Vesper’s Hundred-Bloom Dash — Before the sun climbed over the far hill, Vesper zipped from clover head to clover head, tapping each bloom with one fuzzy foot. Read the full story →
Before the sun climbed over the far hill, Vesper zipped from clover head to clover head, tapping each bloom with one fuzzy foot. She had set herself a grand challenge: greet one hundred blossoms before the barn roof turned bright. The meadow smelled like honey and wet grass, and her wings made a zzzip-zzzip sound over the hive row.
She counted pink clover, white clover, and the tiny daisies by the fence. “Seventy-eight!” she called, looping around a leaf and skimming past the wooden boxes where her sisters hummed inside. The farm rolled away in green waves, and every flower seemed to nod her onward.
Then Vesper heard a different counting: tap-tap, hum-hum, tap-tap. It came from the hives themselves. Each box was gently keeping rhythm with her wingbeats, as if the whole apiary had joined her game. Vesper laughed so hard she nearly counted the same clover twice. She reached one hundred just as the barn roof flashed gold, and next time you see her hovering near the hives, you may know which beat the meadow is keeping: zzzip-zzzip.
