Unlikely You (Sapph in the City #5)

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Honey

When my parents bought the farm and decided to turn it into an apiary, I’d done a massive amount of research on bees. They’d read some of it, but mostly they corresponded with a few people online and said they’d figure the rest out as they went.

That wasn’t the way I wanted them to do things, but they were the ones in charge, so I did what I could to help.

My reading took me down all kinds of interesting paths. I learned about telling the bees, a tradition of telling bees about important milestones in the lives of their keepers. My parents had thought that was a lovely idea, so we all started telling the bees about all kinds of things.

I might have gone a little overboard, because anytime I had a problem, I’d tell the bees first. It was much easier to inform my parents about a bad grade or a mistake I’d made after telling the bees and listening to their soft buzzing comfort. I told them good things too. Like when I had my first kiss. The bees knew more about my sex life than anyone else. I hoped they appreciated it. They seemed to.

My parents also had us sing to the bees, thinking that it was a gift to give them in thanks for the honey.

Sometimes when I couldn’t sleep and it wasn’t too cold out, I’d go sit with them and tell them all my troubles. The bees never judged or yelled or tried to offer advice. They were good like that.

I’d told the bees about my little crush on Bren and they’d been very supportive. I’d even pitched an idea for visitors to the apiary to get a chance to tell the bees as part of the farm tour.

There were so many programs I wanted to do, including apiary management for local aspiring beekeepers, but there wasn’t time for that with everything else.

It was too much. Every morning I groaned when my alarm went off, feeling like I hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep. The work was endless, and it never slowed down or paused. Even in the winter when the bees were tucked safely in the hive to ward off the cold and protect their queens, we had to monitor them and make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be.

Not to mention the other animals on the farm, including two dogs, three cats, the chickens, and the ducks. My siblings had also wanted goats, but my parents had put their foot down on that, for which I was grateful. Not to mention our gardens where we grew dozens of varieties of flowers for the bees, and the lavender and other herbs that went into the candles, and my jalapenos that went into the hot honey, which was a new product for us. It had been more of an experiment and I’d wanted to try it after seeing hot honey on so many menus. So far, our customers were loving it and I was working on a mild and a hotter version for more discerning palates.

I yawned as I put on my work boots that I kept by the door and pulled on a sweater. This early, it was still a little chilly outside. I’d be warm in no time though.

As much as it could suck to be up this early, seeing the morning mist hanging in the air made everything feel magical and mysterious. Like I was walking through a different land. Both of the dogs followed me, bounding around and happy to be outside.

The chickens were warm and grumpy as I searched for eggs and then fed them and checked their water. The ducks greeted me and wiggled their sweet little butts. It always made me laugh. Later on today they were getting their favorite treat of frozen peas. I was going to take a video and add it to our social media. People seemed to love goofy videos of the ducks eating and getting hosed down, so I tried to get some good ones every week.

I waved to Mom, who was already on her knees in the flower gardens and Dad was already checking the hives for the morning. My siblings were supposed to get up and help, but that rarely happened.

Sighing, I went inside the main house to get some breakfast started for everyone. On days when we weren’t going to the marketplace, and didn’t have morning tours, I liked to make a nice big breakfast for everyone. Mom had made batches of pie crust that we’d frozen, so I pulled two out of the deep freezer and set them to pre-bake while I mixed up some of our fresh eggs, ham, cheese, and green peppers. The coffee burbled away, and I doctored my cup with liberal glugs of caramel creamer. Mom would want tea with honey and lemon, and Dad took his coffee strong and black. The kids would ask for some, but only Ember was allowed a half a cup. My parents had decided sixteen was the right age to have coffee, in spite of Ember having had caffeinated soda years earlier. It didn’t make sense, but as long as my siblings had to follow the same rules I did, then I didn’t care.

Archer bounced down the stairs while I was pouring the quiche mixture into the pie crusts.

“Good morning to you,” I told him as he came over and gave me a hug. He was always chipper in the mornings and his mood got worse as the day went on.

Behind him was Ember, already wearing a scowl on her face, but it brightened a little when I handed her a half cup of coffee with so much creamer it barely resembled coffee anymore. Sweet Ellie was last, padding down with pillow creases on her cheek and her curls sticking up as if she’d been electrocuted.

“Can I help?” she asked.

“Of course you can.” I instructed her to get the strawberries from the fridge and the peaches from the counter so we could have a little fruit salad.

“Is there bacon?” Archer asked, resting his chin on the long dining table that was right next to the kitchen. The first floor of the house was almost completely open, with raw wood beams and knotted hardwood original floors. It was exactly what a farmhouse should look like, with red-painted cabinets and a rusted wagon wheel with hooks for the pots and pans.

“No, there isn’t any bacon, but there’s ham in the quiche,” I told him.

Ellie sang softly to herself as she carefully sliced strawberries and peaches. A perfectionist to her core, she made sure each piece was a similar size. I didn’t bother to tell her that it didn’t matter. She was happy.

“Ember, can you please, please, use your headphones?” I asked as my sister played videos on her phone at full volume.

She huffed, but put them on and I enjoyed the quiet for a few minutes.

It was only a few minutes, because soon my parents came back inside, harmonizing a folk song together.

The day had begun.

The rest of my waking hours were a blur of candle pouring and packing online orders and website admin and attempting to keep my younger siblings from letting their brains rot from too much technology.

“You’re literally always on your phone. That’s a little hypocritical,” Ember said, giving me a smug smile. She’d been studying for her SAT and she’d been flinging all kinds of vocabulary words at us ever since.

“I am not ‘literally’ always on my phone,” I said. Most of the time I was exchanging messages with Bibliofile. I had a few other online friends, but none like her. In fact, I probably had a few messages from her waiting for me.

“Why aren’t you hanging out with your friends?” I asked her. It was unusual for her to spend the entire day here. Several of her older friends had their licenses and were always picking her up to go park in the lot at the local gas station to look cool. I’d been invited to do the same thing when I’d been in high school, but it had seemed like a waste of time and I didn’t like the people who always went over there. They were rude and mean and never talked about anything interesting.

I was happier on the farm or spending the day at the library or even just driving around by myself and listening to whatever music I wanted. It was so peaceful to only have my own thoughts and the music as my company. Some days I’d take a book out with me and sit near the hives and read out loud to the bees. They seemed to enjoy that too.

Ember let out a huffy sound. “Amara is fighting with Ruby over Declan, and Harley and Bryn have just started going out and they don’t want to hang out with anyone else. And Henry is off at theater camp and has a new boyfriend. So. I’m here to avoid drama.” That sounded like a lot.

“What’s the Amara-Ruby-Declan situation?” I asked, sitting down on the couch next to her. If I didn’t do some yoga tonight, my body was going to hate me tomorrow.

Ember rolled her eyes and sighed.

“It’s so stupid, okay.” She launched into an epic story of teen crushes and betrayal, complete with social media receipts. It reminded me so much of being that young and having crushes and friendships that all felt like the end of the world.

“So now Amara is pissed and if I talk to Ruby she’s going to be even more pissed, so I’m not talking to either of them because who has time for that?”

“Not me,” I told her, holding back a smile.

“Anyway,” Ember said, as if realizing this was the longest conversation we’d had in months, “that’s what’s happening.”

“You don’t have any crushes of your own?” Ember had come out and said she was questioning her sexuality earlier this year, but she hadn’t landed on a label quite yet. Didn’t matter. She had a whole lifetime ahead of her.

Ember shrugged, but her cheeks were red.

“Oh, so you DO have a crush!” I said, grabbing her arm. “Tell me.”

Ember moaned and tipped sideways into a pillow. Her voice was muffled as she said, “Shut uppppp.”

“Tell me who it is, tell me, tell me,” I chanted, and she sat up, completely red and glaring at me.

“Leave me alone!” She flounced out of the room with her phone as I laughed.

“That’s what big sisters are for,” I called after her.

“What’s going on?” Ellie asked, taking Ember’s seat. I pulled her close in a hug and whispered in her ear, “Ember has a crush but she won’t tell me who it is.”

“Do you mean Mateo or Lyric?” Ellie asked, snuggling closer. At least one of my siblings still loved me. Archer was outside, the crash of the basketball on the backboard attached to the barn announcing his presence.

“Wait, who are Mateo and Lyric?” I asked.

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Don’t you pay attention at all ?”

I hid a snort at how grown up she sounded.

“I guess not. I’ve had other things on my mind. Tell me what you know.”

Ellie had apparently been paying very close attention to Ember and gave me all the details of her many crushes. Seemed as if Ember caught crushes as easily as you could catch a cold and I thought that was adorable.

“But I think she doesn’t really like any of them. She’s actually in love with Bryn, but Bryn’s dating Harley now and Ember is really upset about it. So be extra nice to her, okay?”

This kid.

I kissed the top of her head. “You are the sweetest girl in the history of the world, and I love that about you.”

Ellie giggled as I ticked her in her ribs.

“Stop ittttt.”

“Never,” I said, kissing her head again.

“Fuck!” Archer yelled.

“Language!” I yelled back.

“Fudge!” he responded.

“That’s better.”

Siblings.

I checked my personal email later that day and found a message from Bibliofile. We sent messages back and forth all the time, but we also would send longer emails sometimes. Longer musings, clips from articles, all kinds of things. They were mostly a stream of consciousness and I loved it every time I got to open one. If I could have sent her letters, I would have, but this was the next best thing.

Mel,

Do you ever wonder who you’d be if you’d made one decision differently? I can’t help thinking about that all the time. That there are all these different paths in front of me and which flavor latte I order at the cafe is going to send me on a new one. I hope I don’t sound like I’m losing my mind. I hope you know what I’m talking about. I feel like if anyone knew what I was talking about, it would be you.

Okay, enough of that. Here’s an article about a really cool jellyfish.

-Bibliofile

I read the article about the jellyfish, which was less cool and more completely terrifying. I went upstairs to my computer to type out a response. I could write emails on my phone, but I liked the sound of a keyboard when I typed them out.

Biblio,

Yes, I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. I think about decisions I’ve made years afterwards and wonder what would have happened if I’d chosen something different. Isn’t that what life is? Making choices and living with whatever future those choices give you. That sounds depressing, sorry about that.

Did you know that there are more trees here on Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy? I think that’s pretty impressive and inspiring. Oh, and here’s a cool video of some hummingbirds that I saw. That jellyfish is TERRIFYING and I don’t trust anything that lives that deep in the ocean.

-Melliferal