Lee was an ordinary bumblebee with black and yellow stripes who lived in a small garden. There wasn’t anything unusual about him. In fact, he looked just like all the other bumblebees in our little world. But Lee was about to experience the most extraordinary event of his lifetime.
It was May 15th. The garden where Lee lived was in full bloom. Flowers of every color grew gracefully under the warm sun, including lavenders, daffodils, hydrangeas, and dahlias. But Lee’s favorite was a peony that attracted him with its soft pink glow. His friends were all the bumblebees who lived in the garden, as well as some wasps and honeybees. Some unusual species of insects also lived there, like praying mantises, stag beetles, and puss moss caterpillars, but Lee was untrusting towards anything that looked different than him (except for the peony, of course). In the rustic house near the garden lived a small family that tended to their garden with care and genuine love. Lee never dared to go into the house, as the flowers were far more attractive to him. But on that day, May 15, he was spellbound by a fruity scent he had never smelled before.
“Excuse me for a moment,” he said to the cute peony whose nectar he often indulged in. The house door was wide open, so he flew right in, not asking for permission from any of the family members. He followed the irresistible scent like an oddball. It took him a few minutes, going from room to room, each whimsically decorated, until he finally located the source of the scent that nearly drove him mad. It was a cake.
The cake, laid out on the dining table, looked peculiar. It wasn’t a regular oval or square cake, but one shaped like a mushroom. It had little doors, a garden with flowers, and a candle with the number 2 on it! What Lee didn’t know was that the cake’s main ingredient was wild strawberries from the forest, collected by the children the day before. Their strong scent had enticed him to leave the garden and venture into unknown territory. If only he had known then how much further he would venture out into the world!
The cake's weird shape didn’t deter him from tasting it. He took a small bite but was instantly disgusted. “I’d rather eat dirt,” he declared so loudly that all the flies in the room heard his opinion. But then, something else caught his attention. It wasn’t a scent this time, but colors – red, purple, pink, and yellow, so vibrant and bold. He immediately fell in love with them. “I need to taste their nectar,” he said, rushing toward what he thought were flowers. Landing on a purple one, he spent a few moments investigating but couldn’t find any nectar. Spotting a little opening, he crawled inside, exclaiming, “Got you!” But the space was dark and empty. Terrified, Lee headed back to the opening, only to be blown away. He tried again, but the same thing happened. The space began to fill with air, expanding rapidly. Suddenly, the blowing stopped. Lee looked around, realizing he was trapped inside this strange thing.
It was a balloon.
If only Lee could know what adventures this balloon had in store for him.
Soon, Lee found himself in the great outdoors again, but this time, he wasn't free to fly from flower to flower. The balloon he was trapped in was tethered to a chair. In fact, there were dozens of balloons, all floating playfully in the gentle breeze. From up high, Lee could see the garden where he had spent so many days. He even spotted his favorite flower, the peony. She looked lonely and worried. Could she somehow sense that something had happened to Lee? “I’m here, peony! Help me, please!” he screamed, but in vain. Then, something even more terrifying happened!
The balloon somehow untangled from the chair and began to float freely. Up, up it went until the people on the ground could no longer reach it. Lee was now soaring between tall trees whose crowns elegantly adorned the sky. Hundreds of birds lived here: nightingales, sparrows, blackbirds. “Help me, birdies!” Lee called out. Even though he was scared of birds, he was desperate to find a savior to free him from this stretchable prison.
Up, up, and now he was flying over snowy mountains. All sorts of funny-looking animals roamed these heights: hares, foxes, deer, and lynxes. The mountain and its inhabitants seemed indifferent to Lee’s misfortune and paid him no attention. An hour passed, and Lee found himself gliding between clouds. Fortunately, these weren’t the stormy, thunderous kinds of clouds, so the journey was smooth. Once he emerged from the clouds, he was staring directly into the Sun. He had never been closer to the Sun, which unselfishly gave so much life to the world below. “It’s so hot here,” Lee thought as he soon passed the last layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Suddenly, everything went dark! He was staring into a black abyss.
Lee couldn’t make out which way was down and which was up. There was darkness everywhere. And the most fascinating thing was that he didn’t even have to flap his wings to fly. He was levitating weightlessly and admiring the cosmic view. Hours passed, then days. Days turned into weeks. Protected in the purple balloon, surprisingly relaxed, Lee was enjoying a sightseeing tour of the Milky Way galaxy. From one end to the other, it spanned 100,000 light-years. It was so peaceful here that Lee struggled to keep his eyes open most of the time. When he did manage to keep them open, he saw majestic things like planets, moons, and galaxies. His favorites were the nebulas, shimmering like jewels against the blackness of space.
As you probably already know, smaller things gravitate toward bigger ones in the universe. Lee didn’t notice that the balloon, lightweight and tiny, was slowly moving toward a double-sun solar system with 12 planets. The largest of these planets had 25 moons orbiting around it. Lee was deeply asleep when the balloon entered the planet’s atmosphere and headed toward the ground. The speed with which the balloon was now falling woke Lee from his slumber. “I must be dreaming; I must be dreaming,” he consoled himself. “Wake up, Lee!” he urged himself, but the planet was too real to be a dream. The balloon pierced a thick layer of clouds, and a whole world opened up before his eyes. It was completely different from Earth. Earth’s most prominent colors were intense hues of blue and green, while this world was colored in soft pastel colors, mainly cream, yellow, and pink. It also looked dry and waterless.
Suddenly, Lee noticed the entire planet was covered in weird-looking plants. He remembered seeing something similar on planet Earth along the window panes at the house where he lived, but these were larger and shaped more weirdly. As much as he tried, he couldn’t remember the name – cacpi, cacvi, or something like that (it was actually cacti). He was about to land on top of a large field of tall alien cacti with menacing-looking thorns. He tried steering the balloon to avoid the collision but to no effect. The balloon soon fell onto one of the tallest cacti, immediately popping and throwing Lee out into the alien planet’s atmosphere.
He fell onto the scorching hot ground, heated by the two suns. “Is this planet so hot because it has two suns illuminating it?” he asked himself out loud.
“That’s an interesting question,” someone said. “Thorna might be warmer than where you come from, but as luck would have it, it's at a just-right distance from both suns, so it’s not really scorching hot,” the voice continued.
Lee turned around but couldn’t see anyone. “Who’s there?” he asked. “Show yourself!”
The cactus he was closest to suddenly opened its eyes. “Why are you yelling?” the cactus said.
“We should be the ones asking the questions, considering you’ve just landed on this planet, isn’t that right, friends?” As he said that, hundreds of cacti opened their eyes and stared at Lee.
“I landed here by mistake! My name is Lee, and I got trapped in a balloon that, apparently, can travel through space. It took me here. There’s nothing I want more than to be back home,” Lee confessed in a nostalgic voice.
“That sounds like a real adventure, Lee! My name is Silbo, and the planet you had the pleasure of landing on is called Thorna.”
“It’s such a lovely name, Thorna. But why is it so deserted? Where are all the insects? Why is there nothing flying in the air? Where I come from, we have millions of different species of insects, like butterflies, dragonflies, moths, and mosquitoes, although most of them scare me with their strange wings and quirky personalities.”
All the cacti exchanged a mysterious look with each other. “Are you an insect?” Silbo asked. “You definitely look like one, but we don’t have insects like you here.”
Lee was about to answer the question when suddenly there was a strong stomping sound, followed by another and then another. The entire ground shook, and all the pebbles jumped up and down, following the stomping pattern. “Quickly, hide,” Silbo told Lee.
Lee hid inside a small crevice in a larger rock. Where was this terrifying sound coming from? Everything was so weird on this planet. But then he saw it — the biggest creature he had ever seen. This creature was three meters tall and six meters long. It had an inquisitive look on its face, as if it was searching for something or someone. Was it a lizard or a bird? Lee didn’t have a clue. It had the body of a lizard but was covered with soft, thick fur. It didn’t have wings; instead, it walked on two feet. The strangest creature, indeed! So much stranger than the ants and beetles that frequented the garden back on Earth. Luckily, the creature didn’t notice Lee tucked inside the little crevice, buzzing with fear. Step by step, it passed him by.
As soon as the lizard disappeared from sight, Lee emerged from his hiding space and asked, “Who is that? Why is it so huge? What is it looking for?” Lee had a million questions.
“That’s the Horrifier,” a cacti called Eloria said. “It arrived on Thorna almost a year ago in its spaceship. Before its arrival, Thorna used to be a more vibrant and lush planet, abundant with all kinds of flora and fauna. But all the small insects got scared and fled to the other side of the planet, hiding somewhere the Horrifier couldn’t reach them. Maybe they’ve died off; we’re not sure. Thorna is dying, Lee. We are dying. With the insects gone, there’s no one to pollinate us and keep us alive.
“I am a pollinating insect!” Lee said. “I can help pollinate your flowers.”
“But there’s only one of you and thousands of us,” Silbo said. “If we want the insects back, we need to chase away the Horrifier. There’s no other way, I’m afraid.”
“Maybe Lee can help us lure the Horrifier here," Eloria spoke. "Many of us still have some flowers left on us. Lee will lure him here, and the moment the Horrifier approaches us, we’ll release a deadly scent that will paralyze him. In case it doesn’t, maybe he’ll get scared and run away in this spaceship.”
Eloria's plan was bold but risky. Lee was nervous, yet he knew it was the only way to save Thorna and its inhabitants. "Okay, I'll do it," Lee said bravely.
It was a plan! The cacti, scared about Lee and themselves, were ready to release their secret weapon at the right moment. Lee started buzzing around the flowers, making sure to be as noticeable as possible. His vibrant dance in the sunlight was like a beacon, and it didn't take long for the Horrifier to notice. Intrigued by the unusual sight, the Horrifier hurried towards Lee.
As he neared the cacti, the cacti prepared to release their scent. "Now!" shouted Eloria, and the cacti simultaneously emitted a powerful, overwhelming odor.
The Horrifier reeled from the scent, staggering and appearing dazed. It was working! The creature was becoming paralyzed, unable to move or react.
But then, something unexpected happened. The Horrifier, in its confused state, let out a pitiful whimper. It wasn't the sound of a monster but of a creature in distress.
“Stop, stop!” Lee shouted to the cacti. Even though he was really scared of the enormous creature, he felt sorry for it. He carefully walked up to the creature and said, “I’m sorry we frightened you. The cacti and I were afraid because you seemed so big and scary. All the bugs ran away to the other side of this planet, and now the plants are getting sick. Won't you be happier if you went back to your home planet?”
The Horrifier started to speak in a shaky voice. “I didn’t come here to scare anyone. I can’t help that I’m big and look scary. That’s just how I was made. I never meant to hurt anybody. I'm just really, really lonely.”
Lee and the cacti listened and felt confused.
“Then why did you come here?” asked Silbo.
“I don’t have any friends,” the Horrifier said sadly. “When I was little, I had friends. But when I grew up and got big, everyone from my home planet got scared and ran away. I’ve been traveling around space for ten years, just trying to find a friend.”
Lee thought about the garden back on Earth. There were some bugs there, like the big stag beetles and fuzzy puss moth caterpillars, that he never talked to because they looked so different. Now, Lee wondered if he should have been nicer to them. Maybe they were just looking for a friend, too, like the Horrifier. And when Lee first came to this planet, the cacti were scared of him because he was different.
“Don’t be sad,” Lee said to the Horrifier. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Odie,” the creature replied.
“We're sorry, Odie. I'm a bit like you, you know. I'm not from this planet, either. I traveled a really, really long way in a balloon and ended up here. I'm not sure how – maybe the wind or something else I can't see brought me here. When I first saw this planet with all its strange cacti and different terrain, I thought it was nothing like my home, Earth. But after looking around for a few days, I've found something amazing. It's actually a lot like Earth! There are rocks, clouds, air, and living things here too, just like back home. You know, if we look really close at all these things, I bet we’d find they're made of the same tiny pieces. Maybe you, me, and even the cacti are made of the same stuff. I once heard people on Earth say that everything in the universe is made of stardust. I didn't understand what it meant back then, but now I think I do. Sometimes, we don’t like things that look different from us. But maybe we just don't see that deep down, we're all the same. We're all a part of the big, wide universe. I’m beginning to think our purpose in this universe is to meet each other and become friends.”
For a little while, everyone was quiet. Then Silbo spoke up, “I think Lee is right. We've all been a bit scared of each other, but if we try to be friends, life here could be so much happier. I think we should let Odie stay on our planet as long as he wants. He seems kind and caring, and we could really use a friend like him. What do you say, fellow cacti?”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Eloria agreed.
“You’re right, Silbo!” another cactus chimed in.
“I’m okay with Odie staying, too,” added another.
“So, it's settled! Odie can stay and help us make Thorna beautiful again,” declared Silbo. “But Lee, we need your help one more time. You're the only one who can fly. Could you please find the other insects and tell them they can come back? Let them know everything is safe now.”
Lee did just that. In just a week, almost all the insects came out of hiding and returned. The plants of Thorna began to grow again, even prettier than before. Odie was a big help, moving rocks and planting new trees and flowers. In the end, it was friendship that made Thorna bloom in such beautiful colors, and Lee felt proud to have helped.
But Lee missed his garden back on Earth and his special friend, the peony. He didn’t know how to get back since the balloon he came in was deflated.
One day, while Lee was looking at the stars and feeling a bit sad, Odie came over. “What's wrong?” he asked.
Lee told him about missing his garden and the peony.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Odie exclaimed. “I have a spaceship. I can take you back!”
And that's just what happened. With Odie’s spaceship, Lee was soon buzzing happily in his garden again. The peony was there, looking as lovely as ever. “I’ve missed you,” Lee said, feeling a bit silly talking to a flower. He even made friends with the beetles and caterpillars he used to avoid. Throughout his life, he would make hundreds of friends, some that looked similar to him and some that didn't. But it didn't matter, as Lee's adventures made him a more accepting and empathetic bumblebee. He often thought about Thorna, Odie, and the cacti, hoping they were as happy as he was. Although he never went back to Thorna, he always remembered his adventure and the friends he made there.
THE END
Note: It's estimated that around 500 bumblebees get stuck in balloons and travel to outer space every year. If you have a telescope and point it toward the cosmos, there's a good chance you'll spot a bumblebee floating carelessly in the vastness of space. Most of them return home through unknown means, while others find new homes on planets in distant star systems. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that bumblebees are likely the most widespread winged insects in the universe.
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