The Music of Bees

Content Warning: This section references mental health conditions.

A couple days later, Alice inspects her hives and updates her notes. Of the 12 hives, 10 are flourishing, and she plans to strengthen the ailing hives. Her goal is to acquire more bees and reach 50 hives by the summer. This will enable her to sell enough honey to use the proceeds to create an orchard. She needs to hire someone to help her, so she posts a job ad.

Finding a backpack that Jake left in her truck, Alice drives to his home to return it. Jake again shows great interest in how the bees are doing. His bullying father, Ed, is aggressive toward Alice, but she handles the situation well. She tells Jake about the job opportunity and invites him to consider it. Evidently, he’s open to the idea since she drives off with him in the passenger seat.

Harry has a history of making bad decisions. Two friends from high school persuaded him to be the driver in a robbery attempt. As a result of that episode, Harry served a two-year prison sentence. He hoped to make a new start when he moved out west. Now he sits in a café with Moira, looking at the job classifieds.