The Music of Bees

Harry feels guilty about failing to visit his uncle in the hospital as he’d planned. He checks his email at the library and accepts the beekeeper’s invitation to an interview that afternoon. He calls his mother and then finally visits his uncle. Uncle H is attached to various medical machines, but the doctor tells Harry that although Uncle H is fragile, he’s stable. Harry says he’ll take care of him if he recovers enough to live at home. Harry then bikes to the farm for the interview.

Alice looks over Harry’s résumé and asks him some questions, but Harry, who feels uneasy, offers little in reply. Alice explains that the job requires carpentry, heavy lifting, and some initiative in doing whatever’s necessary to keep the farm in good order. They go outside, where Alice shows him the apiary and explains how it operates. Satisfied with Harry, she offers him the part-time job.

Two weeks earlier, she’d had dinner with Jake, Noah, and Celia and had appreciated the cooking and approved the changes they’d made in the positioning of furniture. Later, she suggests that Jake stay for a while before he decides on his next move. She drives into town and observes a protest in the park against SupraGro, the pesticides of which will affect every water source in the valley.