Hour of the Bees

Carol comes to from her fainting spell. She’s disoriented. Her family helps her toward the car. She suddenly feels overwhelmed and grief-stricken about leaving the ranch and the fact that it has sold. She tells her father about the seed in the closet that she planted and that she’s been seeing bees all summer. Serge gently coaxes Carol into the car, offering to tell her the end of the story.

The villagers continued to die, some in the Great War, others in their sleep; the tree’s magic was gone. Raúl grew up quickly. The land where the tree (now just a shriveled stump) used to grow got drier. Rosa and Sergio argued; Sergio angrily said that they shouldn’t have destroyed the tree. Rosa suggested that doing so allowed them to live more fully, but Sergio pointed out that it would kill them too. A swarm a bees arrived beside the family; Sergio protected Rosa, but Raúl was stung all over his face and body. The bees took the lake away, drop by drop, until the family was left in a dry desert. Drought had begun.