Once upon a time as these types of stories are wont to start. We meet a little Bumblebee, who will for posterity’s sake be called Bob.
Bob the Bumblebee would’ve loved to have his story told by Aesop, but he is long a-goner, so he settled for I, the Narrator.
Bob the Bee who likes going Buzz, buzz buzzity-buzz is a wee lil’ bee -residing in the idle beach of Bantayan, located in the tippity-top of pretty Cebu. He works day in and out at the honey factory for his sweets to be sold by the locals to rowdy cheapskate tourist that visit his hometown. Bob the Bumblebee isn’t like all the other bees in his factory though, he’s got a dream, and a big one at that.
Saccharine Sweet Sugar Beach in Bantayan
Bob the Bumblebee wants to get on the Bus to the Buzzing city to get a Busy job as a Copywriter. But a city isn’t the place for a Bee, and Bob knows it. Yet he still dreams about it day in day out.
Bob starts his day with a heavy breakfast in Le Petit Bonheur, because the french is fancy and their food is pretty.
He spied on two humans eating breakfast, they were too cheap to buy his Honey. Bob the Bumblebee thought they were missing out, for that honey is the best honey in all of the whole wide world. But Bob wasn’t so sure of that because for all his life Bantayan beach has been the entirety of his world.
“How very yummy this breakfast is”, Bob heard the human girl say.
“Yes, it is. very much like those that you can find in S&R”, the human boy replied.
Bob didn’t know what S&R is, nor did he pay much mind to it. He just remembered Copywriting 101 that should you want to entice someone with a certain product, make it uniquely desirable in a conscious and subconscious level.
It is undeniably unbelievable why the lil’ Bumblebee Bob would ever want to leave Bantayan. But Bees do what Bees wanna do so if we don’t agree then it’s a shame.
Bob had a problem though, he had no way of ever doing the most important thing ever in the history of ever applying for a Copywriting gig.
For Bob the little Bumblebee had no hands to construct his CV.
So stuck, he was in beautiful paradise to contemplate.
Bob the Bumblebee is suffering from a severe identity crisis, no longer a spring chicken at 1 week old, he wondered whether making honey is all there ever will be for him. For one thing, he knew Bumblebees aren’t honeybees and this story is flawed right from the very beginning but let’s not blame the Narrator, shall we?
Handless existence aside, Bob the Bumblebee is a Buddhist, which is as far as Bees with religion goes and that he might be undertaking an impasse in his life, so with balancing wants, needs and quiet dreams Bob buzz buzz buzzes away, leading him to his most favorite place in the whole entire Bantayan.
Why a Buddhist lil’ Bumblebee went to the 15th century old Sts. Peter and Paul Parish Church in Sta. fe Bantayan is a context glitch that the Narrator is too lazy to clear out, Bob the lil’ Bumblebee is a brave creature who said. “Damned bee all, chase my dreams i shall for the winners don’t wait for no one.” If a human were to hear his inspiring declaration it will be roughly translated to
“Brr. Bzz Br-zzzz.Zztt”
So off he went to the deep blue sea towards the mainland island of Cebu. Onwards he will go to chase his beautiful dreams of computer typing, cubicle jobs, a steady paycheck at the end of the month and the stability that his wee lil’ quaint honey factory in the middle of a beach paradise just couldn’t give.
For if there is one thing that bees and big humans have in common, it’s that desire to do good and be better. Well, for most Bees anyway.
But Bees do get tired of flying. And our sad little Bob was doomed to sink through the middle of the cold and unforgiving seas. Unable to swim because his teeny tiny lil’ Bee wings can’t support his weight, if you remember your science book, them being able to fly in the first place is nature’s anomaly. Much so is a Bee who can swim the salty sea spittoon.
So why Bob, why? Who’ll give us honey now? – The naive traveler humans might ask, should they find out what happened to Bob.
But care, they won’t for the honey factory has millions of other bees and Bob was a mere dot in the Jackson Pollock painting of his Bantayan island life.
The next morning, now that this story is bereft of its protagonist, we follow the Human Boy and Girl that we briefly saw yesterday, both of them are nondescript regular humans about to satiate their bellies, in Le Petit Bonheur again, no less.
“Mmmmm. Pancakes, but where’s the Honey?”, said so by the Girl.
“Try sikwate or the tablea, like Hershey’s but more native-y” replied the Human Boy. And ate it, they did. Not minding that yesterday a Bee that they didn’t notice the day before is morbidly floating in the seas but yum.yum.yummy was the breakfast so there’s where you should go, travelers.
And going back to Budyong Beach resort, the Humans failed to discreetly borrow the lone surfboard. Which will be useless too, knowing that there’s no waves in Bantayan to ride.
But it’s still got the brightest whitest sand one can imagine, the blue-est blue waters that an artist can render and it all combines to be the most beautiful beach ever in existence.
The Narrator is finding it hard to keep on following Humans, endemic to the planet Earth. And for one thing, they don’t really do much.
So we try to see what’s left of Bob as an honorary tribute to the Bee that thought he could be– a Copywriter., who the Narrator has been fond of, for he is indeed very likable. Bob isn’t the type who uses Yoda-language too, like how some Humans would be to sound smarter than they are. It’s just taking advantage of creative license.
Bye-bye Humans, thought the Narrator as they both boarded the Sta. Fe barge at the same afternoon. It was great telling your non-story.
Bob, who would be floating along as a decaying Bee-corpse if it wasn’t for a white boat that passed by his exact coordinates. Bob could’ve saved himself a near death experience if he just hitched on a boat in the first place, but Bob was good, safe and closer to Cebu now more than ever.
It may not be a secure thing, for Bob the lil’ Bumblebee who took a tumble of faith away from Bantayan. But for now it was good enough to know that if you work hard and keep your chinny chin up, maybe someday the Universe will get the message and send you a boat that can take you where you want to go.
* insert coin to continue with the story *
