THE BEE'S HUSBAND

CHAPTER NINETEEN 


A few days ago my husband went downtown to fetch some books we had ordered from the bookshop. I'm not a great fan of shopping, so I usually buy a lot online (household linen, dry petfood and all sorts of odds and ends). Yet, for books it is something different. I love the smell and feel of books.I enjoy browsing through them, discovering new titles, and what's more I think booksellers are people we must stand by.

Well, let's get back to today's story.So, after having a summit with our bookseller about the weather forecast, the arrival of June holiday-makers, parking problems, and other Audiernais hot topics, my husband was about to come back home, but then he remembered the '' greedy busy bee '' waiting for him in the hive.

Thus,he went to the cake shop where he could get my guilty pleasure:
 a "non-autorisé" ( my grand-mother used to say that name dated back to WWII when butter and all dairy products could not be found anywhere).
What a good idea !!
After cleaning the laundry from top to bottom, I deserved a reward !
Come on, I can already hear your comments :
A reward ? Yes, but why not a sauna bath instead of a creamy, buttery and sugary wrap ?
Well, don't have a sharp tongue !
Carpe Diem is my number one motto, and anyway, you can't change how you are made !

When I took my cake, I noticed a tiny label on it. I had a closer look and said to my husband : " Look, there's a picture of a bee on my cake ! Is it just a
coincidence or is it in honour of Dany the Perky Busy Bee ?".
He giggled and replied : " It's not a bee but a bumblebee ! Let me remind you that the cake shop's owner's name is Bourdon !

The word bumblebee rang a bell.
Light years away from now, I mean the first time I went on a language study holiday, I was reading in the back garden of my hosts when suddenly a bumblebee swooped down towards me. Its buzzing was so impressive (and not as pleasant to my ears as " The Flight of the Bumblebee " by Rimsky Korsakov) that I rushed back in. My hostess asked me what was wrong with me and that's when things went wrong. I didn't know the English word for "bourdon". I racked my brain,.. in vain ! My English vocabulary about insects was limited to two words : bee and fly ! (Do you remember learning phonetics with : number three is a bee, number five is a fly?).
The lady was staring at me, so as a last resort, I stammered :
" I have been attacked by the bee's husband !".
Of course, she told me the right word,but later on when I was with a member of my English family, he or she would ask gently :
" Hey, Dany, any news of the bee's husband ? "

Thanks to them the word bumblebee will be etched in my mind forever! 
And in yours, too, I hope !!