breast forms after massaging her chest. She dressed up nice and sat in her office checking out videos on her computer. She found quite a few of her on YouTube. In the video of her at Margaret’s she was labeled “The Sexy Beekeeper.” You couldn’t tell it was her because of the veil, but it was her in mini-skirt, bee jacket and heels. That video had gone viral in a month garnering two-hundred-thousand plus hits. She also found a couple of dozen videos of her working with Jacques on the BMW convertible video. The best of them was from the guy who set the GoPro on top of her truck. His video had a better angle than Jacques video of the capture.

She was shaken out of her reverie by her buzzer going off she stood and looked out of her office window. She could see a law enforcement vehicle and a Ford Tarus, driving up. She made like a secretary She picked up her land line phone and pretended to talk to Susan as the door to the office. She didn’t know why they were here but she had a bad feeling in her gut.

“Susan I need those end of the month reports for May, so I can file the tax reports for the boss,” Angela said, in her best Mississippi transplant accent. After the people entered the office area. “I don’t care if you are over loaded, dear. Well get them to me. Catch ya later, I have company here.”

“Hello Sheriff what can I do ya for.”

“I’m a Constable Bill Davis, Ma’am, not a Sheriff.”

“So, what can I do fer ya officer.”

“This is Sylvia Green and Dorothy Goldman from Mary-land CPS. That’s Child Protective Services. They are looking for a boy named Alan J. Parsons.”

“What did he do kill a child or sumthin?”

One of the ladies came forward, “No, but he did run away from our foster care. The Governor has sent a request that he be returned.”

“It’s just me and Brenda here right now.”

“May we look around the constable asked?”

“Knock yourself out sir, ma’am.”

They looked through the warehouse, Angela hoped that Brenda didn’t twig that Angela wasn’t a girl by birth. She picked up her cellphone and called Eleanor.

Gwen answered. “Gwen! I need Eleanor. There are two people from Maryland CPS here to pick up Alan Parsons,” Angela said, giving Gwen the particulars.

“Drive on over here if they let you go. Call me back if they don’t try to detain you.”

Angela grabbed her purse and keys and locked up the office, as the people went to check the outbuildings.

Angela got in her truck and pulled slowly away. She didn’t want to seem like she was running. She made it to the road and turned toward Eleanor’s place, looking back every few seconds. She called Gwen back as soon as she was three hundred yards away.

“They didn’t follow me. I am on my way.”

“Good, Eleanor is already looking into things.”

Another two minutes and Angela made it to Eleanor’s drive. Another couple of minutes and she was stopped in front of her home. Gwen met her there. She escorted Angela to her office where she was on the phone.

“Judge Wortman, Angela is now in my home… Yes she is alright… It was a constable Bill Davis, and Maryland CPS workers Sylvia Green and Dorothy Goldman. They told her that they have a governor’s request for his return… Yes sir… We’ll be right there, along with my attorney.”

“Thank goodness you are alright Angela. You did right to call me. They aren’t going to take you away from me and Dan. But we do need to face this warrant or request up front. I have a dozen people working on this right now. Trust me, this is one fight they won’t win.”

“Gwen have my Lincoln out front in ten minutes. Angela, did you bring your papers,”

“Yes, Ma’am I always keep them on me.”

“Let me fix my face and we will be going to the courthouse in Jackson.”

Angela was surprised by how fast Eleanor changed from a country lady to a matron of the state of Mississippi. In twenty minutes, they were on the road to the courthouse. Eleanor Whitmire made three phone calls to the people she needed on the way.

Eleanor’s Driver stopped in front of a skyscraper and picked up three men and a lady. They all fit Easily into her stretch Lincoln Town Car limo, for the short ride to the courthouse. The lawyers debriefed Angela on her encounter and inspected her papers. They told her that she was legal and that no request from the Governor of Maryland would be honored.

They stopped in front of the courthouse that Angela had previously been in. They went into the Courtroom instead of the judge’s chambers. Angela sat next to Eleanor Whitmire in the gallery while the lawyers sat in the bar.

The constable Bill Davis sat with Sylvia Green and Dorothy Goldman.

The bailiff came out and said, “All rise for the Honorable Judge Stanley Wortman.”

The judge came out and sat on the bench, “Bailiff what is the matter before us now.”

“The state of Maryland is seeking the return of a minor child named Alan J. Parsons.”

“Who represents the State of Maryland?”

“We do your honor. I am Sylvia Green and this is Dorothy Goldman. We are employees of the Child Protective Service of the State of Maryland your honor.”

“Who represents the minor child Alan J. Parsons.”

“The lady stood and declared that, “We do your honor. I am Gloria Beck. This is David Bridgestone, Morgan Kaufman and Randolph Renfroe attorneys at law, your honor.”

“What petition do you bring Ms. Green?”

“We have a petition signed by the governor Stanley Jansen, Governor of the State of Maryland requesting the return of the minor child Alan J. Parsons, who absconded from the state of Maryland.”

“Was he a convicted criminal?”

“No, your honor, we are just seeking the return of a minor placed in our custody by the family court of Baltimore Maryland.”

“In my court words have meanings, using the word absconded for a child who merely left your custody is abhorrent.”

“Excuse me your honor.”

Gloria Beck stated, “Our client is no longer a burden to the state of Maryland, having been legally adjudicated an Emancipated Minor.”

“What backwater judge would emancipate an irresponsible minor,” Sylvia Green stated.

“One thousand dollars’ contempt. It was this backwater judge, Ms. Green. Continue Ms. Beck.”

“Said minor is a hardworking, tax paying citizen of the State of Mississippi, your honor and does not wish to return to the State of Maryland. It is our contention the State of Maryland has no right to force their return.”

“That is stupid, The State of Mississippi has no right to deny our Governors request.”

“Two thousand dollars’ contempt Ms. Green. The trifecta is ninety days’ incarceration.”

“You honor excuse me. I ask that the attorney present the child.”

“The Emancipated minor is nearby your honor.”

“Excuse me your Honor, I am here,” Angela said standing.

“I acknowledge your presence Miss Parsons, please take a seat by your lawyers.”

“This person can’t be the person we are looking for, Your honor.”

“Then can we go, Your honor.”

“I think you better take a seat young lady, till we clear this manner before us,” the judge said. “Angela Parsons are you indeed the person they are looking for?”

“I might be your honor. It depends on the wording of the request.”

The judge smiled. He had already shown how words were important.

“May I see the request Ms. Green.”

The bailiff took the petition from the lady to the judge and he read the document.

“Miss Parsons has you ever been legally named Alan J. Parsons.”

“No, Your honor. I was legally named A. J. Parsons, but not Alan. I have my birth certificate, issued by the State of Maryland.”

The judge read the document and stated. “I find the request of the State of Maryland to be defective on its face. I further find that the child before us named Angela Juliet Parsons to be no longer under that State of Maryland’s jurisdiction, and any attempt to remove her from this state will be tantamount to kidnapping.”

“You can’t do that your honor. I demand custody of this boy.”

“You have won the trifecta ninety days’ contempt, Ms. Green. A court of competent jurisdiction has just made the ruling.”

“Your honor, there is something that I don’t understand.”

“What is that Miss Parsons?”

“Three things really. The first is I left Maryland and moved through four states and kept out of the attention of Law enforcement and Child Protective Services along the way. They knew or should have known, that they could never have returned me without tying me up and throwing me in the trunk of their car. They couldn’t take me on a plane. I would have raised such a fuss that TSA or the airlines wouldn’t have let me on a plane. That goes for trains and busses too. In a car first stop light, restroom break or gas stop I would have been gone. How did they expect to make me return to Maryland?”

“Good question and your second point, Miss Parsons.”

“In this age of shrinking state budgets, have you ever heard of a state seeking extradition of a person guilty of nothing but wanting to live on their own?”

“And the third point.”

“I am basically weeks from being old enough to blow off on my own. It’s my understanding that a seventeen-year-old can require support till they are eighteen. But a seventeen-year-old can’t be forced to stay with their guardian. If that is correct I will be seventeen in five weeks. That is kind of late to be worried about a minor regardless of emancipation. Something stinks.”

The judge sat there rubbing his chin. Angela had made valid points. The whole court room was considering what Angela said very carefully, including the district attorney who was standing next to a bailiff.

“Your honor, may I speak Amicus Curiae?”

“Can you bring light on this matter. Mrs. Whitmire.”

“I believe I can and I also have some questions.”

“Enlighten us Mrs. Whitmire.”

“I often have need to understand who I am dealing with and what the character of the people I deal with is. So, when I first met Angela Parsons and she told me her story. I had my people authenticate her story. I found that Angela’s father was a successful electrical engineer and her mother was a photographer of great renown. At the time of their passing their estate was valued in the range of six and a half million, including a home valued at one point four million. The home was sold on a quitclaim deed and I couldn’t find a trust in the name of the child.”

The judge looked up at the District Attorney for the county of Jackson, Ryman Samuels. “Mr. Samuels, I think we may have crossed the line into something that is of interest to you and a colleague of yours in Maryland. I would greatly appreciate knowing what is going on in relation to Angela Parsons’ estate and trust.”

“I would too, your honor. Will the bailiff please read the Miranda Rights to Ms. Green and Ms. Goldman. While I will contact the Maryland Attorney General. I also seek a seventy-two-hour detainer on a material witness warrant on Sylvia Green and Dorothy Goldman.”

“Granted.”

“You have the right to remain silent…”

“This court is in Recess,” the judge said.

“All rise.” The bailiff said.

Angela went and hugged Eleanor. Eleanor turned to Gloria, “Ms. Beck see what assistance you can be to District Attorney Ryman Samuels.”

“Yes Ma’am, We’re on it. We have lawyers in Baltimore we work with.”

“Well niece of mine. How about we leave this place and go home.”

“Sure, Tante Eleanor.”

“I like the ring of that. Would you mind me making it official?”

“If it makes you happy. I am game for it.” Angela said, without thinking about the consequences.

“I am on it Mrs. Whitmire.” Gloria said.

Gwen was standing beside Eleanor’s Lincoln when Eleanor and Angela came out. She opened the door for them and then sat up front next to the driver.

“Home Please.” Eleanor said. The she raised the privacy shield. “I hope you don’t mind me checking on your background.”

“I don’t mind. I didn’t know I had any money or property. I would give it all up to able to live the way, I want to live as Angela Parsons.”

“What is a quitclaim deed?”

“it is a quasi-legal sale where the seller grants the buyer the rights of ownership without the guarantee of a warranted deed. What that means is someone sold the property without proving ownership of the property. You could sell my home on a quitclaim deed, and the buyer could move to possess the property. If I failed to assert my ownership there are some circumstances where the sale could become legal, as far as the buyer is concerned. The seller would be committing fraud and the clock starts on the statues of limitation. Charges of fraud have to be filed within a certain amount of time. Depending on the type of crime and the state it is committed in.”

“So, someone sold my parents’ home without a guarantee that they owned it.”

“It seems to be so. I just found out today. I asked myself, why would they want you back so bad. I don’t have proof, but it is my belief that they never intended to take you all the way back. Your questions shook everyone. Without accusing them, you said, that they might want to kill you. You may have been right. If I am right they were going to kidnap and kill you to cover up their fraud. We are stopping by your place and getting your things. Be a good girl Angela, and listen to me, you are staying at my place till we can assure your safety. I would do that for Dan or the Moody’s or anybody I hold dear.”

“I will be a good girl, Tante Eleanor,” Angela said kissing Eleanor’s cheek. “What would you have done, if the judge had ruled that I had to go back to Maryland?”

“I had already talked to the judge about that. I would have been appointed as your guardian and you would have never left my custody. Gwen and I would have been with you all the way, to insure your safety.”

Angela did pack her clothes, makeup, medication, solvent, adhesive and the other things she needed, taking time to change into some casual clothes. She wouldn’t leave though until she checked her hives. Eleanor, Gwen and the driver watched as she went from hive to hive doing a quick inspection. She even added a fourth super to her gold hive, all without the aid of smoke or a bee suit.

When she was satisfied that the bees were doing good, she locked the place up and locked the gate when they exited.

Angela was setup in a room and had the assistance of a maid to put her things away and to setup her vanity.

She took time to call her friend Ashley and told her what had happened. Ashley was shocked, but she was glad that Mrs. Whitmire had been there for her. Ashley then told Angela that Peppermint was doing alright. She had a fracture in the proximal sesamoids of her left front leg.

“She is wearing a cast and they are bringing her back here. Dad has found a five year old thoroughbred stallion and we are going to a Kentucky horse farm to look at him, next week. Do you think you can come?”

“I’m not sure I don’t trust them people from Maryland. I don’t think those two ladies, would be capable of pulling something like this off, without someone else involved. I think they were just the serpent’s tail.”

“Probably not.”

“Eleanor, has a private security team here now. Everywhere I go they go.”

“Bummer. I was hoping to get together with you.”

“Give it a week or two.”

“Ok see ya girl.”

“See you too.”

Angela got a call, later that day, from Madelene Monning to come to the high school for testing, tomorrow at eight in the morning.

Angela told Gwen, who made a call.

Angela put on her black pants suit to go to school for testing. She had breakfast at six thirty with Eleanor. Eleanor told Angela that she and Gwen had to go to DC for a meeting with their US Senator. She also told Angela that she had two people that would accompany her to the school to look after her safety.

“Well tell them that I am driving and that we are using my truck.”

Eleanor thought for a second and then agreed to it.

Angela and two security people rode in her Chevy Silverado 2500 to Robert E. Lee high school. She was again in the conference room, but Madelene Monning was joined by four teachers. Each teacher would minister the test in the class that they taught. First was English. Naomi Joiner gave Angela the English test. Angela had to read an excerpt of a book and then write a four-page summary using a computer, without spellcheck/grammar checker.

Angela sped read an excerpt from The Hunger Games. Then she went through it again highlighting details she deemed important before she began to type. It took her twenty-five minutes to type the report. She then went through it error checking it before turning it in.

Then came Ramon Conroy and history. This test was multiple choice and a verbal test. This was her hardest test of the day. Different schools emphasized different things in teaching. It was half US and half world history. When Angela finished that portion of the test. She and the teacher had a forty-five-minute discussion on history, so he could get a fix on what she knew best.

Between eleven and twelve-thirty she did the math portion, given by Justin Smith, which was her easiest test. She thought, she understood how math could be used now. Basically, the test was an algebra one and two test. The questions weren’t easy, but Angela was able to answer the questions, with a reasonable certainty. She was left a with a little uncertainty about mean, mode, median and standard deviation. She had a basic understanding but had only just touched those ideas.

Angela then had a pizza for lunch with her protectors. They asked how she was doing and she said, that she would pull her hair our when they got back home. The female bodyguard just smiled and winked at her.

The science teacher had two tests for her. She had done chemistry in Baltimore and had done reasonably will and she had taken biology online. Greta Gilmore gave her both a chemistry and a biology test. What really impress the science teacher after the tests when Angela began discussing the biology of Apis Melliferia, Nosema Ceranae and Varroa Destructor. Angela wanted the teacher to know she was interested in science. The teacher was surprised to learn that Angela had only been studying bees for four months.

Madelene Monning and the three other teachers came in to talk to Angela as she talked with Miss Gilmore.

“Angela, we need to discuss your tests and best come up with a plan for you. You have acquitted, yourself well for being out of school for a year plus. We need about a week to come up with our best plan and match it up with Mississippi educational requirements for graduation. We understand that you are working as a beekeeper.”

“Yes, ma’am. But being a beekeeper my time at work will ramp down starting in September.”

“A working student can work a maximum of twenty-five hours a week, will you be able to do that? Looking at your results we can get you on a work program. You can go to school for four hours and your work will give you two credits.”

As long as she didn’t count working with her own bees she could do it, “That would be acceptable. I want to become an entomologist with emphasis on Apis Melliferia.”

Mrs. Monning sent her home with a stack of books for her to study, between now and school at the end of August. She carried an English grammar text, a trigonometry text, a chemistry text, a Mississippi history text and a biology text. Angela was told to study them in that order.

On the drive home, she stopped by McNeil’s Bee farm.

“You two aren’t allergic to bees, are you?” Angela received two no’s.

Angela met with Susan and said that she would be back tomorrow and that she would get into Dan’s hives. Susan told her Dan and Jacques were both at Gulfport meeting with a group of beekeepers down there, to weatherize their hives for this hurricane season. Putting permanent identification tags on all hive parts, strengthening anchoring systems and discussing where to evacuate bees to, in case of a close strike.

Beekeepers on the gulf coast have two options during this season. They either have one hell of an anchor system in case of a near miss, or to evacuate their hives if a storm looks like it might even be close. Their hives can’t take a storm hit too close or too strong.

Angela’s two protectors were having a look around, they had taken mules on a ride about checking out the property, selecting observation points and discussing how this place could be approached by foot and by vehicle.

Angela also stopped by her place so the two could get a look at her place. She took them on a drive about. They liked the buzzer at the entrance to her place, but didn’t like the tree line encompassing the property. They also locked the gate between her place and the Moody’s place. They discussed putting an alarm at that gate. She was going to have to talk to Ashley about what happened. Angela didn’t want them to think that they weren’t welcome anymore.

At work the next day, Angela checked the bee calendar in Dan’s office, there were some specific things she had to do in this week’s inspection. She was inspecting seven hives a day over three days to get all the hives in.

The first hive was humming something fierce when she approached it. She was expecting something wrong with this hive so she put on her jacket, veil and gauntlets. The hive was a little grumpy when she opened the top cover, they had plenty of honey in the three supers. She got down past the queen excluder into the brood box after smoking the hive. Pulling out frames in the brood box she started finding emergency queen cells and no new eggs or young brood. She couldn’t find the queen in the top brood box or the bottom brood box, but she did find twelve emergency queen cells.

Brenda was at this site right now so she called her.

“Brenda, this is Angela. I am at hive twenty-one and the Carniolan queen there is gone. I can’t find any eggs or young brood. There are about a dozen emergency queen cells on the top brood box, that look pretty good and the hive looks good, but just a tad bit agitated.”

“On my way, I will check the hive and harvest the queen cells.”

Angela then moved onto the next hive. The queen there was doing a good job. These bees were into their fourth honey super. She did make note of some small hive beetles that had been propolized (surrounded by bee glue) into a corner. She killed these with her hive tool.

Brenda was looking at hive twenty-one as Angela went to hive nineteen. The hive looked very overcrowded.

“I will need one of those queens here Brenda.”

“What have you got?”

“I want to do a split here.”

Brenda came over and looked the hive over, “Do that and close off the new hive. I will re-queen it tomorrow with one of Dan’s queen. I know he likes to keep his queens in his hives. Recheck hive twenty-one and the nineteen split to see if the queens emerged and if they got mated.”

Angela did the splits, only moving capped brood into the new hive, shaking the nurse bees into the hive. She balanced out the honey and pollen stores, eight of the deep frames were honey and there were four frames of pollen. She finished making the new hive and marked it as twenty-two. In the seven hives, she scheduled for today she had to do a second split, marking it as hive twenty-three. Hive sixteen was about to swarm and had swarm cells at the bottom of the frame. She moved the swarm cells with the new bees and closed off this hive also.

Angela made her report to Susan who would e-mail Dan. Angela spent the rest of the day cleaning hive bodies and frames for tomorrow.

Ashley called and said her family was on the road to a horse farm near Lexington Kentucky on Thursday night. They talked for about an hour until Ashley’s phoned needed a charge.

When she finished her inspection two days later, she had made six splits, Brenda would queen them with queens from hive twenty-one. Friday, she opened all the hives she had closed. The bees stayed with their new hives.

When she got home early on Friday, Gwen told her to get cleaned up. They were going on a trip and Gwen had already packed Angela’s bags.

“Where are we going?” Angela asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, Angela. You can ask Eleanor when we meet with her.”

“What do I need to wear?” Angela asked, drying off. “Comfortable clothes.”

Angela chose a mini-skirt, off the shoulder blouse and heels. They weren’t exactly comfortable clothes, but she wanted to feel girly. She also took the English grammar text with her. When she was ready, she and Gwen rode deep into Eleanor’s property. Angela was amazed at how much there was to Eleanor’s property. They came up to a one mile long runway. A King-Air 350 sat on the runway. Eleanor was sitting in the plane talking on the phone while reading something on her tablet, as Angela and Gwen boarded. Eleanor finished her conversation and then greeted Angela with a hug.

“Hello Angela. How are you?”

“I’m fine, Tante Eleanor,” Angela said, giving Eleanor a kiss to her cheek.

A female pilot came into the back and said, “We’ll be ready to take off in three minutes, Mrs. Whitmire. Please buckle in and turn off all cell phones and tablets till we reach cruising altitude.”

The King Air’s engines kicked into life. The pilot did her runups, called Jackson departure and they were in the air. Angela only looked out the window for about five minutes as they climbed to twenty-thousand feet. She then took out her English grammar book to read. She read three chapters and went back over them to make sure she understood what she was reading. Eleanor and Gwen had been busy on a laptop while they were up in the air. Angela checked her watch when they were told to buckle up for landing. They had been in the air a little over an hour and a half. Angela saw large grassy fields coming up to meet them. The plane banked to the left before the flaps and landing gear were deployed.

Angela’s eyes got really big when she saw… Horses, “Tante Eleanor, there are horses here. You could have told me!”

“What and ruin the surprise. That is what I treasure the most. You will see Ashley in the morning. Keep the surprise till then. Also I was only just fairly certain I could make the trip. I would’ve hated saying yes a week ago and then say no today.”

“Still you are a sneaky lady. Tell me that you own this place.”

“I own several such places, Angela. I was once a fine rider myself. My people breed race horses and show horses here.”

The plane gently touched down and did a one eighty on the runway to taxi back to the hangar.

A suburban met them and took them up to the house. As much as the place near Jackson was a plantation, this place was an ideal horse farm. All the fences were white wooden horse fences surrounding Kentucky Bluegrass fields with maybe thirty horses running free. The stable was as larger than the warehouse where she lived, larger than the Moody stable by half. Angela could picture ladies and gentlemen coming here before the derby. It looked much like the White House, in Washington DC, with tall white pillars, holding up a semicircular covered entry.

Three ladies and three gentlemen met them when they pulled up. After helping them exit the vehicle, the men hit the luggage, with Gwen telling them what went where. While the maids helped with the things Eleanor and Angela. carried with them.

Eleanor was talking on her phone, “Francis take my things to my room, Renee take Angela to her room,” Eleanor stated. “Have her come down at eight for dinner,” and she was gone in a flash to deal with some kind of important business.

“Hello Ma’am, I am Renee, would you please come with me.”

Renee took Angela’s things and led her through the entryway. There were two curved stairways and a large crystal chandelier just inside the front door. The place was like a palace. They took the right stairs up and took a right turn on the walkway.

The bedroom looked stunning. It was actually a suite. It had a sitting room to receive a guest in and the bedroom was through a second door. The bedroom was something out of Disney, a room fit for a princess. There was a beautiful canopy bed, a lavish dresser, an armoire, a dress form, a closet, vanity, a cushioned chest for blankets at the foot of the bed, scones on the walls for lights and… and… and oh my.

A man brought Angela’s bags into the room. Renee went to work putting her things away.

“I take it that my Aunt has money. I mean Mrs. Whitmire.”

“Is she your aunt?” Renee asked.

“I wish she was, I love her like an Aunt. She is the closest thing to family I have. She sort of adopted me. She gets a kick out of it when I call her Tante.”

“Mrs. Eleanor is a fine woman, Ma’am.”

“She said something like making it official last week. I figured she was just humoring me.”

“Mrs. Eleanor doesn’t humor people, saying things like that. If she says it, take it to the bank Ma’am. Let me draw you a bath and I will get your evening things ready.”

Angela guessed that Renee was waiting for her to get undressed. She was confident in how she looked, so she did just that and walked naked into the bathroom. The tub was warm and fragrant, as bath salts had been added. Angela could spend all weekend in this bathtub. She did get out though after a short soak. She dried and put her underwear on.

She chose not to wear a corset for dinner tonight. She had worn one almost eighteen hours a day for two months. Her waist was down to twenty-five inches now. She had also broadened in the hip and yes at her bust. She felt smaller below the bra and broader through the bust. There was a gap between her bra and her chest, below her boobs. She needed new bras or smaller forms. She didn’t want smaller breast forms.

Renee helped dress her in an off the shoulder emerald green chiffon gown, with an empire waist and green stilettos. Does Eleanor keep a hundred dresses and shoes around for all of her guests? Renee changed Angela’s earrings into a pair of long drop diamond earrings and a diamond necklace of similar design along with a diamond tiara on her head. They were real diamond pieces. She felt positively overdressed. Everything fit and looked so nice. Renee then did Angela’s makeup. She looked like she was ready for an evening at the Met, dinner at the White House, or a red-carpet appearance.

Angela wouldn’t be surprised if Eleanor took her size and had the dress made. Angela looked in the mirror, the dress looked simply wonderful. It was simple but highlighted her slim figure.

Renee escorted Angela downstairs and to the dining room. Eleanor was standing by her chair talking to Gwen. They were both quite beautiful in their gowns.

They all sat at one end of a table for sixteen. Dinner was to be served in courses. They talked as they ate.

“I have talked to Mr. Moody, Eleanor. He and his family will be here at Eleven in the morning,” Gwen stated. “The vet will be here at eight to look over your horses and perform any tests that Mr. Moody wants done.”

“Have Jack prepare the horses ready for inspection by nine and put them in the paddock. Have him set up five barriers for Ashley to jump and have Debra ready to demonstrate the horses’ jumping.”

“Tante Eleanor, I understand you used to ride?”

“Many years ago, Angela, I was a National Champion and an Olympic Champion. I rode till I broke my back in ninety. I was pushing a little too hard to make up time on a jump-off, my horse refused a jump and I went head over heels. I landed on my back across a gate. My back is too stiff now and I can’t maintain my balance enough to jump. I ride occasionally, but I don’t have the time to give the horses my full attention.”

Eleanor looked a little wistful for a few seconds as she remembered her previous days of glory.

“I will show you her trophy room after dinner,” Gwen told Angela.

Dinner was a leisurely affair. Angela could just see a dinner here taking two to three hours, in the Ante-bellum era.

“Do you always dress so nicely for dinner here, Tante Eleanor.”

“Whenever I have a guest here for the first time, I love to show them the elegance of a more refined time. This home was built in the eighteen-forties and rebuilt in the late eighteen-sixties. It had been destroyed almost completely during the war of northern aggression.”

“This is a historic horse farm, Angela. Five miles from here Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, the Grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, instituted the Kentucky Derby back in eighteen-seventy-five. Since I have owned this property, I have sought to restore some of its faded glory. I restored the home and the horse farm.”

Angela got up and kissed Eleanor’s cheek, as a tear escaped from her eye. She had been reliving the glory of this horse farm. Eleanor brushed her hand against Angela’s cheek and smiled warmly.

After dinner Gwen did take Angela on a tour of the trophy room. Angela saw that she needed a room for everything. Starting at the age of fourteen Eleanor rode and won trophies and ribbons all over the country. Gwen gave her a commentary pointing out certain milestones in her career in show jumping, ending when she was twenty-five.

“Eleanor never comes into this room. It is too painful for her to think about what might have been. She doesn’t mind for people she cares about to come in here though.”

“She is so beautiful, Gwen.”

“Yes, she is.”

Renee came in Angela’s room in the morning at six-thirty, to prepare her for her day.

“Renee, I have a dear friend coming in today. Would you be up to helping me pull a trick on her?”

Renee smiled and gave her an evil grin, “It depends on what the trick is? I won’t see anybody hurt mentally or physically.”

“Can you dress me up like you? I want to see how fast my friend recognizes me.”

“You’ll have to act properly. I won’t have Mrs. Whitmire’s dignity besmirched.”

“Agreed.”

Eleanor was a little aggravated it was nearly eight and Angela hadn’t arrived for breakfast.

“Some more tea please,” Eleanor asked a servant. “Where is that girl?”

Gwen looked up from her tablet to talk to Eleanor, as a servant returned with the tea pot to pour. Her eyes’ got really as she saw the servant. Angela came over and poured for Eleanor.

“Thank you my dear. Would you check on Angela please.”

“Yes, Mum.” Angela said.

That is when Eleanor’s eyes shot up and saw Angela. She was wearing a knee length maids dress, bib apron, flowered head piece and flats. Her makeup and hair were just like any other maid at the estate. She let out a laugh.

“What on earth are you doing child?”

“I wanted to see how long I can go without Ashley recognizing me.” Angela said sitting next to Eleanor.

“Please stand Angela, a servant doesn’t sit around her employer.”

Angela snapped right up at attention.

“You look nice my dear. Since you seem to like this, you will wear that outfit and keep in character till bedtime. Be in the front foyer by ten-thirty. Our guest should be here by eleven. Renee have her work till then and make sure she looks and acts proper. She is your charge.”

“Yes mum,”

Renee had Angela doing maid type things, including vacuuming and dusting.

“Sorry it backfired,” Renee said.

“I don’t mind Ma’am. I work harder as a beekeeper.”

“You keep bees for Mrs. Whitmire?”

“No, I have my own bees and I also keep Dan… No make that Mr. McNeil’s bees.”

“Oh, I know Mr. McNeil. He has stayed here several times.”

“Mr. McNeil is my employer.”

“We need to clean up before the Moody’s arrive.”

Angela had to change her dress, bib apron, into kitten heels, change her headpiece, fix her hair and freshen her makeup. Renee changed Angela’s looks with makeup as much as she could. Making her look older and more mature.

Angela, Marla for now, was waiting down by the door at ten till eleven, with six other people. Noreen, Mrs. Whitmire’s head of household staff, inspected each of the servants, with the same critical eye. She straightened Angela’s headpiece a bit and picked a piece of lint off her dress.

They stood inside until they received word that the Moody’s had turned into the drive. Noreen led them out and lined them up. Angela was the last on the left. The two men were on the other side and Eleanor and Gwen came up the middle.

William’s F-450 dually pulled up, pulling a gooseneck horse trailer. The male servants helped with the doors and helping the ladies out. Eleanor welcomed the people to her Kentucky horse farm. Ashley was surprised to see Eleanor there and looked for Angela. Noreen assigned the servants to specific quests. Marla was assigned to help Ashley. She took Ashley’s things. Zachery saw Angela first and started to say something. Angela held a finger to her lips. She took Ashley’s things and led her into the house and up the stairs.

Meagan was talking with her step daughter all the way. She told Ashley to change into her riding clothes and be downstairs ready for lunch in an hour. Ashley followed Marla/Angela into a room. She stopped when she saw somethings already there.

“Is somebody already in this room? Whose room is this?”

“It’s mine and yours if you want to stay with me,” Angela said.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I followed you all the way up here and not see you. Why are you dressed as a maid?”

“I wanted to see how long it would take you to realize it was me.”

“Well get them clothes off and let’s get changed.”

“Can’t do it. Eleanor said I had to be a maid till bed time.”

Ashley giggled and then said, “Well then you can help me to undress and to dress up. Take my clothes off of me.”

Angela did just that, she unbuttoned and removed all her clothes and underwear. She then helped her friend to get dressed. Ashley almost needed help to get her breeches over her curves.

“You are going to need new clothes to compete in Ashley. You are growing up girl.”

“I know. Mom is going to take me to Lexington to get some more clothes, on Monday.”

“I will be back in Mississippi tomorrow evening. I have hive inspections to do on Monday.”

“Oh crud, at least we get tonight and tomorrow.”

Ashley did her own hair and makeup, before Angela helped her with her coat. Angela then touched up her makeup and hair.

“I like you looking like that, Angela. Maybe we could play with that back home.”

“That could be fun, but I want to see you dressed like this too.”

“I can just see the two of us dressed as French Maids wearing impossible heels,” Ashley giggled.

Angela led Ashley down to the dining room and helped her with her chair. The others had been appraised by Eleanor of Angela’s presence.

“You are so cute Angela,” Meagan said.

“Thank you mum.”

Angela then turned to go.

“Where are you going Angela?” Ashley asked.

“It isn’t proper for servants to sit with Guests. I am heading into the kitchen to help with the meal.”

“Mom?”

“I agree with Angela doing this, Ashley. I might have you do this back home. It’s good to understand what some people do for a living.”

“She can at least come with us to the Paddock? Can’t she Mrs. Whitmire.”

“Yes, she can serve us there.” Eleanor said. “So, who was the first to penetrate your disguise, Angela?”

“Zachery ma’am, he saw me when I went to retrieve Ashley’s things. I motioned for him to be quiet.”

Angela did indeed assist with serving lunch. Noreen watched the girl work, she wasn’t as smooth or as polished as the rest of her staff, but she took instruction well and gave her best effort. She had seen maids that have worked for years that didn’t put in as much effort.

After lunch, they headed down to the paddock. Angela carried a tray of drinks for the people to partake of.

Groomsman had four horses saddled and ready for the Moodys’ to peruse. William, the Vet and the trainer began to look over the horses and talk, with Zachery looking over their shoulders.

Debra Wong, rode each horse around the paddock so they could all see how each horse moved and handled.

Angela got distracted by a horse that was watching all the action. She wandered over to a chestnut thoroughbred horse. She started petting the horse and rubbing him between the eyes.

All eyes had been on the other paddock, Eleanor looked over at to her right and saw Angela. She walked over to the child and put her arm on Angela’s shoulder.

“He is a pretty horse. Are you thinking of taking up riding?”

“No, ma’am. Owning a horse is a big responsibility. I already have a big responsibility. It wouldn’t be fair to the horse to buy one and not take care of it myself. It would take two to four hours a day of time I don’t have. I owe it to my bees and to the horse, not to buy one.”

Angela scored an ace with Eleanor. Owing a horse was a big responsibility and she was glad that Angela put her bees ahead of a horse. Eleanor owned these horses, but they weren’t her horses. They belonged to the people who feed them, mucked out their stalls, washed and groomed them and rode them daily.

Meagan and Ashley got up on a pair of horses and rode around the paddock. They rode at a trot and then at a cantor for several minutes. They both looked good riding. Ashley stopped and let her step-mom take the jumps first. The gates weren’t at championship levels, they were high enough to give the riders and horses a feel for each other. Meagan was a good rider, of that there was no doubt, but Ashley was better when she took her horse around. It was like the horse knew what Ashley wanted to do, by force of mind. They both rode all four horses. Then they talked to William and Zachery.

Zachary then worked the horses Ashley and Meagan liked on a lunge line, it was lucky for William that they liked different horses. This was a learning experience for him too. These were better horses than Zachery had worked with back on their farm. It was like a ballet watching him and the horses move about their paces.

Eleanor and William went to the big house to talk horses over some Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-year-old, fine Kentucky Bourbon. Eleanor had already decided that Ashley would get her horse. They were just trying to decide just how dear the horses were. Eleanor led, but William knew this dance too. It took three bourbons, each, to come up with a price. Really, William liked this bourbon so much, he didn’t want to pay her price too soon.

Angela had to bathe and get dressed in a fancier maid’s dress, apron, stockings and higher heels. This dress had a lot more frills and lace. It hit her just above the knee and included a lace headpiece. Ashley had fun with helping her get dressed after they bathed together that is.

At dinner Angela did more helping than serving, Noreen required more precision when serving dinner. She would wheel the trolleys in with the food for the other maids to serve.

When she finally got to go to bed and not be a maid, she was glad. She and Ashley got to have a bit of fun before they both fell asleep.

After breakfast Meagan, Ashley and Angela went on a ride on the luscious Kentucky blue grass. It was fun and Angela was glad it was a short ride they went on. Angela insisted that she rub down the horse she rode on. She told the groom, she rode it, she’ll take care of it. Just tell her what to do. After their ride on horses Angela and Ashley got to take a tour of the horse farm on a mule as long as they stayed on the trails. They were warned not to make ruts in the pastures, a horse could fall on.

They came in for lunch at fifteen minutes to noon and then Angela had to get ready to leave. Ashley wouldn’t get home till Wednesday.

Meagan and Ashley drove down to the airstrip to say goodbye to Eleanor and Ashley. Angela got to hug her friend just before she boarded the plane to take her home.

The next morning Angela went to work with her protector who disappeared in the woods around the area. Angela got right to work. Dan was in town and noted what Angela had done and made some requests. Angela checked the hive that produced the emergency cells and the six splits, she found and marked and marked six queens. One of hives, the queen cell had hatched but there was no queen to be found. Either she was out making her mating flight or she was gone. The hive was a little agitated and she could hear a slight roar. Talking with Jacques, they would check on it in two days. To see if the queen had returned. Sometimes when installing a queen cell in a hive the queen would go out to mate and never return. She might get lost or killed, there were dragon flies near the creek, while she was out mating or she might make mating flights several times in her first few days.

Angela then worked with Brenda in the queen lab and her queen castles. Toward the end of the day, Brenda asked Angela if she would check the queen castles at her place.

The next, day Angela’s protector appeared at the pickup truck as Angela went to go to her place. She pulled up to her gate. Her protector got out to unlock the gate. Angela pulled in and stopped. She was looking at her building in the distance.

“What’s wrong Angela?” the man asked.

“Every day I or anybody else have driven in, I have heard a loud buzzer. I drove over the cattle guard today and no buzzer.”

The man called in on his radio.

“Stay here let me check it out.

The man walked about thirty yards and saw a black car parked around the side of the building. He motioned Angela to go.

Angela shoved her Chevy Silverado in reverse and backed away, tires squealing. She backed left and put the truck in first heading back towards Dan’s place.

The car by the warehouse sprung to life and peeled out after her. It took a few shots at her protector, who returned fire.

Angela’s truck was big and powerful, but it’s power was more suited for towing and carrying loads, not road racing. The black Dodge charger was built for speed. It started shooting at her. She couldn’t outrun it, so she pulled a gutsy move. She threw her crew cabbed extended bed pickup into a bootleg turn at forty-five miles-per-hour.

Deputy Jennings had just left a six-car accident with fatalities. He often came out here just to cool off and chew his tobacco here. They didn’t like deputies, chewing or smoking inside their cruisers. “Damn social justice people would get their panties in a twist if they smelled cigarette smoke in a city vehicle.” He said as he took a chaw of Red Man. Deputy Jennings was the top accident reconstruction expert in five counties. He nearly swallowed his chew when he heard tires squealing and shots, being fired. He had just called in the shots when he saw the white pickup rolling at high speed, in the distance. He saw the muscle car about a quarter of a mile behind the truck. He called in the black car. He couldn’t give chase. He had a large pasture between him and them, they could be miles away before he got to where they were.

He spat out his chew when he saw the truck go sideways and then bootleg the turn. Jennings had never seen a truck that size do a bootleg turn on a country road, as narrow as these roads. The truck then played chicken with the muscle car. The muscle car flinched and jerked to the right flying off the road and landing thirty-five yards, in the pasture, bouncing. The whole front end of the black car collapsed.

Deputy Jennings mike had been open all this time. The dispatcher heard, “Shots fired, black car is shooting at white truck… Oh my god… shit… and what the fuck! I’ve got a single car accident. Send backup, EMS and fire here immediately.”

Jennings got in his cruiser and made tracks. There was two ways to get near there. One was a fifteen-minute drive on the roads. The other way had him driving crashing a gate to the pasture and driving cross country. He chose the latter. There was a gate a couple of hundred yards down the road. His bumper guard took out the gate and drove across the field. He could see an armed man coming up on the black car. As deputy Jennings drew near the man put his gun on top of the car and held his hands up.

When Deputy Jennings was near enough, he could see the man and recognized him as one of Mrs. Whitmire’s security people. Still he drew his gun as he approached the car.

John Wilkins was handcuffed and Deputy Jennings recovered his gun, before checking the driver of the black car.

“I think he broke his back, Deputy Jennings. That was some impact he took.”

Other patrol vehicles began to appear. Dan, Jacques, Brenda, Eleanor and Gwen all arrived within minutes. Angela stood crying next to her truck. A state trooper was questioning Angela about what had happened. He didn’t believe her story about her doing a bootleg in the big pickup and accused her of lying to him.

Deputy Jennings finally made it over to them.

“Who was driving that white Chevy Silverado?” Deputy Jennings asked.

“This girl said she was, she said that guy was chasing her and shooting at her. She, told me she did a bootleg turn in the Silverado and played chicken with him. I think she was lying.”

“You better damn well believe that girl. I saw it happen. Look down at the fucking road, there is your evidence.”

The trooper looked down at all the rubber that Angela laid down on the pavement. He and Deputy Jennings measure it out. When they got to where Angela was perpendicular to the road. Deputy Jennings cussed again, “Damn she was good, her truck filled the road here. If she were a few inches more to the right shoulder or the left shoulder she would have rolled her truck, when she caught the gravel. Her rear end slid around here and she left rubber as she accelerated back this way.”

“So, she intentionally ran the Dodge Charger off the road. That is attempted murder with a motor vehicle.”

“Damn Roberts don’t they teach you troopers anything. Look at her tail gate, tell me what you see.”

There were four holes in the tail gate and a shattered front windshield from a bullet deflection. When they opened up the back they found all four bullets mangled, but with readable lands and grooves.

“It was self-defense trooper. The dude in the charger was shooting at her, and yes I saw that too, from over there,” he said pointing to a popular speed trap hide.

There was a big crowd at the highway patrol barracks, as they attempted to sort things out. One Deputy had found a Glock nineteen that had been recently fired. The ballistics matched the slugs found in the pickup Angela had been driving. Her story and John Wilkin’s story dovetailed perfectly with the account that Deputy Jennings had given. The sheets had come in on the driver of the Charger, named Mason Hill. He was a small-time hood from Maryland and the car was a rental. An ADA (Assistant District Attorney) had questioned the man and he gave up the person who had hired him. The man worked in Maryland’s Department of Human Services office.

Deputy Jennings had done the math on Angela’s truck, using the vehicles, weight, speed, tires, coefficient of friction of the road and skid marks to come up with her maneuver second by second. She had been going forty-eight. The skid marks told him that. She was going nearly thirty when the charger took the dive. He figured a dozen different ways the girl could have died in that maneuver and that didn’t include being shot to death.

He went to talk to her. He found Mrs. Whitmire and her PA talking to the girl and holding her hand.

“Hello Ms. Parsons, I’ve got to know how you learned to drive like that?”

“My boss needed me to be able to drive myself. He hired a man named William Garret to teach me.”

“Hell, I know him well, you owe the man a case of whiskey. He drinks Johnny Walker Red Label. You will be able to go home shortly. They want you here till they are sure you’re safe. Angela, Did you know a Rhys Philips?”

“No, who is he?”

“He was in Maryland’s DHS.”

“He was in charge of her trust, Deputy Jennings,” Eleanor said. “Angela’s parents died, and their estate was placed in trust. I think he sold her home and looted that trust.”

“How much are we talking about?”

“Between six and eight million, from savings and life insurance. The home was worth a million six. The DA already knows much of this. He is in liaison with Maryland’s Attorney General’s office since Tuesday, last.”

“Mason Hill is in traction at the hospital and will be for quite a while I think. After that he gets to spend twenty to life with our fair state.”

Angela’s attorney from Dan, Darren Roberts showed up and Angela’s attorneys from Eleanor, Gloria Beck with a group of lawyers. showed up to talk to her. Darren agreed to work with Gloria Beck. Eleanor told them what she learned and then left them with Angela. Ryman Samuels, The District Attorney showed up. He met with Angela, and her attorneys, after having met with the State Troopers and the Sheriff’s officers.

“No charges will be forth coming against Angela Parsons. From what I now understand. Mason Hill had been hired at about the same time the two women Sylvia Green and Dorothy Goldman had been sent down here to retrieve Alan J. Parsons. Rhys Philips an attorney for Maryland’s Department of Human Services, which oversees their child protective service was supposed to have administered a trust for the child. We have found out that no trust had been set up, but Rhys Philips used his official status to collect all monies belonging to A.J. Parsons and to sell the property owned by her parents. He depleted her trust by using fraudulent payments for services performed for the child. The last year was spent desperately attempting to find the child to block any request for access to the trust. When the Child turned seventeen she would have been able to begin receiving payments directly to herself. Funds the trust didn’t have. Rhys Philips sent Mason Hill here to prevent that day from ever occurring.”

“How did they find me?”

“They never took notice of your emancipation, it was the high schools request for your school records that triggered all of this mess. CPS put a request in your file, when Robert E. Lee high school requested your records, wheels began to roll.”

“Gloria, I suggest you hit the State of Maryland for twenty-four million or so triple damages and also sue for return of Angela’s assets, plus punitive damages and so on.”

“Already filed in U.S. District Court. You just gave us more ammo for the fire.”

“Why is the state of Maryland liable?” Angela asked.

Gloria smiled as she turned to her client, “The state of Maryland had a fiduciary responsibility to maintain and control the trust for minor child A.J. Parsons. An employee of their agency became responsible to maintain and control that trust. He then looted the funds and sold the property, without authorization. Liability attached to the State of Maryland.”

“Can I sleep in my own bed now at my bee farm?”

“I would suggest that you allow us a couple more weeks, to make sure we have all the guilty parties, rolled up.” Mr. Samuels said.

“Will my insurance pay Mr. McNeil for the damage to his truck? It got shot up.”

“You are not to worry about the truck,” Darren Roberts said. “Dan has already replaced it with a new one as sort of an early birthday present. It should be sitting in front of Mrs. Whitmire’s home in the morning. He also said, he wants to know how his bees are doing.”

Angela laughed, it will be good to have all this drama behind her and get back to work. She left with Mrs. Whitmire and headed back to her estate.

“The Moody’s are going to need some fence repair. I don’t know if they had any horses loose on their pastures.”

“I already took care of that. I saw that when I drove up. So how are you really, Angela?” Eleanor stated.

“I was highly, certifiably pissed. That guy was after me for no other reason than money. Tante nothing against your amenities, I have loved staying with you and I will stay a couple of more weeks, but I need to get back in my apartment. That is when I know that I am back on track. That I’m not afraid anymore.”

“So, you are ready to leave your Tante in an old folks’ home now?”

“Hell, I don’t know any old folks’ homes that would have you. You would be organizing group escapes or riots for better food. No I still need you. I promise to come over several times a week when you are in town or you can come around to my place and I will make time for you. I just need to feel normal. You’ll have to chase me away from being around so much.”

“That is acceptable Angela. Just let us see to your safety first.”

Angela was grown up, of that Eleanor was sure. She wished that the child had had more time, but Angela was past childish things. She was a young woman now. Not unlike Eleanor had been at her age. Some people are just forced to grow up faster than others. She had given up so much so she could be a world class show jumper and it nearly took everything from her.

Angela went to her room after kissing Eleanor’s cheek.

Eleanor made a call before she went to bed. Rhys Philips was still at large in parts unknown. She had a bad feeling about this. He sent one person to kill her and maybe two others who might have been unwitting accomplices. She would let the courts determined their innocence. If he was smart he would take the money stolen from Angela and run. Eleanor didn’t think he was smart. She didn’t want Angela to feel like she was in a cage, but she didn’t want her safety to be jeopardized. She talked to her security chief.

In the morning, Angela ate breakfast with Eleanor, “I have to go to Pensacola Florida and I may be gone several days. Be safe my dear. Oh, something was dropped off for you this morning,” Eleanor said handing Angela the keys to a new pickup truck. “It’s parked in the side lot. Dan hopes you will find it acceptable. He said, ‘Happy Early Birthday. It’s in your name.”

Gwen and Eleanor had to leave when they heard the plane landing on the runway. Angela waved them off from the Veranda on the backside of the home. Then she got her things and went around the side of the home. There in the parking lot, by the garage was a brand new black cherry red, metal flake, crew cab, extended bed, Chevy Silverado 2500 with a locking retractable bed cover. Logos were painted on the doors. Mississippi Bee Queen Bee Farms, Angela Parsons Head Beekeeper with a Bee wearing a crown.

Angela was nearly in tears. She made herself get behind the wheel and familiarized herself with the layout, before she started it. The truck coughed once before the four-hundred-forty-five horses roared into life. She backed it out and headed to work. As she drove by her place, she had to stop. There was a new sign up at her place. Mississippi Bee Queen Bee Farms. She really began to cry. It was hard letting Dan and Eleanor do these things for her, but she told herself that they were doing what her parents would have done for her.

Dan was in the office and was on the phone, planning hive moves, following the best nectar and pollen. Angela had put on her reddest lipstick when she saw his truck if front of the office. She didn’t say a word, she just came over and kissed his cheek before getting to work. Dan didn’t know he was branded by lipstick till he went to the bathroom hours later. He had wondered what had been so funny to the ladies that came into the office. On his cheek was Angela’s lip print. He smiled into the mirror and left it there.

Sourwood was just coming into bloom and he had Angela go through his hives and rob honey where she could. Dan wanted the sourwood honey unadulterated. Half the honey she harvested would go back on the hives after the sourwood petered out. These frames were set aside in freezer while the rest were extracted. The huge sourwood source was too far away for Angela’s bees.

She worked with the people extracting the honey, learning how the process was done step by step, from frame to labeled bottle. Half of it was bottled and half in food safe five gallon buckets for mead production. They harvested over one-thousand-six-hundred pounds of honey.

It was nearly eight that night when Angela got a chance to go home, after hitting the shower to get the sticky honey off her there. As she drove up to Eleanor’s home. She was met by Rita, Eleanor’s head housekeeper here.

“I was wondering when you were going to get home. I need to introduce you to Eleanor’s security chief. I will have a plate of food for you on the back patio.”

Angela spent twenty minutes with him. He put an app on her phone that logged into the server at her office/apartment. There was now an upgraded security system, that had motion sensors, infra-red systems, fire/burglary sensors and cameras. The computer server monitored the system twenty times a minute. The system would alert her of loss of power or phone lines. The system kept a log of everything. Her cell phone would be sent a text message of faults and intrusion, plus she got her buzzer back.

Angela looked on her phone at her place. She could see her bee hives sitting there in the light from her building. She didn’t mind all the security, she knew the world was becoming a less secure place all the time. Wishing it wasn’t so didn’t do a thing about changing that fact.

The security chief finished talking with her and sent her up to eat her dinner.

Angela visited her own hives the next day. Her warehouse had been painted to match her new logo. She noticed a new hive that she hadn’t put down along with a few new bird houses. There were wires going to the new hive and when she opened it, it did indeed have bees. It also had a security cam in a vent hole. The bird houses probably had cameras too.

She found a few problems, that were easily fixed. She would harvest honey from her gold hive on Saturday.

She headed on into work and got to helping Brenda, till lunch. Dan then loaded up Angela’s pickup with ten five-gallon buckets of honey on pallets. They carried the honey to another warehouse type building.

“This is my Select Reserve Honey Mead production site. I turn three pounds of into a gallon of Mead and age it for twelve years. I then sell it for seventy-five dollars for seven-hundred-fifty milliners. This honey will produce seventy-five thousand dollars of mead.”

Angela’s mouth hung open. The honey she figured was about five thousand dollars, so seventy-five thousand was fifteen times more money. Angela filtered the honey twice, while Dan cleaned the large brewers’ kettle and adding six hundred gallons of purified water. Dan weighed the honey very carefully before adding it to the water and adding yeast nutrient he set the kettle to heat and stir till it got to one hundred-sixty degrees. He programed to keep it at that temperature for an hour and to cool it to ninety degrees. When it got hot he ran a test to measure the sugar content of the mix.

“I will come back tomorrow and add the yeast and my secret ingredients. I will rack the mead in twenty days and then forty days. It will set for four months and then I will bottle it to age for twelve years. Did I hear you cough? Angela. Cough for me.”

“cough-cough.”

Dan pulled out a bottle of sparkling mead dated 1990. “This is my cough syrup.” He uncorked the bottle and poured he a shot glass of mead.

Angela sniffed the mead. She could smell the honey, vanilla, cinnamon and a couple of other things. She carefully tasted it. It was delicious. She sipped the shot slowly savoring the flavor, trying to classify the flavors. She licked the shot glass clean and then coughed again, holding the glass towards Dan.

“Not unless you get pneumonia or snake bit girl. At least until you are twenty-one.”

They spent an hour and a half cleaning up, the vat of honey was just beginning to cool and was still about one-hundred-fifty-degrees. The empty buckets were much easier to carry.

Angela got off early and went to the Moody’s place the next day. They had returned home. Angela got to watch as Ashley began practicing putting her horse “Cinnamon Squares” through its paces, while Zachery was acting as her instructor. Meagan was watching the two of them work.

“I hear you had an interesting Monday, Angela.”

“Very interesting. I was shot at for one thing.”

“I heard, are you OK?”

“It was a shock but I am doing well.”

“Don’t let that stop you from dropping by and being with Ashley. She likes you a lot. We won’t hold that against you. Just be careful, please.”

Ashley worked for two hours riding several horses and taking care of them, before she got to quit and talk with Angela. Angela had to have dinner with the Moody’s at their insistence. She had to retell her story. Angela had to take Ashley on a short drive in her new truck. She liked the new Logo on the truck. Angela also showed some of the things done to her place without leaking the security details.

They sat on the couch in the office and just held onto each other for the longest time, without saying anything. Ashley had to be woken at eight so Angela could give her a ride home. Angela locked up and drove her home and returned to Eleanor’s.

The High School called the next day and asked her to come in on Friday. They wanted her to talk to the guidance counselor and get a plan for her studies and to pick up her fall semester schedule. They also needed a form to be signed by her employer for work credit for school. The form was faxed to Dan who returned the fax and gave the original signed copy to Angela.

David Hughes was her guidance counselor.

After introductions he asked, “So do you look forward to going to a university after graduation?”

“Yes sir, I want to study entomology.”

“Forensic or other?”

“I want a degree in entomology and studying bees. I am currently a beekeeper and have my own Bee Farm.”

“Oh really, good for you. I looked at your test scores and I believe you can do it. You scored well in math and science.”

“That’s good I worked hardest in those areas since March. I took an online high school course while I worked.”

David gave Angela the run down on courses she would need to get into most any university’s entomology department. Mostly biology and math, but she was also required to take inorganic and organic chemistry, so she could understand some of the biochemical reactions that take place. She also needed to have a thorough understanding of English composition so she could publish her observations in an intelligent manner.

“Nothing is more irritating than having to read a poorly written scientific paper,” he said. “Or one that is purposely full of BS. To get a Master’s or PhD degree, in the sciences, you have to do research and post findings in a well written paper. You’ll have thesis advisors who will nitpick and tear apart poor grammar and rhetoric, just as fast as poor analysis and faulty conclusions.”

“There are several things we need to do this summer. We need to know which universities offer degrees in the fields you want. Come back next month and I will give you a list. Going to universities, these days, is a lot of work. The earlier you start planning the better your chances are. You need to take the right classes and you need A’s in as many classes as possible.”

“Also, August 12 th this year, you need to come in and take the SAT test, that is the Scholastic Aptitude Tests. They are your key to getting into a good school. Write that day on your calendar, write it down in blood, paste the date on your forehead, tattoo it on your stomach. It is vital that you take it and get as good a score as possible. You can retake the test in the spring and next summer if you have too. I also suggest you take an SAT cram course online, between now and then. There is an art to taking the SAT, beyond just knowing the material. I know many intelligent students who couldn’t perform when taking SAT’s.”

David showed Angela a sample test from a reputable online scholastic education site.

“Also keep a diary of the things you do. If you go to bee meetings, keep a list. If you volunteer at a children’s hospital, keep track of your hours. Get involved with your community. Join bee groups and keep track of the meetings. Talk with the speakers if you can. Keep a list of people you know. Knowing the right people can open doors, but ask their permission to use their names as references. Write yourself a paper on what you learned. At work keep up with the tasks that you perform, even the menial jobs. Practice writing a resume, learn how to put your best foot forward without inflating your work. Like how many hives do you have right this minute?”

“I have seventeen hives and I have been put in charge of Dan McNeil’s personal hives of around twenty-seven hives. I also work with Brenda Swanson who has feeder hives and queen castles.”

“That’s it. Create a work journal and log in your jobs, date it, list what you learned and how it affected your work. Just make sure you can back up any statements you make about yourself. Print it out on very good printer paper and keep it in a folder, where you can find it. Practice researching and writing technical papers. Practice doing video logs on beekeeping and learn how to sound intelligent. You may have something correct to say, but if you can’t effectively say it, it will hurt. Practice before you post.”

“Most importantly, yes you need to be in social media, but be careful what you post and where you post. What you post can and will bite you where it hurts the most. Do not try to intimidate people, don’t talk down or insult people, don’t troll people on the internet and ignore people who do this to you. You can ruin your life with what you say on social media. Universities have people who are paid to research what you say and do in social media. If it’s on the internet they will find it. I had a student bound for Harvard, after they tracked down his online personality, he was lucky to get into Mississippi State. Oh and NO PORN SITES PLEASE. Everything you do on the internet can be tracked.”

“it’s my job to help you, Y-O-U you succeed. If you have any problems come see me at school, before it becomes a problem. I can’t help you if you don’t come see me. I’m not sorry if it sounds like I’m preaching, because I am.”

“Thank you, Mr. Hughes. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

David printed out her fall semester class schedule before Angela left.

When she got to her place she put bee escape boards on the hives she was going to harvest honey from tomorrow. The escape boards are bee mazes, placed between the brood boxes and the supers. Bees in the supers can find their way into the brood box, bees in the brood box can’t find their way into the supers.

Ashley called as Angela was pulling away from Eleanor’s estate and wanted to visit. When Angela told her she was harvesting honey, Ashley asked if she could watch, so she picked her up, with the proviso that Ashley be back at noon to do her riding.

Ashley recorded on her Go Pro, as Angela used her mule to collect honey supers from her hives. She collected two supers from her gold hive and one from three other hives. All the supers she collected were heavy with honey. Once she had the supers she took them to her honey barn, de-capped the frames and ran them through the extractor. Straining the wax caps, bee parts and debris, but not filtering the pollen or good biologicals from the honey or pasteurizing it. She collected one-hundred-eighty-two pounds of honey or just over sixty, one quart mason jars of honey at twelve dollars a quart. She needed Mississippi Bee Queen labels. She took a picture of the logo on her truck

She undressed in front of the washer/dryer starting a load of clothes before she showered. Ashley was kind enough to not video this. Angela asked if she could review the video before it was posted and explained why. It was something Ashley had not thought of and agreed. Ashley installed video editing software on Angela’s computer and downloaded the video.

They watched it once before Angela took Ashley home, giving her a quart of honey. She took a quart by Dan’s place and gave him one quart of honey and she took a couple of quarts to Rita, Eleanor’s head housekeeper.

She then went back to her office to familiarize herself with the video editing software. She also compared her video with some of the better YouTube videos on honey harvesting and extracting. Except for her commentary her video was very good. It wasn’t that what she said was bad, but the quality of the audio went up and down depending on whether she was looking at the camera or looking away from the camera, where the mic was located. The Go Pro also had problems focusing in real close on the bee combs she was trying to show.

While she was on the computer she set a personal journal and a work journal. She opened the fictional story she had written for her online school and removed the fictional parts and expanded certain parts of the story including her transgender status. She tripled the number of pages and included the real people she met since she came to this part of the country. She did an edit and printed it all out. She moved a file cabinet into her apartment and created folders for her various papers she had created.

Before she logged off the computer she checked her bank account. She had only spent money of food gas and auto insurance. She was surprised at how much money she had in her account. Dan had deposited near twelve hundred dollars a week into her account. Minus the five thousand for business and educational expenses, she had just under twenty-thousand dollars. She knew it was a ridiculous amount for a beekeeper, but it was keeping her out of foster care.

Angela ordered two Go Pro cameras and a Canon HD video camera with two wireless microphone channels with the wireless mics. She also picked up tripods for everything and insulated cases she can carry in her truck, some studio lights and software.

She shut down and then headed back to Eleanor’s place. She found Gwen and sat down with to talk about public speaking.

“You really need to talk to Eleanor she has many public speaking engagements. What is your goal in public speaking?”

“I want to do a video log on YouTube on Beginning Beekeeping from a beginner’s point of view. I know I have a little more experience than most beginner beekeepers, by the number of hives that I have worked, but in time I have worked bees for only four months.”

“Why now?”

“My high school guidance counselor suggested that I learn how to promotes myself and put my best foot forward. I need to learn how to sell myself.”

Angela explained everything, what Mr. Hughes had discussed with her.

“I never thought of doing that and to start planning for university now. I can help evaluate your speaking. I do it for Eleanor, but you really need to talk to Eleanor. Speak to her at dinner, tonight. She does a lot of public speaking.”

Angela dressed semi-formal in a black dress and heels, for dinner. Just adding a touch of jewelry that looked good on her. She carried her purse with her iPad in it down to dinner. She sat down when Eleanor came in and sat down. Eleanor had taken time to appraise the girl’s dress and mentally approved. They talked as they were served, mostly pleasant chit-chat. Eleanor and Gwen talked a bit about business and Eleanor’s next engagements.

After an appropriate amount of time Angela brought up public speaking

“To what end, Angela?” Eleanor asked.

“On being able to talk to people about what I love, Beekeeping. I know that I have only been a beekeeper for such a short time, but I love working with them. David Hughes, my high school guidance counselor, said that I should begin to learn to sell myself to the people I am talking to. I hope to study entomology in College. The best colleges I would need to sell what I have done and hope to do, to them to gain entrance. I have seen some beekeepers on YouTube who have the knowledge but they are not able to effectively express themselves. They come off sounding less believable.”

“I want to start a video log stating right off that I am a beginner, admitting that I don’t have all the answers, but I do have something to share with other beginners. I have one video that I am not happy with, it was a failure of the equipment rather than the way I present it. My voice became more or less comprehensible depending on if I was facing the camera or not. I can’t be holding up a frame and not be looking at it.”

Eleanor smiled and said, “We’ll have a look at it after we finish dinner.”

They finished eating and then went to Eleanor’s office to watch her video. She emailed it to Eleanor’s computer as it had better graphics and then they played it. Eleanor was surprised to see how casually Angela handled the bees, without protection. She had been right about the audio and the auto-focus functions. It was a good start but needed work before posting it.

“I like that you identified yourself as a beginner. Any mistakes you make in beekeeping, will be written off as inexperience. I am far from an expert, but you seem to handle things quite well. Identify where your strengths are, and don’t apologize for them. You can ask for assistance from your audience. That will blunt some people who would be your critics. If you put yourself on YouTube you will have your critics. Let them rant but don’t respond in kind.”

“Mr. Hughes told me to watch what I say in social media. The way he said it. “What you post can and will bite you where it hurts the most.””

“Your Mr. Hughes is a wise man. Think before you post anything controversial. I found some good videos on YouTube on public speaking.”

Angela giggled, “A lot of my education has come from YouTube lately. From Bees, to makeup, to clothing and cooking have come from YouTube.”

“Just remember dear to sift the wheat from the chaff. Let Gwen or myself see what you want to post first, at least till you get some practice at it. Watch what you comment on other peoples’ posts. Angela, are you on social media yet?”

“No ma’am. I only have an email address.”

“Good. Gwen, why don’t you help set her up on social media and assist her in posting on it tomorrow.”

“I would be happy to ma’am.”

Sunday Gwen and Angela went to her office and setup her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Gwen explained the difference about the social medias. Angela Got an Angela Parsons Facebook account Gwen used a picture of her dressed as a teen in a blouse and mini skirt. She also started an account under the title “Mississippi Bee Queen Bee Farm” with a picture of Angela in jeans, boots and a work shirt, standing next to her new logo on the truck.

“I am going to have Olivia, work your multimedia accounts. She’ll have your logon names and passwords. She is only fourteen and is a social media mogul. She’ll be your press secretary. You can tell her what you want to post and she will take care of it, after checking with me. Talk to us before you post anything, Olivia has a devious mind and knows how things can be twisted and misconstrued. She will come to me if she has any questions. She is my little sister and I trust her explicitly. She has three computers going in her bedroom. She is paralyzed from the waist down and can’t get around easily. Mom looks after her and I keep her in toys. She will butt heads with Eleanor and win about a third of the time.” Gwen said, programming Olivia’s phone number into Angela’s phone.

Angela called Olivia, who was waiting for her. She and Olivia had a good long chat about what she wanted to post. Olivia didn’t want to post locations other than general locations, like the state of Mississippi being the closets identified location and she wanted to post non-specific histories. Olivia showed that she knew about Angela being transgender and that it didn’t bother her. She would work to not let this information reach the social media till they were ready, but the three of them began to assemble strategies to overcome a possible discovery. Gwen would decide when more specific details should be added like a closer location.

Olivia has a pack of friends who will keep her news feed hoping. She already researched bees and bee keeping and showed that she could ask intelligent questions. Angela would answer the questions on bees and beekeeping. They would be real questions and Angela was expected to give real answers, quoting experts when necessary.

When Angela finally hung up on her call she really liked Olivia, the girl was pseudo-chaotic, but was friendly and bubbling over with joy.

“They ought to package whatever your sister is on and sell it”

“She is something else. Before you ask, she was hit by a car, while riding her bike two years ago and broke her back. She is paralyzed from the hips down. Her best friend’s mom was driving. She may never walk again but, she has a sweet, mischievous spirit about her. Oh, if you ever meet her, her wheel chair is turbo charged, watch out for it.”

Before they left they checked Facebook, Olivia had already gotten to work posting a history for Angela Parsons. Olivia stuck to the truth, but withheld many details of Angela’s life. The people on Facebook didn’t need all the gritty details of her life, where she held from or where she currently lived. She did include the fact that Angela had been in foster care, after the death of her parents, but little else of her journey to Mississippi and none of the fact that she had been born a male.

For “The Mississippi Bee Queen” there was a short synopsis of Angela’s short career as a beekeeper, leaving only the vaguest of hints of where she lived and worked, only someone familiar with her or lived in this community would know where she lived. There were short posts about some of the swarms she helped collect, the hives she inspected and her work with a Master Beekeeper. The incident that got her the job was partially included.

Angela moved back to her warehouse home. Her first day back she inspected all her hives, adding honey suppers where needed. It being mid-July, the honey flows were begging to taper off a bit, but her bees had plenty of flowers still blooming to keep the hives going. She made some splits off some of her hives that had grown packed. She hardly wore her bee suit or veil, except for her one hive of Russian bees. She only had three stings from her other hives, but she got nearly a dozen stings, with all her armor on, from the Russian hive. All her hives were doing reasonably well, with some better than others.

She took her truck over to Dan’s place and did a quick check up on his bees. Dan had gone through in the waning of the sourwood and recovered much of the sourwood honey himself. He gave Angela a gallon of sourwood honey so she could compare it with the red maple honey.

The next day she spent a lot of time with Brenda working in the queen bee operation. Angela was getting a very good hand at grafting larva from a brood filled frames into a queen cup. Her hives were still producing a generous number of drones to fertilize up and coming queen bees. She wondered about the hives that were within flying distance of her hives.

She decided to check out the other beekeepers in her neighborhood. After work, she drove around using the addresses off the local Beekeeping Association address book she was given.

She drove first to Jack Brown’s apiary. It was about a mile and a half away from her place. Jack was out back tending to a twenty-acre truck farm that produced about twenty different vegetables. He then sold that produce directly to restaurants in Jackson, by contract. Years of working vegetable patches and four years at Mississippi State gave him the wherewithal to grow produce in a sustained manner. He even had a four-acre temperature/humidity controlled hydroponic greenhouse so he could produce vegetables almost all year long for his very best, highest paying customers. Some high-end restaurants pay top dollar for fresh local vegetables in January and February.

Jack Brown was the classic country farmer in his late 30’s. He was wearing an Atlanta Braves baseball cap, a white t-shirt, bib-overall’s and Dickies Work boots, as Angela drove up on his property. He waved and headed to meet up with her, followed by two blue tick hound dogs.

“What kin I do fer ya, young lady,” Jack said.

“Hello, I’m Angela Parsons. I have a bee farm just over the rise to the north of you.”

“I am Jack Brown and this dog is Salt and Pepper and the othern is Soap and Water. Be careful aroun Soap and Water, she like to clean everythin with her tongue. She gets everythin as clean as Soap and Water. So you the gal that be working Dan’s old patch? I hear say you’ra hell of a driver too. Ol’ Vern Jennings was going on and on bout a girl who could drive her extended bed pickup, like an ol moon shiner/bootlegger.”

“That would be me. I am also working with Brenda Swanson on her queen castle operation and wondered about what the drone situation was in the area.”

“I have bout forty hives here. I produce enuff queens to keep my hives buzzing, but I have noticed that my hives er doin better, stronger. My queens er probly matin with your drones, at the drone congregation area overn the Moody place.”

“Whereabouts is the DCA? (drone congregation area)”

“Ya know where the crick crosses behind your place and on to the Moody place, follow the fence line bout a mile. Me and Willard’s bees meet up at that place to mate, I areckon. Ben don belong to the association, he do want nuthin to do with people comin on his place. Ya know that all hives in Mississippi spose to be registered with the State.”

“The inspector came to my place to inspect me for foul brood, small hive beetle, Nosema and Varroa.”

“That cause Dan be a commercial bee keeper. It’s his reputation online. Keep your hives right young lady, you’ra building your reputation too. Would ya like to take a lookn at my hives.”

“I’d love too, Jack. I find beekeeping fascinating.”

“You got a veil in yer truck?”

“Do bears shit in the woods?”

“Well get yer veil an common with me.”

Angela got her veil and followed Jake to his hives. Jake had a large chicken run and chicken coop right next to his bee yard. There was a three-electrical wire fence surrounding the bee yard and maybe twenty to thirty chickens all around the hives.

“I have forty ten frame hives and eight mating nucs here in my bee yard and another eight nucs in my greenhouse. The chickens help me get rid of my small hive beetles and I use an oxalic acid fogger to treat for Varroa. The bees help me to maximize my produce by pollinating. The electrical fence helps me to keep the bears out of my bee yard.”

Angela looked real close at Jack, as he talked about his bees. All the country talk she had been hearing was gone from his voice.

“How big a problem are bears around here.”

“Most of the problems comes late fall and winter as the things bears eat becomes scarce. It could be worse if we were four hundred miles further north where the winters are fiercer. Bears don’t hibernate here, so they forage all year around. When food is readily available they will stay in the woods. You need to watch yourself when you go out in the fall and winter young lady.”

They first just looked at all the activity around the hives. Jack irrigated his produce and so had plants coming in all summer long. The air around them was full of bees flying here and there. Jack opened about six hives just to look in and see how they were doing. He had three or four medium honey suppers on all his hives and the brood boxes showed a good mix of worker brood and drones.

“Some beekeepers like to get rid of their drone brood, to help control their Varroa mite level. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. If the hives swarm or they loose a queen, they need drones from as many hives as they have to mate with any Virgin queens.”

“I know. Varroa have an affinity for drone brood. Dan taught me to treat. He has too many hives not to treat.”

“Unfortunately, Willard Dinkins don’t treat his bees. He hides his hives out in the woods, every spring he comes to me to buy queens and packages of bees. He loses between fifty and seventy percent of his bees every year to mites. Well I say he don’t treat, he does use essential oils on his hives. That saves some of his bees, every year.”

“If his bees were out in the sun, the heat of the day would help with his mites. They don’t do well in the hot sun. Bees can take temperatures up to a hundred and twenty for short periods of time, the mites start dying off around a hundred and eight. The bees don’t like the really hot days but they can survive. I keep my hives in the morning sun and the shade about two in the evening.”

“So, what is Willard like?”

“He is a cross between a prepper and a shiner. I know he has a still but I have never seen it, but I can smell it when he is cooking mash. He is a good man, but he is suspicious of everybody. He is also one of those 2 nd amendment types. There would be a war if the law ever came around there to take his guns. There are quite a few of those in this neighborhood. I would suggest you don’t go visit him, young lady. I don’t think he would hurt you, but….”

Angela was so engrossed at listening to Jack, watching what he was doing and looking in the hives, that she jumped in fright when she felt something hitting her boots. A couple of chickens were trying to make a meal out of her shoelaces, which they thought were worms. Angela had jumped about five feet till she realized that it was the chickens trying to eat her boots.

“Greta, Beatrice, you two be nice to Miss Angela. I know her bootlaces look yummy, but they are no good for you two,” Jack said, while laughing. He shooed the two chickens away. It took a lot of convincing them that they should go, as these two birds were fearless. “Sorry about the girls, they think they own the yard.”

Angela had to laugh too, when she finally caught her breath from the attack, “That’s alright. I didn’t realize my boots looked like food.”

After they closed the hive they were looking at, Jack led Angela to his greenhouse operation.

“This is my greenhouse, I grow lettuce, tomatoes, chives, radishes and onions along with a bunch of other vegetables for Jackson’s restaurants. Them’s that willing to pay top dollar that is. Them yellow boxes would be the bee hives I keep in the greenhouse. I can grow more produce in this greenhouse, than on the rest of my farm, but my expenses are a lot higher. I keep temperature, humidity and lighting optimized for growth. I also have twice the workers to keep everything going in the greenhouse.”

“Do you also sell your honey?”

“My wife sells the honey and wax, at fair’s around the state and in Louisiana. We get more money for our wares that way, than selling it to the stores. We make about twice as much after spenses’. How bout you?”

“I haven’t given it much thought. I am a first-year beekeeper, but I think I may be leaning to raising bees, instead of selling honey.”

”That is where the money be, girl. I make about sixty thousand dollars a year selling honey, with my forty-six hives and maybe just as much from selling beeswax. I could make about two or three hundred thousand a year raising queens and bees for packages and nucs with my hives, but that is a full-time commitment. I net about two to three million running the truck farm year-round, so that is what I will do. Learn from Brenda and you kin do bettern me. We need more people in beekeeping jus for the bees.”

After visiting the greenhouse, Angela got to meet Jack’s wife Nellie. They stopped on the back porch to take their boots off, Cornelia didn’t like them tracking in fertilizer into her kitchen. She was in the kitchen fixing lunch for all the people who worked on their truck farm, as they entered. The kitchen smelled wonderful. Angela was invited to sit down and have lunch with the Browns. Cornelia was serving her own venison/pork sausage stew. Angela found that the stew was just a little on the spicy side, but she loved the blend of flavors.

Cornelia was thrilled to have a chat with Angela. She had heard tons of stories about the girl already. She was surprised to find out that many of the stories were true. Jack gave her the names of a half-dozen other beekeepers who would be glad to have her visit them, while they ate. Cornelia bragged about all the trophy’s she had won at the State Fair, from honey, pies, produce and stews.

Angela stayed for another hour before she headed out. She felt wonderful after interacting with these people. She felt a little sad that her parents weren’t with her now, but she was happy that she was starting to live again, instead of just existing.

She stopped by the Moody place, Ashley had already finished up her riding and grooming her horses. They went up to her room, so she could shower and clean up. Ashley just had to show off her boobs. She was experiencing a growth spurt and had just notice it. She blew through a 32B into a C-cup and was threatening to go to a D cup. She had also grown nearly two inches of height to five feet six and a half inches tall. She had really matured over this summer. Made up Ashley could easily pass as an eighteen-year-old girl.

“I so want to go clothing shopping right now,” Ashley said. “My mom though wants me to wait till the middle of August, so we can see how much I will grow. I have already grown out of my new riding clothes. We are almost the same size now Angela.”

“I just need my real boobs to grow to match, my breast forms.” Angela said. “The breast forms are starting to get a little uncomfortable, because my chest insisted flat anymore and I have to really press down on the forms to make them fit, when I reattach them. I am just shy of a full A cup without them and a full D cup wearing them. I guess I could go without them, but I like the way I look with them.”

“On you they look excellent, Angela.”

“I am kinda attached to them right now,” Angela said, which had them both giggling.

Hours later at home Angela got a call from Gwen, “Angela dear, this is Gwen.”

“Hello Gwen, how are you doing.”

“I am good, Olivia is great, she wants to meet you next week and Eleanor is happy. The reason I am calling is that Eleanor wants you dressed in your best suit on Tuesday, you have a court date.”

“What’s up now? Is this about Maryland or am I being sued?”

“Oh heavens no. Just be ready at eight on Tuesday morning we will pick you up. You can meet with Margaret in the afternoon, also.”

“Ok, Tuesday morning at eight, I’ve got it on my calendar, Gwen.”

“Ciao, Angela.”

“Ok, see ya later.”

Sunday, Angela took care of her own hives. It was the third week of July. She gave most a cursory exam and a few received a more thorough inspection. Out of twenty-six hives, she could count the number of small hive beetles, she found, on her fingers. She had just treated for Varroa three days ago. All the hives looked good and her bees were busy. She didn’t find any swarm cells or supercedure cells. There were many frames of brood, with plenty of room for the next round of brood. Her bees were doing good.

Each hive had at least one full medium hive body full of honey and many like her gold hive had two. It was the end of July and the summer dearth was beginning. One major honey flow was about three weeks away, goldenrod. She wouldn’t take anymore honey away from her bees, this year. She would also feed them during the dearth. She had everything she needed. In the next week or so, she would cook up fifty gallons of sugar syrup. From what she had been told that should last a week or two.

Monday, she went over to Dan’s she spent the day inspecting his hives. His hives were looking better than when she first saw them back in March. From the notes on the hives, Dan had been in his hives several times this summer. She noted the honey stores, pollen, an estimate of the hives strength and any parasites. His hives were doing very good too. It took all day going through his hives. Before she left for the day, she reported to Susan that she had a court date tomorrow.

Angela got up at ten till five on Tuesday. She fixed herself scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits with honey for breakfast. When she finished she cleaned up the kitchen and took a relaxing bath, shaving her legs before she got dressed.

She dressed in the nines in her black suit. She did her hair and makeup before she put on her white silk blouse and suit jacket. Angela had gotten very good doing her hair and makeup since March. She learned a lot from Susan and Ashley. Today she took her que from Ashley. She did her hair in a low bun and did a sophisticated makeup look, with a cool red lipstick, that Ashley uses when she is riding in an event. Angela looked at least twenty when she finished with her hair, makeup and her nail polish. She changed out her post earrings to pearl drops, added a gold cuff bracelet to her right wrist and a twenty-inch pearl necklace. She stepped into a pair of black patent leather pumps, which had a four-inch heel. She could rub elbows with the best patrons at an elite equestrian event.

She grabbed her black Gucci handbag, when she heard her buzzer go off indicating, that Eleanor and Gwen had arrived. After locking up the office she turned and was surprised to see a new three-quarter ton Chevy van with handicap plates. The van’s paint job was beautiful. It was a navy blue with a huge galaxy of stars painted in bright sparkling colors. The sliding door of the van opened revealing what had to be Olivia sitting in her wheel chair. Gwen and a lady who had to be Gwen and Olivia’s mom came around to meet Angela.

Angela, you look darling today. Eleanor had to go to Jackson yesterday to conduct some business and stayed over. This is my Mom Rachel and my sister Olivia, they surprised me this morning.

Angela greeted the women with a hug and then they climbed into the van. Gwen and Angela got in the back and Olivia turned her wheel chair around so she could keep the others entertained. Angela gave Olivia a kiss on her cheek before sitting and buckling in.

Olivia was as beautiful as Gwen was. She would have been a real heartbreaker if she hadn’t had her accident. She was dressed in a white cotton blouse and a pleated plaid knee length skirt.

The forty-five-minute drive to the courthouse in Jackson Mississippi found Olivia talking at a thousand miles an hour wanting to know a thousand different things. Angela liked the girl. Angela had to retell her life story. She didn’t leave out any important detail, including how she knew that she was a girl born in a boy’s body. These were her friends after all. Rachel Manning even asked Angela a few questions, when she could get a word in sideways past Olivia. Angela had fun talking with the family. This is what she missed the most in her life.

Rachel dropped them off at the handicap accessible entrance, and parked the van. Gwen, Olivia and Angela went in to get a start on going through security. It took Olivia a few minutes to pass security as a couple of female Deputies had to look over the rig she was driving. They were as courteous as they could be, while ensuring the security of the courthouse.

When they got up to the third floor they saw Eleanor and her lawyers along with Margaret Finch, waiting in the lobby. Eleanor greeted them all giving Olivia and Angela hugs and kisses.

“We must hurry on in,” Eleanor said. “We have about five minutes before our case comes up.”

They entered in the court room. Eleanor’s attorney indicated that Angela should come and sit with them at the lawyers table. Angela had just sat down when the bailiff said, “All rise for the Honorable Judge Stanley Wortman.”

Judge Wortman entered his court room. He had a keen eye and smiled when he saw Angela and Eleanor. He also took note of Olivia as she was raising her articulated wheel chair bringing herself to a standing position.

“You may be seated,” The judge stated. “Bailiff what is on the docket today?”

“A petition of Adoption, by Eleanor Whitmire and Angela Parsons, your honor.”

“Have Mrs. Eleanor, Miss Parsons and their Attorney approach, bailiff.”

Angela’s eyes were almost bugged out after what the bailiff said. She had to be coaxed to stand and follow Eleanor to the bench. It had started out as a joke and was about to become real.

Standing at the bench the judge asked Mrs. Whitmire, “Is it your intention to adopt Miss Parson as your daughter? Mrs. Whitmire.”

“As My niece, your honor.”

“Are you alright with this Miss Parson?”

Angela stuttered a few times, before she got out that she was alright with this.

“Is Angela Parson renouncing her Emancipation.”

“No, your honor,” Eleanor answered. “She will just become my niece, sir.”

“What is the purpose of this adoption?”

Eleanor answered, “Your honor, I am getting old. Neither Angela or I have any living relatives closer than two levels of consanguinity. My husband died before he and I could have a child. I have missed so much, not having a family around me. Angela Parsons is in this situation also. I want us to be able to call each other family, your honor.”

“Miss Parson, do you feel this way also?”

Angela was in tears as she said, “I already think of Mrs. Whitmire as my Aunt. I love her as much as I loved my parents. I would be proud to be her niece, your honor.” Good thing her makeup was water proof.

“Will she assume your last name, Mrs. Whitmire?”

“No, your honor, she will retain her own last name to honor her deceased parents.”

“Then by order of the court, Angela Parson give your Aunt a hug and a kiss.”

They kissed and hugged. Angela and Eleanor dried their tears.

“Your honor,” Gloria Beck, attorney at law added, “We have some additional business to attend to.”

Angela was busy talking to Eleanor and didn’t hear what Gloria was up to.

Gloria filed a copy of Mrs. Whitmire’s will and an irrevocable trust for Angela Parson. Angela wasn’t shown the documents at the time. If she had been aware of the contents of the two documents, she would probably have fainted, she was now worth in the neighborhood of a hundred million dollars in money and assets, including Eleanor’s home and orchard near Angela’s bee farm, held in trust till she was eighteen, twenty-one and twenty-five. Half of Mrs. Whitmire’s assets would go to Angela upon Eleanor’s death with the other half going to various charities and equestrian organizations. A major wall street accounting firm along with Mrs. Whitmire’s attorney, Gloria Beck and her Law Firm were assigned as administrators over the trust.

Angela was fingerprinted and her prints were added to the trust documents, for her protection.

Gloria handed Angela an envelope with the pertinent documents, with proper court seals and signatures on them, which she put in her purse without inspecting them.

Angela got hugs and kisses from everyone once she left the bar. She took time to hug Aunt Eleanor and scold her at the same time, saying that she didn’t need to do this. Angela loved Eleanor regardless of not really being her niece, but she realized that now she couldn’t really say that. She was now Eleanor’s niece.

The last business Eleanor and company had before leaving the courthouse was to file for a passport in the name of Angela Parson, in the county clerk’s office. Where Eleanor got two passport grade photos of Angela, she couldn’t fathom.

The lawyers took their leave and after Rachel and Olivia spent about a half hour taking care of her needs. They all went out to one of the nicest restaurants. The restaurant was a cross between southern cooking and Mediterranean fare. They spent nearly two hours eating and celebrating. Margaret and Angela spent about twenty minutes alone talking at a separate table.

When Angela finally got to her back to her bee farm, Olivia just wanted to see Angela’s bees. Angela got Olivia into a veil with her mom’s permission and led the girl over to her gold hive. They were her gentlest bees.

Olivia wheeled her chair over to the side of the hive, where Angela indicated. She used the chairs articulation to stand so she could see in the hive. Angela still in her Armani suit and heels, opened the hive up, only taking off her jacket. She showed Olivia frame after frame of honey bees working their honeycomb. Angela found a drone bee, drones don’t have stingers, and put the drone in Olivia’s hand. The drone walked around on Olivia, before it flew off.

“Ouch,” Olivia said.

She looked down and saw a bee struggling with its stinger embedded in Olivia’s leg beneath her skirt.

“Mom, a bee just stung my leg and I felt it. I FELT IT MOM. I FELT IT STING MY LEG!”

“I am so sorry Olivia,” a worried Angela said. “Even I get stung around here on a daily basis.”

Angela reached down and coaxed the stinger out of Olivia’s leg. Shooing other bees away from the girl.

“I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Angela. That is good news in a way,” Rachel said, crying. “That is the first thing Olivia has felt beneath her waist in two years. I will have to make an appointment with her Doctor this week. Can you try to get a bee to sting her other leg?”

Angela looked Olivia over first. Seeing that there was only minor irritation at the sting site and that Olivia looked alright and was breathing good, she captured another bee by its wings and held it next to her other leg. The bee didn’t like being mistreated and stung the girls calve.

“Ouch, I FELT THAT TOO MOM.”

Angela closed the hive while Rachel, Gwen and Olivia talked, about what had happened. What had happened could be considered a blessing and a curse. Olivia could feel the stings, that was good news, but it also meant that she might feel other pain in her legs too, Like cramps, which could be bad.

Angela got hugs and kisses from the Manning’s. Olivia promised to call later.

Wednesday Dan came over to Angela’s place. He had seen bear tracks on his property, recently. He brought with him a shotgun, a lever action Henry repeating rifle, scoped deer rifle and a 9mm Barretta automatic pistol. Angela spent the day learning how to shoot. Dan taught her the right way to handle and fire the weapons.

Angela learned just what the berm behind her warehouse was for as Dan set up various targets for them to shoot at. The targets were human shaped, deer shaped and bear shaped.

“Angela, listen to me closely I will leave the shotgun with you, loaded with noisemaker blanks and pepper bean bags, for bear. I am also going to install electric fences around your hives. We do get the occasional black bear in this part of the country. Bears will decimate a bee yard. They will destroy every hive and eat all the honey. Just be glad we don’t live in the pacific north west, they have grizzly bears up there. The noisemakers are usually enough to run the bears off. The first two rounds will be noisemakers the next three rounds will be bean bags with OC pepper in them.”

The next three hours they spent learning how to use the various weapons. Pistols were best under ten yards, shotguns were good up to fifty yards, except for the bean bags which were good for twenty yards max. The lever action rifle and the scope mounted rifle were good for targets a lot farther away.

She was taught not to point the weapons at anything, she wasn’t prepared to kill, except for the noisemakers and bean bag rounds. Noisemakers were best fired up into the air, while the bean bags had to be aimed at the bear.

Angela’s dad had been an Lt. in the Airforce-Security Force when she was born. Until her parents died she had lived around guns, but she wasn’t allowed to touch them.

There were several painful lessons that day. The first being that shotguns have a lot of kick in them and you had to shoulder the weapon right to keep from hurting yourself. The .308 Remington bolt action rifle had a nice kick to it also. The Henry rifle shot an oversized pistol round, the WCF .44-40. Angela liked that gun the best and was good at hitting what she shot at. The 9mm Glock was fun to shoot, but she would need more practice with that gun.

Dan left the shotgun in the closet just inside the office, loaded with non-lethal mix for bear, just as he had explained.

Angela checked her bank account online, before doing some shopping she needed to do. When she got to her account something looked way wrong. There were too many zeroes before she got to the numbers. Last month she had a little over seventeen thousand in the bank. Now her account was sitting at seven figures, two-million-nineteen-thousand-six-hundred-eighty-two dollars. It had to be a bank error. She checked her deposits and saw the problem. Tuesday there had been a two-million-dollar deposit. When she checked that deposit, she saw that Eleanor Whitmire had made an electronic transfer of the money from her personal account.

Angela went from penniless to a millionaire in six months. She got her purse to see what other nefarious things Eleanor had contrived. The first envelope had the adoption record. The second envelope contained a will for Eleanor. Angela almost dislocated her eyes when she read the provisions of the will. She will be a very rich person if she outlives Eleanor. She was going to have to talk to Eleanor. When she opened the third envelope, she just sat there. She gets five million when she turns eighteen, she gets another eighteen million, when she turns twenty-one and when she turns twenty-five she gets fifty million. On top of that she now owns the house that Eleanor currently lives in, with the proviso that she can still live there, along with three thousand acres of land, the home sits on. There were a half-dozen other bequesrs she didn’t have any knowledge of.

She called Gwen. When she connected she asked Gwen to pass a message on to Eleanor, then she blew a raspberry into her phone, “That will be all Gwen.” She knew Gwen would faithfully give her the message. She could imagine Eleanor being in a fit of laughter.

In reality Gwen was laughing so hard, she couldn’t breathe. She had to drink a glass of water, that Eleanor had offered her, before she could pass the message on.

“Eleanor your niece called and asked me to pass on a message to you.” Gwen started to crack up laughing again.

“Well what was the message?”

Gwen looked at her boss, stuck out her tongue and then blew Eleanor a raspberry. Something she had wanted to do so often herself, she just didn’t have the courage.

“Ahh, she must have read the paperwork we gave her. I wondered when she would get around to it.”

“You two were made for each other,” Gwen said.

Eleanor surprised her by giving Gwen a big hug and a kiss to her cheek, “That is the best thing you could have said to me, dear. I am also taking care of you and Olivia too.”

“And thank you, Eleanor. You’ve been a real life saver where Olivia is concerned. I would walk barefoot over broken glass for you… you know that don’t you?”

“Yes, I know and you know that I would never ask that of you.”

Gwen was with Eleanor in a business meeting, when she got the call about her sister. Eleanor left the meeting with the businessmen and had called ahead to get the best neurosurgical team to see to Olivia’s condition. Gwen believed that they had saved her sister’s life. Eleanor had paid for a new handicap accessible home and van for her mother and Olivia. Plus, Rachel doesn’t have to work now and Eleanor hired a live-in nurse to help take care of Olivia.

Angela didn’t quit working, even though she now didn’t need to. She kept up her hives and Dan’s hives. She didn’t tell anybody about what Eleanor had done. What Eleanor does with her money was Eleanor’s business and Angela wasn’t a braggard.

She was working on her hives in August. The dearth was well in, now. The dearth is when there is no food for the bees coming in and it was miserable hot weather. Angela was setting up feeders on each hive. She had this new hive top feeder system that inhibited robbing. Feeding at this time kept the queens laying eggs so the hive would be ready for the goldenrod that should come in, in a couple of weeks. She only wore her bee jacket, gloves and veil when working with her one Russian bee hive. Only the Russians got upset enough to attack anyone just for disturbing them slightly. She had just opened the hive and set up the hive top feeder, when she saw a man approaching her.

“Don’t come closer till I get this hive closed up mister. What can I do for you?”

“I am looking for Alan or Angela Parsons?”

Angela looked at the man, she had been shown his picture before. It was Rhys Phillips the man from Baltimore. He had his right hand behind his back.

“Alan ain’t here right now,” Angela said, pressing on the screen of her smart phone.

“You are that pervert Alan, aren’t you? The lawyer for my man told me about you,” he said pulling a gun from behind his back.

“Don’t come closer Mister. These bees can be a real bitch.”

Rhys kept approaching Angela. She ducked behind the Russian hive and he began shooting. The hive took the first four shots. Angela felt a thud, but no pain. She grabbed the bottom of the hive and put her shoulder into it, as she lifted and pushed the hive over. The hive fell at his feet causing him to fall over on top of the hive. Thirty thousand angry Russian bees poured out of the hive. Rhys Phillips scrambled to his feet swatting at bees and running. Angela just laid behind the hives for a minute or two and began to crawl away.

Eleanor’s security team came in at this time. Angela had to stop them from approaching the topped over hive. She pointed them in the direction the man had run. Three of the security people went in chase of Rhys Phillips, while two stayed with her, at a distance. Angela had to walk a hundred yards before the bees stopped attacking her. She had taken thirty or forty stings. The bees had gotten into her bee suit through several holes. Mr. Phillips had shot her through her silicone breast forms. She had three holes the bullet had gone through the right breast form into the left breast form, where it had lodged. She was hurting, but she thought that she was ok.

One female security guard let her go in and change out of the bee suit, take her shirt and bra off along with the breast forms. Angela put on a clean bra after removing all the bee stingers. She stuffed the clean bra with silicone cutlets and panties. The shape wasn’t the best, but she looked a little normal.

The sheriff came along with a paramedic. Angela told the paramedic about the numerous stings she had taken. He took her vitals. Eleanor, Gwen, Dan and Jacques arrived one at a time. The paramedic gave Angela an antihistamine and wanted to transport her to the hospital. Angela didn’t want to go, but Aunt Eleanor pulled rank on her. Gwen rode with her in the ambulance, giving instructions on where to take her if she wasn’t critical. They wound up taking her to the University Hospital where her doctors were.

The ER doctor admitted her as a precaution. She had forty-one welts on her chest where she had been stung. He kept her on an antihistamine drip and a non-opioid anti-inflammatory pain reliever.

Margaret and Doctor Jackson came to visit her along with another Doctor. They had Angela explain how she got here. Angela explained about getting shot in her breast forms and stung by forty-one Russian bees.

The odd doctor introduced himself as Dr. Willian Donovan, a plastic surgeon.

“I was going to see you about breast augmentation if you wanted it. How do you feel about that?” He said.

“Go right ahead and put them in, just be sure to fill this bra,” Angela said, handing him, her bra.

“No can do, right now. After taking so many bee stings, I want to give your body time to heal. High school starts in three weeks. Dr. Jackson will do a physical in say a week, if he clears you I can do the surgery in ten days. The vaginoplasty will have to wait till you are eighteen, if you want it and Margaret signs off on it.”

“I want it but that can wait I don’t plan on jumping in anybody’s bed, anytime soon.”

Margaret then spoke, “Oh I bought some more breast forms, but you can’t attach them while you are hooked up with an EKG. You’ll have them for when you are released.”

“Good I miss not having breasts. I sort of got used to them and now it’s like I am missing a leg.”

Angela had to put on her bra with Margaret’s help and put the breast forms in the cups. Doctor Jackson started to object, but Angela threatened to leave the hospital Against Medical Advice. Margaret helped maneuver the breast forms so they didn’t interfere with the EKG leads.

The doctors had to leave except for Margaret, when the Sheriff’s Deputy, Deputy Jennings arrived to take Angela’s statement.

“Mam, you sure are a lightning rod for trouble. Care to explain what happened today?”

Angela told him her story as he took notes. He stopped her several times to ask questions. She continued till she finished.

“We got that Rhys Phillip character. He’s right here in this hospital as a matter of fact. The doctors say he is in critical condition from over three hundred bee stings, but they think he will make it.”

“I warned him not to get too close to my Russian bees. He did what I wanted him to do, he kept moving closer. When he got about six feet away I was sure my bees would take care of him.”

“The DA is just itching to get a hold of him. He plans to arraign him here in the hospital when he gets out of the intensive care unit. He’ll be breaking rocks for forty years, if he is lucky. Then Mary-land gets him for some more time. Oh well, I guess I better go so your visitors can come on in.”

Eleanor, Gwen and Ashley came in. Angela had to repeat her story for them. Eleanor called in a female security guard when she heard that Rhys Phillips was in this hospital too.

Angela got discharged from the hospital, the next morning after a doctor checked her out. Gwen came to pick her up.

“Dan and Jacques send their regrets,” Gwen said. “They worked till sunset trying to get the bees back into the box. They got most of the bees in, but there was still many flying around. They are at your property right now working on that hive.”

“Those were Russian bees, they aren’t as aggressive as Africanized honey bees, but Rhys got them pretty stirred up. I guess me tipping their hive over didn’t help either.”

“I can’t imagine what getting stung three hundred times is like. He deserved it for trying to kill you.”

“That should be the last attempt on my life. I hope. How many more could blame me for their failures? How far did Rhys get before they caught up with him?”

“According to our security chief, he almost got to the Moody entrance. He was very, I don’t want to say ugly, but the swelling from all those bee stings was a little grotesque. He would have probably died without intervention.”

“It’s good that he will survive. I hope he has a long life in prison. The same with that other guy.”

“Eleanor isn’t going to ask, but she would really like you to move in with her.”

“You know I would have been a target somewhere else, Gwen. I’m not going to live in a cage, not even a gilded cage, but I might take her up on it. I have liked living on my own these past months, but the last few weeks, I learned about what I have missed being alone.”

Gwen drove up to Angela’s doorstep. Dan and Jocks were sitting on the tailgate of Jacques truck looking at a huge swarm of bees in the air. She and Gwen walked up to them.

“Your Russian bees are absconding,” Dan said.

“Yeah they don’t like the rent and the accommodations girl.”

“Will they survive out on their own? I mean we are well into the dearth and they won’t have any stores.”

“I figure, you might have killed the queen when you tipped the hive over. They’ll probably be dead within sixty days.” Dan added.

“That hive wasn’t much for making honey, but that queen could sure produce brood,” Angela said. “That was one of my strongest hives, next to my gold hive.”

The rest of Angela’s bees were robbing the old Russian hive, since the Russians were no longer defending their old hive.

Miles away Willard was having one hell of a swarm come into one of his dead out hives. He didn’t know if they were Russian or African, but they didn’t like it when he intruded into their space. The hive they were claiming had succumbed to Varroa a couple of weeks ago, the mites had already died or moved on. The dead bees honey was still in the hive. Maybe they would stay and maybe they would survive.

“Oh Angela,” Dan said. “Be at my office tonight at seven. I have some very important news. See if Mrs. Whitmire can come also.”

“I will be there.”

Gwen called Mrs. Whitmire and informed her of the meeting. She said that she would be there.

Dan and Jacques left the girls and headed into their office.

“Eleanor wants you to clean up and suit up for this meeting. She also wants us at the house at two, to have a late lunch with her. So go hop into the shower and don’t forget to shave your legs. I will get your clothes ready.”

Angela did as she had been told. She would attach her breast forms after she dried off. She did note how scratchy her legs felt as she shaved them. When she came out Gwen helped her properly attach her breast forms and then began helping her dress.

This procedure included being strapped into a corset, which Gwen was merciless at tightening. The reason of which became clear, as Angela put on a pair of stockings, panties and a padded pair of spanx briefs. The pink skirt that belonged to the suit had a smaller waist than Angela’s normal fair. Before Angela put on her blouse and jacket Gwen did her hair and makeup, in a sophisticated chic business look.

Angela could wow a boardroom with her looks and her brains, when they were finished fussing.

“Unless you are working in the field Angela, this is a look you should adopt when you are doing business. It shows the people you work with, your commitment to doing business.”

Angela stood in front of her full-length mirror in a pink Alexander McQueen business suit, a Stella McCartney white silk blouse, off black stockings and black patent leather pumps with four-inch heels. She loved the makeup look, she could pass for twenty years old and the hair was flirty yet sophisticated. She was every inch a business woman.

They arrived at Eleanor’s place at about one thirty. Gwen went to her room to get ready herself, because Eleanor too was in full war paint. Angela and Eleanor went to the veranda and sat at a table and were served tea.

“You’re dressed for a board meeting, Aunt Eleanor. What’s up? Dan isn’t quitting beekeeping, is he?”

“No, Dan isn’t quitting. After the call, I put out some feelers. I am not sure, what I found is what is going on, but I don’t think it is coincidence, either. What I found is important, but I will let Dan have his thunder, if I’m right. How far are you willing to take beekeeping, Angela?”

“As far as I can take it. Thirty to forty percent of the food we eat is touched directly or indirectly by bees. Bees have been on a decline and we need to work to save our bees, by any means necessary.”

They talked for about forty minutes, till Gwen joined them, all dressed up herself. They talked bees while they ate with Gwen taking notes as if she were at a dinner with business executives. The lunch lasted to nearly four.

Eleanor then took them on a tour of her property, first going farther from Angela’s home and then headed back towards Dan’s place. Standing at the fence furthest east on Eleanor’s property looking east they could see the trees circling Dan’s property. A half mile of pasture separated the two farms. The intervening property was five hundred acres of fallow pasture land.

“This is Mr. Wes Stinson’s pasture. It has lain fallow for about ten years. He used to grow Cotton and the last few years they planted hay, to sell, but it has been let go, as Mr. Stinson is no longer able to work the field himself. I too have left the six hundred acres of fallow on this end of my property, as I no longer keep horses on this farm. I have talked to Mr. Stinson about selling. He is in his eighties and was in fair to poor health, considering his age. I am going to buy that land and let him continue to live in his home, I think. He was agreeable to that proposition. It too will be your property too Angela.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, Aunt Eleanor.”

“It is your legacy dear. Don’t argue with me about it. I’m not going to take it back.”

“But…”

“NO! buts Angela. I may have ten or twenty years left in these bones dear. I have no living relatives that I would care to give it too, in bequeath. You have been like my own niece dear and now you are officially related to me. So, no buts dear.”

“I don’t love you for what you can give me, Aunt Eleanor. I love you because… I just do!”

They drove back to their house and freshened up a bit before heading to Dan’s place an hour early. Eleanor was interested in the twelve-foot square satellite map of the county. Eleanor and Gwen studied the map, with Eleanor identifying the various large properties in the county. They also took note of the various known beekeeper locations marked on the map.

Angela found what had to be Mr. Dinkins’ property. He saw what looked like a dozen bee hives down the road from the Moody’s, across the way from Dan and down the road from Jack Brown. The hives weren’t marked, but were in the right position. She found she could find several other unregistered beekeepers by looking at this large map.

People started arriving and Angela, Gwen and Eleanor went into greet and meet mode. Chairs had been set up in the warehouse for all the people. Dan had really planned for this meeting. Angela knew a few of the people having met them at some of the functions of the local Beekeepers Association. Eleanor’s presence with Angela gave her more prestige. Eleanor was never far from Angela, but she let her niece do the talking, responding when someone spoke directly to her. There were about a hundred people there now.

Dan came into the warehouse a few minutes before the meeting began, to talk to individuals and to shake a few hands. He was joined by the county’s Agricultural Extension Agent and an official from Mississippi’s Agriculture Commissioner’s office.

Dan took the floor, “Hello everyone, I am glad you could make it. I received a call yesterday, that affects us all. Adam Morrison had a stroke. He is expected to live, but he will be incapacitated for a while. For those of you who don’t know it. Adam was the biggest supplier of bees, queens and equipment in three states. Gloria Morrison told me that she is selling the bee business, so she can spend time helping nurse her husband back to health. I told Gloria that I couldn’t handle the bee business and my pollination services at the same time. She wants to sell the operation within the next thirty days.”

“What is needed is someone to buy the business and move it to their land and run the queen operation and also the bee production business. Please hold your questions until everyone has spoken.”

That is why Eleanor was invited Angela thought.

The state Ag Commissioner got up and talked, before the county agriculture Agent spoke. They both talked about the importance of the job that Mr. Morrison had done. The state and the county both promised their assistance, in insuring the success of anyone taking up the quest.

When it came time for questions.

Angela stood up, “How many hives did Mr. Morrison have?” It was a question that needed to be asked.

The Ag Commissioner took this question, “We are talking about 600 ten frame hives, 900 five frame nucs and 400 queen breeder nucs. Mr. Morrison produced six thousand three-pound packages, five hundred nucs and twenty thousand queens a year. He also produced ten percent market share in bee hive bodies and sold bee suits, tools and equipment, in the southeast.”

“What are the land requirements for that kind of operation?”

“Mr. Morrison operated on six hundred acres of land, that was surrounded by bee friendly habitat of about two hundred thousand acres. He still had to feed his bees at several points in the year.”

“Dan, would using Mrs. Whitmire’s three thousand acres as a base of operation would it significantly affect your operation?”

“It wouldn’t have a severe negative impact. I might have to feed my bees a little more.”

“What would be a good estimate of the worth of bees, inventory and equipment and what are the expected revenues?”

“I haven’t asked Mrs. Morrison yet, but on my estimates three hundred thousand for the bees and maybe another quarter of a million on the assets. Revenue is what one could make out of the operation. I don’t know Mr. Morrison’s revenue, but he and Gloria did well from their bees. Selling bees to beekeepers, is where the money in beekeeping is.”

“What about labor, running an operation that size would require how many people to do it right?”

Dan answered that question, “Fourteen people would be needed in bee production side from February to June then maybe six full time beekeepers the rest of the year. Three or four could handle the equipment sales during peak months, three the rest of the year. Two to three administrative personnel would be needed.”

Mrs. Whitmire then asked about ten questions, of the panel. Angela knew from the Questions that they were going to do this.

Of all the people there only, Dan and Eleanor were capable of handling an operation this size. They knew that Dan couldn’t run this operation and thee bee production operation. They thought it was strange that Angela was asking all the questions, but she was apparently attached somehow to Eleanor.

Gwen had been taking copious notes about all the information that was being presented. There would be a late night at the Whitmire estate tonight.

Those present asked questions for another hour.

Angela, Gwen and Eleanor, met with Dan, Jacques, Brenda, Rick and a couple of more of Dan’s beekeepers along with the state and county officials.

“I would do it Mrs. Whitmire, but I am all over the country trouble shooting.” Dan said. “It is what I do best. I can do either the pollination service or the bee production service. I feel I need to keep doing what I am doing

“You are a good man, Dan. My niece and I will buy and take over the bee production.”

That came as a surprise they didn’t think Eleanor had any living relatives.

“Who is your niece?” Dan asked.

“Angela will be my executive vice president in charge of Bee production of course. I just adopted her. Angela dear, please tender your resignation to Dan. You’re going to be much too busy with school and running, “The Mississippi Bee Queen” to work for him also.”

“Sorry Dan, I am also moving to Aunt Eleanor’s estate. To be closer to the bee operation.”

They talked for another hour, Eleanor bought Dan’s property where Angela had lived. That would be the base of operations. Brenda and another two working Dan’s Queen operations would be taking over that property to run the queen breeder operation and they would look for another two people to work queens. Jacques would move his teaching over to Eleanor’s bee production operation. Eleanor would also buy the adjoining property from Mr. Stinson. Eleanor planned to build a warehouse/office complex there, which would be their base of bee operations. Another building would be constructed on her property to deal with the bees.

The next three days found a beehive like level of activity at Eleanor’s estate. There was a team of lawyers and experts on the estate for long days of work.

Angela, wearing a skirted suit, and Eleanor took a helicopter ride to look at the area surrounding Eleanor’s estate taking note of the vegetation, with the river nearby water wasn’t a problem. They flew out to Mr. Morrison’s operation, to talk to Gloria Morrison. They paid Gloria thirty percent more than what she could have hoped for on the open market, to help defray her medical expenses.

Eleanor arranged with Dan to help transport and set up the hives on Eleanor’s estate.

Three days before Angela’s seventeenth birthday, she got her breast surgery. They made her just a little smaller than her breast forms because they expected her to grow into her bras.

Angela had an epic birthday. She had almost fifty people there to wish her a happy birthday. Eleanor had gotten her a dozen business suits and high heels. Eleanor was old school and didn’t believe in ladies’ pants suits and flats in the office. Hosiery was always a requirement.

A week later she started school. She hired a dozen students to work part time for “The Mississippi Bee Queen” working on building hives, selling equipment and working in the office. Angela and her workers wen to school for half a day and spent four hours working.

Mr. Stinson set up small bee traps so he could use their stings to help with his arthritis. After he got stung once or twice, his hands felt better.

“The Mississippi Bee Queen” was slightly in the red due to startup costs the first year. Mostly due to the cost of the Stinson property and the McNeil property. The Bee Queen also paid Angela for the lease of the Whitmire Estate. Eleanor had insisted on this. Angela was as knowledgeable as most of her beekeepers after the first year and ten months of operation and she had gotten a good education on the business side of things too.

When she graduated from high school, she took off eight weeks to have bottom surgery, before starting off at the University of Mississippi in Jackson Mississippi. She did her Masters at the University of Kentucky and Her doctoral at the University of Florida.

For her Doctoral Thesis she spent eighteen months on an isolated Caribbean Island, owned by one of Eleanor’s friends. The Island had no native bees and was too far from other places for the bees to fly. Three other students joined her for their projects to split the time they would have to be on the island. They gathered data for each other.

Angela’s project was to try and develop other bees to strengthen the current bee populations. She airlifted a thousand new queen bees over the eighteen months, for Brenda to work with.

Her Queen Bee operation became the third largest in the country, while her bee production was the largest in the south. The Queen from her gold hive had become the basis for several lines of her queen bee operation. She emphasized diversity of genetics in their hives, to her customers, not selectivity.

Olivia became her personal assistant in the bee operation, calling the shots when Angela wasn’t around. She still couldn’t walk, but the health of her legs had improved over the years. She goes to her doctor to receive weekly bee stings.

Eleanor retired to her horse farm in Kentucky for her last few years. Dan retired selling his bee pollination operation to one of his and Jacques students. He still works on the teaching hives Angela has on the Stinson property.

Ashley and her brother were both big in the Equestrian neighborhood. Ashley took gold in the Olympics and nationals. Zachery became a premiere breeder and trainer, working with many of the top riders.

Ashley and Angela never got together. It wasn’t that bees and horses don’t mix well, they don’t, you don’t want to be riding a horse stung by a bee, but the time bees require and horses require can consume ones’ time to do anything else. They talk all the time and get together occasionally for a vacation together, but then they go back to what they know and love.

Ashley and her husband, Rex Norman, ride competitively and teach competitive riding. They have three kids, two of them adopted.

Angela met Clint West, who teaches Forensic Entomology at the University of Mississippi. They married and adopted three kids.

…But those are other stories, Bye for now.