Fenn’s Waiting Whorl — Between two warm chimneys, Fenn held very still while the rooftop bees buzzed over the tar-paper ledge. Read the full story →
Between two warm chimneys, Fenn held very still while the rooftop bees buzzed over the tar-paper ledge. He had just invented a secret game called Waiting Whorl: every bee who landed had to place one dust-speck on his brown middle, then follow the next curved space without bumping anyone. Fenn wanted the whole pattern finished before sunset. The trouble was the wind kept flicking his yellow petals—whip, whisper, whip—and the bees hated crooked lines.
“Not yet,” Fenn murmured when a silver gust tried to hurry him. He waited through the smell of hot brick, through the tick of pigeon feet on the water tank, through one long cloud sliding over the sun. At last the bees came back, slow and careful, setting gold dust in two crossing trails until the middle tightened into a perfect whirl.
Here’s the part gardeners don’t usually tell: the pattern pleased the seeds so much that they refused to grow any other way. Ever since Fenn’s patient game, sunflower seeds have lined up in secret spirals, and if you count softly from the edge, you may find the Waiting Whorl still holding its breath.
