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I never meant to be a hero. What's more, I never was meant to be one either. That's more important. Of course, sometimes your own life veers out of control. Like with the bees. Sometimes a big wind blows up and knocks the hive over, or some inexperienced keeper will move the hive a couple yards to where they think they should have set it up to start with. But the bees don't have the same perspective as people, and when they go home and the hive has moved, they just buzz around where the hive used to be. They're not dumb, mind you; I think they're smarter than me, but that doesn't say much. They know home by the position of the sun and the hive's place in its surroundings.

Sooner or later, one of the bees might find the hive and convince the others to return to it, but that's extraordinary. Single bees aren't meant for that sort of heroic action. They have more intelligence as a hive than you could imagine from watching bees one by one. So this one bee who finds the hive never intended to do anything of the sort. All she knew was her home and her queen were missing, and she would never rest until she found them.

Copyright © 1992 by Andy Hoffman