The Bee Charmer

by Jamallah Bergman

  The sweet sound of her chuckling made Pamelia tear up while Veronica grabbed the tissue box from off the desk for them both. “I can’t believe she did that.” Pamelia sniffled.

  “You mean the video?” said Mr. Millan.

  “Oh no, I knew she would do something crazy like a video. I just never thought she would give me her home.”

  “Well, my dear…” He pushed a large manila folder towards her. “…It’s all yours.”

  She grabbed hold of it and inside was a bunch of papers as well as the keys. Turning it up, the keys came out into her hand and she saw that they were still on the same keychain that she and Veronica made for her when they went to summer camp. She showed her sister the keychain…they both sat smiling and crying at the same time.

  Once they collected their things as well as themselves, the two went to their Aunt’s home, which was now Pamelia’s.

  When they pulled onto the gravel driveway, a sense of nostalgia came over her when she saw the baby blue bungalow with white shutters. The porch looked so bare, Pamelia thought when she got out of the car to really look over the house. She always remembered Aunt Marlene would have plenty of potted plants adorning the porch, which was her job to water them when she was told. She also remembered how they used to run around the front yard, having little tea parties on a blanket with the cute little china tea set that she bought for them to have at her house.

  “I wonder if it’s still here,” Veronica walked into the yard as Pamelia followed not too far behind.

  “You know it probably is. I don’t think she would have cut that tree down.”

  Then sure enough, there was the tree, still standing big and proud over in the corner of the yard. When they looked along the trunk, they saw their initials still carved deep within it.

  “Can we put our initials in the tree Auntie?” Pamelia asked when she was only nine years old.

  Her and her sister watched her looking over the tree and then back at the two. “I don’t see why not. Let me go and get the knife.” She smiled and walked away.

  “Where are you going to put your initials at?” she asked her sister.

  “I was thinking like right over here.” Veronica pointed to a spot near a notch in the tree.

  “I’m going to put it in the middle of the tree,” Pamelia told her.

  “Why don’t we put both of ours in the middle?”

  “Nuh-uh, I thought of putting mine in the middle first.”

  Just then, Aunt Marlene came back out.

  “Auntie, Veronica is trying to copy me.”

  “I am not copying her.”

  “She told me that she was going to put her initials by the notch and I told her I was going to put mine in the middle. Now, she wants to put hers in the middle too.” She pouted.

  Aunt just shook her head and smiles. “Now listen both of you, if you decided to put yours near the notch then that’s where it will be Veronica. You know how to press your sister’s buttons,” She walked over to the tree, and unlatched the Swiss Army Knife.

  The two young girls watched as she took her time carving their initials into the oak tree, watching every movement of the blade as pieces of bark came off the tree, their Aunt slowly formed the initials to their first and last names. She wiped off some of the extra pieces of bark off and stood back to look at her work. “There now, how does that look?” she asked them as they both walked over to the tree to get a good look.

  “It looks great Auntie.” Veronica told her with a smile.

  “Now, they will be up there forever.” Pamelia gave her a hug as well as Veronica.

  Veronica traced her fingers along her initials. “I remember she told me that she thought she was going to lose this tree but she figured a way to be able to keep it in the yard. Let’s head on inside and see what it looks like.”

  They walked towards the front onto the porch, the wooden boards creaked underneath their shoes as Pamelia went to unlock the door and that’s when the stuffiness of the house escaped freely into the afternoon air.

  “It looks so empty!” Pamelia exclaimed, and the first thing she did was to go over to the window to open it to let in some more fresh air. “Come and open up another window, it’s so stuffy in here.”

  They began to open up the windows, letting the stuffiness slowly dissipate from the room as Veronica went off to look around.

  Pamelia gazed around the room, looking down at the dust that had accumulated on hardwood floor. She swiped her foot along it seeing the imprint appear immediately. She could still remember how the room once looked when she last came to visit her, only six months before she passed away. Nothing much had changed within the room since she had been a child.

  There in the corner was where a peach antique wing armchair with a high back facing the room. An antique Victorian sofa with a walnut frame, a balloon back and armrest was reupholstered from the dingy puke green that she told them once was a lovely lavender color. Most of her furniture was handed down from family or she would go to the thrift stores picking up this and that to adorn the house. She remembered the small little coffee table in which she had made a doily for decoration and adorned it with small little knick knacks like little statues of couples dancing or birds perched on a tree limb. They were positioned everywhere within the room and often she would play or just look at them from time to time. It was a cluttered mess she remembered her mother always saying, but her Aunt however, thought differently.

  Making her way towards the biggest room in the entire house, her Aunt’s room, the first thing Pamelia thought about when she peered into it was the queen size bed that she had. It was one of those beds that stood up really high, so high that she would have this small step to actually get up into it. Her mattress was always soft, so soft that you literally seemed to sink deep into its comfort.

  Pamelia never knew where she got the mattress, but it had to be the most comfortable mattress she’d ever slept in. Her aunt never told her exactly where she’d gotten it, even though over the years she would constantly bug her to find out. Whenever they would come, she would have both her and her sister sleep in the bed with her, especially during a thunderstorm when the house seemed to shake. They would all get up under her patchwork quilt, from what she was told was made by Pamelia’s great grandmother from bits and pieces of clothing from family members as well as other pieces she would find. Her Aunt would have them on either side of her as she held them both close. That was when she could remember the smell of her rose petal soap she always used when she took a bath. Listening to her hum some kind of song to calm their nerves through the night until they soon had fallen asleep.

  “Hey there,”

  Pamelia jumped a bit when she felt her sister’s hand on her shoulder, which broke her out of her daydream.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Oh, it’s all right. Say, you remember that bed that she had?”

  “I sure did, I remember she used to tell us, don’t go towards the side because the boogeyman will get you.” They both laughed. “So what do you plan on doing with the house now that you got it?”

  Gazing around the room then turning back towards the living room area, Pamelia was trying to figure that out. “If I was to come back here, what the hell would I do for work?”

  “Hell, you could just sit around and relax since you have a cushion to live off of now. You could probably find yourself a non-stressful job in town or something. When we go into town on our way back home, you can grab a paper. I know Auntie kept up with the place, so there probably isn’t much as far as repair, the only thing you’ll need to do is just get someone to do the yard work. Just think about it, you can come down here to check on the house during the weekend if you want to or maybe get the lawyer to get someone to come by and check it for you until you decide on what you want to do.”

  They heard a knock on the front door as they went out into the living room. They saw an elderly white man, probably in his seventies wearing a pair of je
ans and a black and white long sleeved shirt standing on the porch. “Why hello there, I came on over when I saw the car parked in Marlene’s driveway and thought I’d say hello. I haven’t seen anyone over here since they came to move her things out of the house and that was about three months back. I’m her neighbor from across the street, Eric Matthews.”

  They both walked over as the older gentleman smiled when they went to shake his hand.

  “We’re Marlene’s nieces, I’m Veronica, and this is my sister Pamelia. We came back to Oak Glen for the reading of her will. My sister got her home and we were looking it over.”

  “I knew your Aunt for a very long time. She and my wife were the best of friends and she would come over to our place to play cards or we’d come over to hers to have dinner, since she always loved to cook. So, do you plan on moving here?”

  Pamelia smiled, “I’m thinking about it, I’ve always loved it here in Oak Glen. We’ve always had the best memories in this house.”

  “We were wondering about getting someone to come and tend to the yard since the bushes and the grass has grown up some,” Veronica told him.

  “I can call Ed to come over and do the work, he does our yard and bushes for us when we need it. He was good friends with your Aunt too, so I know he won’t have a problem with that.”

  “Do you know how much he would charge me for doing—?”

  He put his hands up before Pamelia could continue. “No need for paying him, he’ll do it for free that’s for sure, especially when he finds out that someone might be living here again.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Veronica then turned to her. “You see Pamelia…you’ve got to at least give it some thought about moving here. You’ll be in good company and you can start brand new.”

  Pamelia looked back at the house, the house of her childhood and thought for a moment, her life now wasn’t very happy. Her job was getting harder everyday.

  Maybe this is a sign.

  Chapter Four

  After making arrangements with Mr. Matthews about the yard work and watching over the house, the two sisters went into town making their way to the Candy Kitchen. Only a bit of the store had changed. Where the candy cane striped wallpaper once was, there was now just plain white walls adorned with old time advertisements for Coca Cola and other candies long forgotten. Along the walls, shelves still housed those glass penny candy jars with the chrome lids but in the middle of the floor were old barrels filled to the brim with assorted candies.

  Just smelling the air alone would put someone into a diabetic coma Pamelia thought.

  “We better look around then grab what we want and go because you know we can’t stay in here for more than thirty minutes without going overboard,” Veronica joked her as they both got a couple of plastic bags.

  Pamelia made her way toward the wall, grabbing a few banana Laffy Taffy’s, some Super Bubble Gum and those Atkinson peanut butter logs that she could never find anywhere else. When she looked over where they would make the chocolates and fudge, there was big long loaves of chocolate, chocolate walnut, maple walnut, peanut butter, and honey fudge which was something she hadn’t seen in ages. The little marker in front of the loaf of honey fudge stated that the fudge was made with honey from the Hewitt Honey farm. “Excuse me, is there any way that I can have a sample of the honey fudge?”

  “Sure ma’am,” the young lady from behind the counter replied. She cut off a small square, wrapped it in wax paper, handing it over to her.

  Pamelia took a bite of confection and the honey could be tasted profoundly along her tongue.

  “Do you like it ma’am?”

  “My goodness, it’s absolutely delicious. I’ll take a half a pound please.” Taking a last bite of the fudge, she couldn’t believe how rich it was. Lord knows, she would probably end up eating the entire thing herself and be sick as hell afterwards.

  “What did you get this time?” Veronica asked.

  “Some honey fudge, you should try some, it’s delicious. Excuse me can my sister have a sample of that fudge please?”

  “Sure thing ma’am, here’s your fudge and let me get you a piece here.”

  Pamelia took off another small piece and handed it to her sister.

  Her sister moaned deeply and laughed when she started licking the wax paper. “How much did you get?”

  “A half a pound,”

  “I’d like a pound of that and the chocolate fudge please. You know how Chris is, if I ever bring anything sweet home and not get him something, he’ll give me the evil eye for the rest of the month.”

  Pamelia laughed. “I’ll meet you at the register.” She walked on and was thankful to see that at the register were magazines as well as the local paper. Grabbing one, she put her things on the counter as the lady weighted the candies for her.

  Pamelia paid for her candy and waited as her sister came around the corner with some more candy in hand. “Good lord woman, are you trying to buy out the store?”

  Veronica rolled her eyes at her while putting down the candy on the counter. “Shut up, you know I have to rebuild my candy stash. Did you want to stop by any place else?”

  “No I think I’m fine, I got a newspaper, so we can just head on. I got some thinking to do.”

  The two sisters headed back out to the car and soon on their way back home.

  ~* * * *~

  Jeremy had been on the phone for a second time this week with a Mr. Sims. He was an owner of a small store in Kentucky who’d gotten some of their honey by way of his daughter who drove through Oak Glen on her way home. He loved it so much that he wanted to sell some in his store. Jeremy’s job was to make sure that Hewitt Honey was put out there along with ensuring orders were met and made for their various customers. “We can send you at least two cases, each holding about twenty four jars of honey. That will be a total of forty eight jars at three hundred.”

  “When do you think you’ll be able to get them ready for distribution?”

  “Give us two weeks, because we want to make sure that everything is packaged right, along with the fact that we will be making some fresh honey in about two days.”

  “Well, that sounds just fine with me, I’m sending the payment to you through PayPal right now, and I’ll be sending you the contract we wrote up as far as pricing and everything in your email right away.”

  “Great, I’ll call you when we ship it out with the tracking number.”

  “Again, thanks Jeremy,”

  “No thank you sir and if you want any more shipments, please call me right away.”

  “Oh, you know I will for sure. Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye.” He hung up satisfied with all that he’d done so far today.

  “How’s it going son?” his father asked.

  “We got a shipment going out to Kentucky for two cases along with four going out to California, so we’re going to be pretty busy for the next couple of days.”

  “That’s great, there’s another tour coming in, and your mom said that she has two people coming in for an interview from the ad. Seems like from what she told me, they were pretty excited about her calling them back.”

  “I know she’s been bugging about some of the others that responded. Especially, that one girl that came over looking like a hooker from what mom told me. She didn’t even hesitate to let the poor girl sit down in the chair.” Jeremy chuckled.

  “Oh, I saw her myself, had a skirt hiked up so high that she kept trying to pull it down. She stumbled in those high heel shoes of hers while we were walking the grounds. Thank God, I was there to help her up and that’s when your mom told her that she wasn’t cut out for this type of job and she had to go. That girl looked at her like she was crazy and left here in a bit of a huff. If she was interested in the job and knew how it was out here, you would think she would have worn something more appropriate you know.”

  “Let’s just pray that whoever comes this time will be way better than the last ones who came in.” The phone rang as
his father left his office as he continued on with his calls.

  Later on, after his calls, he decided to stop by the restaurant which was affectionately called Athena’s. Sometimes, people from town or those that were coming for the tour would stop off to grab a bite to eat or to buy some of Lily’s handmade spa items, which sold plenty. He pulled up to the front of the one story brick dwelling that his mom told him reminded her of the ones that her family used to stop by on their drives through California to visit family. It was a bright golden yellow painted brick, she’d wanted to match the color of honey. There was even a porch for those who wanted to enjoy eating outside with small café style tables.

  When you walked inside, the entire place reminded you of home with red and white gingham tablecloths, wooden tables, and chairs all neatly placed in their rows along the wooden floor. There was a cash register that looked like it belonged from back in the forties and fifties that she got during an auction from a restaurant that was going out of business. But it wasn’t just the décor of the place that drew people in but the good food. His mother was born and raised in the South, so she brought her home cooking to the restaurant. With cooks Cindy and Blake helping her out in the kitchen, her restaurant ended up getting a five star review in the local paper as well as a review in a popular food magazine.

  “Hey there Jeremy, how you doing?” one of the patrons said with a wave.

  He waved right back at the gentleman, making his way towards the kitchen. The scent of fried chicken and sweet potatoes filled the entire restaurant.

  Cindy, one of the cooks stood in front of the stove flipping something in a cast iron skillet.

  His mom was stirring something in a medium size stainless steel pot. “Hey there sweetie, come here and try this for me and tell me what you think?” She grabbed another spoon, dipped it into the pot producing some vegetable soup with corn, a bit of okra and some other vegetables added in.