Catching A Bee In A Box

Catching a bug in a box is something anyone can do, but catching a bee is the kind of thing you can only do when there aren't adults watching your every move.

They won't let you try because, they say, You'll get stung, but Isabella didn't get stung which makes everyone think adults don't know what they're talking about, or that Isabella is a kind of super kid, or that grown-ups have a bad habit of speaking their worries as truth instead of what they are: farfetched anti-hopes.

The bee was crawling through the dust. Isabella got the bug box and carefully scooped the bee into it, quickly screwing on the lid. You could almost hear everyone's hearts beating while she did it. That's how to catch a bee so you don't get stung.

She let all the kids hold it so we could see it up close, tap on the plastic, and view it through the magnifier on the top. We showed it to everyone because everyone needs to see a bee in a box, even the little kids who don't even care how dangerous it is to have a bee this close to you.

See? See it? See the bee? We need to find some honey so we can feed it. That's what bees eat. Do we have any honey Teacher Tom? I know, let's pick a little flower and stick the stem through one of the air holes.

Maybe it'll eat that. I don't know. Maybe. It'll have to eat something or it will die. Hey, let's take it into the bushes and hang it from a branch. That's what we ought to do with the bee Isabella caught in a box when the grown-ups weren't looking. Then we'll check on it tomorrow.