A Moment Of Empathy

I almost died today.

I’m still not entirely sure why I didn’t. But I know it was fate that saved me.

The day started fairly normal. I got up in the morning and headed out to work. I took my lunch in the field with the marigolds. Marigolds are my favorite flower, you know.

And then I curled up to take a nap.

That’s when everything took a turn for the worse.

When I woke up, the world was lurching, turning, and tumbling everywhere. It made me sick to my stomach. I got up to see where I was and it was horrifying.

I was on a ship in the middle of the ocean!

I panicked. I needed to get home. But how?

I looked and saw the shoreline. It was far away, but maybe I could make it.

Before anyone could say anything, I jumped off the ship and skimmed over the surface of the water. The waves were calm that far out from the shore and I made good time getting back to land.

As I neared the shoreline, the waves started to grow in intensity. It became harder and harder to avoid having them crash down on my head.

Suddenly, I was drowning. The waves crashed over me and the tide pulled me in and out. Everything in my life was swirling, salty water and chaos. I landed on shore a few times and struggled to hold on and grasp the earth beneath my feet. But then another wave crashed over my head and swept me back out into the water.

Then I heard a woman’s voice.

“Sam, look! Poor little thing. Help me save him!”

The next thing I knew, someone picked me up and carried me across the beach. They placed me gently down on the earth.

“He should be fine there.” That was probably the man named Sam.

“But what if the seagulls see him? Or someone steps on him?” That was the woman.

“Well, what do you expect me to do? Sit and watch over him until he flies away?”

I started to lose consciousness at that point. The stress of the ocean and the saltwater began to overwhelm my system. If I could just sleep for a minute, everything would be okay.

But every time I drifted off a little, something poked at me. They were gentle pokes, just enough to make me twitch an antenna or one of my legs and jerk me back to consciousness. It pissed me off, but I was too tired and wet to do anything about it.

“Hey, watch out! There’s a bee here.” The woman’s voice rang out as a shadow covered me. It blocked out the sweet warmth of the sun and I wished it would go away. The earth shuddered as several feet ran past, barely missing me. Then the shade left and the sun came back.

The woman moved the sand around me again. My face got buried in it a little, but I didn’t have the strength to move it.

“Are you sitting here watching over that thing?” There was the man’s voice again.

“Yes. I couldn’t leave it to die after we saved it. This little guy is special. I mean, what are the chances that he would wash up on this whole beach in front of the few people who would actually care enough to save his life? I couldn’t let him go through all of that and then leave him for a seagull.”

“You’re so weird.”

“I know. It’s why you love me so much.”

Then the woman used the edge of a seashell to move the sand away from my face. I twitched and she pulled away quickly. She smelled of fear a little. Did she think I would sting her after she saved my life? After she called me special?

The sleepiness started to go away as I warmed up. One of my wings dried enough to twitch a little. I started to move my head and then rubbed it with one of my legs. The woman prodded me again and I looked up to see her.

I heard of these types of humans before but I never believed the stories. My experience with them always involved fear or anger. But this woman saved me in spite of her fear. Why were these giant creatures so afraid of my kind? I would never truly understand that. But this one wasn’t like the others I met. Maybe humans weren’t so bad after all.

As I pondered, the woman watched me. I realized that my body was dry enough to fly away. I wanted to say goodbye, to thank her, but how?

Sadly, there was no way. I flicked my wings one last time and buzzed away.

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