I was talking with a friend, some years back. A friend who was not one for small talk but talked in an awfully small voice anyway.
- What?
- I said…
He trailed off, mumbling.
We had been talking about the upcoming holiday so I figured he had said something to that effect. He didn’t seem altogether that present during the conversation, so I could be wrong and probably am given the look of frustration on his face. He wasn’t the type who would look frustrated about the holiday, quite the opposite in fact, so he must have been talking about something else.
How’s John doin’? I said, meaning his boyfriend, John.
He said he was fine and I shouldn’t be nosey about it.
We continued walking, this time in silence.
I mentioned something about how I hadn’t noticed the leaves falling this year, when that had happened. I said, I just don’t know where time has gone this year.
He said: There are some birds that eat bees, you know. There aren’t many, but some do.
I said that I hadn’t thought about it, but I had never thought of bees as having much of a predator, what with the stinger and all.
We kept walking until we got to a subway stop where he stopped and said he had to go. I said okay, I’m gonna just walk home.
Okay, here he said and handed me a small box from his coat pocket.
Merry Christmas.
He turned around and started to half-scramble down the steps to the subway. It made me nervous, the way he left, to find out what was inside the box, so I waited until I got home to open it.
When I opened the box, the next night, after a few glasses of red wine, it was a dead bee, missing its stinger, resting on the kind of cotton bedding you usually find inside boxes that size.
I waited for about an hour before calling my friend. He didn’t pick up and the call never went to voicemail.
I went to bed and dreamt about what it was that I would get him for Christmas in return.
When I woke up, I couldn’t remember my dream; I ended up buying him a set of candles made of beeswax.
I thought it was appropriate because I didn’t know what else was appropriate.
I didn’t give them to him, though. I never heard from him again.
