Stuart Watkins
Beauty was the most perfect bumble bee any momma bee or poppa bee could ever wish to have.
Her wings were flawless, her torso symmetrical, her waist tiny, and her proportions were perfect.
Her stinger was to die for. It was “The bomb.”
Beauty was perfect in every way except one, Beauty was a rover.
She was a flower hopper, nectar sniffer, fragrance follower, flittering for fun.
Momma bee and Poppa bee were often asking, “Where is Beauty?”
Dr. Markel Bartholomew was a biologist for the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He loved bees. He had a telescope that would let him follow the flight of a bee for hundreds of yards.
One day, he was outside with his students when one of them exclaimed, “Look, Dr. Bartholomew, I do believe I have noticed a bumble bee of distinctive characteristics!”
This student was most excited.
Dr. Bartholomew set up his telescope and spotted Beauty right away. He took out his bottle of bee luring fragrance he had invented, and liberally sprayed it into the air.
Beauty flew hither and yon, but got closer and closer to the cluster of students.
Dr. Bartholomew motioned the students to stand back. He took a rose from his vest pocket, sprayed it with his special bee luring fragrance, and waited.
Beauty landed on the middle of the rose.
Dr. Bartholomew took off his glasses, leaned over ever so closely to get an even better inspection of the spectacular bumble bee, when Beauty became frightened and jumped straight back into Dr. Bartholomew’s eye.
It was supper time at Momma and Poppa bee’s hive.
Beauty was nowhere to be found.
They called out to the worker bees, “Where is Beauty? Has anyone seen Beauty?”
A worker bee flew over to their hive and said, “I am sorry to be the one to tell you, but Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”