The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

Author:Eileen Garvin [Garvin, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

15

Queen Right

There is one trait in the character of bees which is worthy of profound respect. Such is their indomitable energy and perseverance, that under circumstances apparently hopeless, they labor to the utmost to retrieve their losses and sustain the sinking State.

—L. L. LANGSTROTH

Honeybees have been clocked flying as fast as twenty miles per hour—a speedy clip for an insect that weighs about a tenth of a gram. But that is nothing compared to the velocity at which news travels in a small town. Alice found the Hood River News propped on her desk in the morning. Pete’s front-page photo had captured Alice and Stan holding the clipboard between them like a couple cutting a wedding cake. Stan was smiling, and Alice was not. The headline read, “Watershed Alliance Rallies against Cascadia Contract.” Alice was identified as Alice Holtzman, county resident. Someone, probably Nancy, had drawn a smiley face over their heads in ballpoint pen.

Alice scanned the story, which said nothing she didn’t already know. Pete detailed the watershed group’s objections to the county contract with SupraGro and briefly mentioned the lawsuits other communities had filed against the company in the past. There was no quote from her, although the caption said she was among other “concerned citizens” at the rally. Thanks for nothing, Pete. The county had offered no official comment, the story read.

She dropped the paper into the recycling, sat down, and turned on her computer. The door to Bill’s office opened, and Nancy came out, giggling as she closed it. She grinned at Alice. Nancy was forty-six years old but would wear that naughty little girl face to her grave, Alice thought.

“Good morning, Miss Front Page!” she said, wiggling her fingertips at Alice. “It’s all paparazzi and tall dark strangers these days, eh?”

“You’re here early, Nance,” Alice said. Nancy never got to work before Alice.

Nancy pointed over her shoulder at Bill’s door. “He’s in this morning.”

She opened her email and saw the message: all-staff meeting, Wednesday 9:30 a.m. It was dated 7:36 p.m. yesterday. Since when were they supposed to be checking email after hours?

Her stomach dropped as she read the message. All county employees were expected at a mandatory review of compliance agreements with privately held stakeholders. It was about the watershed protest, Alice thought. Alice had been through this before when the Cascadia oil train had derailed in Mosier and threatened the county drinking water, orchard irrigation, and the entire watershed along that stretch of river. The normally polite citizens were angry and had staged a protest downtown. The county lawyers had convened a similar meeting then to remind them that as county employees, they were bound to silence respecting local contracts. Translation: don’t talk about the oil spill.

At the time, Alice hadn’t thought much about the county’s defensive posturing. She’d been busy helping her parents move, and though the oil spill distressed her, she really believed the county would do the right thing, which was to force Cascadia to clean up the sidelined railcars and greasy oil before they began running trains along the river again.

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