The Music of Bees

Noah and Celia are visiting, and Jake shows Celia the bee hives and explains how the bees live. He also shows her the queen bee. Celia is excited. After his friends leave, Jake inspects the hives again. In the 23rd hive, the queen bee’s G-sharp sound is weak, and she appears lethargic. In the 24th hive, he can’t find the queen or hear her sound. He’s filled with dismay because without the queen, the hives will die. When he tells Alice the news, she says the hives must be requeened, and even then, they may still fail. They check further and find that in five of the oldest hives, all the bees are dead or dying. Alice doesn’t understand how this happened until she smells pesticides. She calls her neighbor, Doug Ransom, who has been spraying his crops for the first time with a SupraGro product.

Harry and the deputy, Ronnie, arrive at Alice’s farm. Ronnie is Alice’s nephew, the son of Buddy’s brother, and he resembles Buddy, Alice’s husband. She hasn’t seen Ronnie for a long time, and the fact that he looks like Buddy triggers her memories. She breaks down in tears, recalling the moment she learned that Buddy had been in a fatal road accident.