Chapter 4
Back to Normal and a Picnic is organised.
The day following the Al Spider attack (it was now Tuesday), Louie the bee was up and about at 8.00 a.m. He normally got out of bed earlier, but today he had given the Ten Ants the day off. The Factory was closed and Louie was in a frame of mind to relax a bit. After all it had been very stressful the day before.
The Reserve Bank had to be reopened to keep trading for the community. Arnold had looked after this; services were as usual, so Louie had no bother here.
As usual Louie had brushed his body and washed his teeth and made his breakfast. Today he had toasted rose hip flakes with plenty of dandelion milk and a bit of honey to sweeten it, delicious! (Well to Louie anyway).
Pearl Baker-Moth had told Louie that rose hips were very high in vitamin C; Louie naturally thought that this would be good for a tired bee, as indeed he was.
Louie the bee, being the governor of the Reserve Bank and the owner of the Factory was a reasonably well to-do sort of bee and was able to afford things such as a dishwasher.
The dishwasher’s name was Rose, a middle aged person bird who came in twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) to do things such as dishes and cleaning as Louie required. Rose’s partner had apparently run off with a younger person bird so Rose was only too glad of the work.
Louie had finished his breakfast, Rose was happily doing the dishes so Louie went out on the deck and sat and relaxed with a cup of his favourite tea, TG Tips.
It had rained overnight but the sun was shining across the stream from a now clear blue sky. Louie relaxed on his deck ferniture after carefully tipping off any water from the overnight rain. Louie had of course made the deck ferniture himself out of ferns.
Above Louie, hanging over the front of Louie’s house, was the end of a fern frond with a raindrop on the end of it. The rain drop was about the size of Louie’s head and to Louie looked like a huge crystal jewel hanging in the sunlight of the early morning.
The rain drop acted as a prism and refracted red, yellow, blue and violet colours across the front of Louie’s house. What an amazing world thought Louie to himself.
Louie had been relaxing for about half an hour and had just about dozed off when his smell phone rang. It was Pearl Baker-Moth.
‘Good morning Louie’, said Pearl. ‘I hope all is well after yesterday’.
Louie told Pearl that he was fine and just relaxing in the sun and explained that the Factory was closed for the day.
Pearl went on to say. ‘Louie would it be OK with you to meet at Virgil’s place and we can just tidy up a few issues hanging over from yesterday’.
‘Sure Pearl’, said Louie. ‘That would be good; I need to talk to Virgil about a picnic for the Ten Ants as we promised. In fact we need a day away for all of us’.
‘Good’, said Pearl. ‘I will put it on the agenda’.
Pearl had tentatively arranged with Virgil to meet at the hangar at 11.00 a.m. This suited Louie, he could relax in the sun for another hour or so.
You may wonder why it was that all such meetings were arranged at Virgil’s place and not at Pearl Baker-Moth’s, seeing she was doing all the organising. Hmmm! It was purely a matter of logistics. Virgil was just too big to fit in Pearl’s lounge let alone get through her front door!
Louie had fallen asleep outside in the sun. Rose came out and reminded him that he needed to be at a meeting at eleven.
Louie thanked Rose, stood up and stretched his legs and flapped his wings that were creased from lying on them. He felt much refreshed after his snooze in the sun.
‘Rose’, said Louie. ‘I will be away until about mid afternoon, help yourself to anything in the larder for lunch’.
Louie powered up his wings and lifted off to go and meet with Pearl and Virgil.
First of all Louie climbed high enough so he could see the Reserve Bank to the north. Everything looked normal. Happy with what he saw, Louie reduced power and descended towards the stream. Below him he could see Pearl Baker-Moth heading for Virgil’s hangar. Louie joined her on the starboard side and they chatted as they cruised on down to Virgil’s hangar.
Virgil was re-fuelling when they arrived. He had taken onboard ten dollops or more worth of honey from special underground tanks that had been built by White Ant Excavators. Louie and Pearl could tell Virgil was refuelling because the ‘No Smoking’ sign was on.
You may wonder how on earth it could be that a ‘No Smoking’ sign was on, let alone be even necessary, when Virgil was in fact refuelling with dollops and scents of honey. After all, honey is not inflammable! No for Virgil there was good reason. If anything made him cough (such as smoke) while ingesting fuel he could either choke or end up with air bubbles in the fuel. Yes Virgil was very safety conscious and ran things by the book.
Louie and Pearl with power off glided in and alighted just as Virgil was finishing.
‘Hi you two’, said Virgil. ‘Come on in, I won’t be a moment’.
Virgil cleaned up any fuel spills, particularly around his mouth where the fuel went in, then went over to Louie and Pearl who were by the entrance sitting in the sun. The three exchanged pleasantries and agreed what a relief it was that yesterday was over.
Pearl had come with the agenda for the meeting and gave a copy to Louie and Virgil. First of all Pearl requested that all smell phones be turned off for the duration of the meeting.
The first item Pearl had was addressed to Louie. Pearl felt that in order to learn from what had happened yesterday and improve things should it ever happen again, it would be worth considering creating an escape route at the back of the Reserve Bank. After all Arnold and the tellers had been placed in some danger and had ended up being trapped overnight.
Pearl went on to say. ‘If Al Spider had gained access to the bank with the staff inside it is too terrible to think about what could have happened. They could have made matchsticks out of Arnold’. Arnold was of course a rather defenceless stick insect.
‘What I suggest’, said Pearl. ‘Is that at some time in the future we get White Ant Excavators to create a tunnel that runs west to the edge of the Reserve, to a secret location that only we know about. A tunnel would be useful for getting the dollops and scents out if it became necessary to do so’.
Louie and Virgil nodded in approval.
The second item Pearl had on the agenda was to somehow reward Arnold and the tellers for the ordeal they had been through. Pearl beneath her appearance of being unemotional, firm and in control, had a genuine affection for all her subjects. Seeing them being hurt or put in compromising positions affected her quite deeply.
‘Any suggestions Louie?’ said Pearl.
Louie thought for a moment. Arnold was not a particularly sociable chap and neither were the tellers so really picnics or parties were out of the question.
‘I think’, said Louie. ‘Our best course of action would be to give them all a pay increase with an extra week’s holiday so they can enjoy themselves as they see fit’.
‘Excellent’, said Pearl. ‘I really believe that this would be the right approach Louie’.
The next item Pearl had on the agenda was to do with Mr McFarland. Through Pearl’s efforts to save the insect community the day before, poor Mr McFarland had had stones pinched from his driveway, hundreds of starlings on his shed roof and finally been infuriated by a phone that wouldn’t stop ringing!
‘I have thought about this one quite a bit’, said Pearl. ‘We could drop some honeycomb in his letterbox; I know he likes honey or maybe even a nice flower on his doorstep? Have you two got any ideas?’ asked Pearl.
Virgil shrugged his wing roots, Louie thought for a moment.
‘Yes’, said Louie. ‘There is possibly something we could do. The downpipe on the spouting of Mr McFarland’s shed is blocked. When it rained a couple of weeks ago, water flowed over from the spouting and washed away some lettuce seeds that Mr McFarland had sewn alongside the shed. What we could do is get White Ant
Excavators to clear the downpipe and Mr McFarland can re sew his lettuces again without any worry’.
‘Sounds good Louie’, said Pearl.
‘Alright’, said Louie, ‘I will get that organised ASAP’.
Louie went on to say in an important business sort of voice. ‘I can charge this against maintenance costs for the Factory as the blocked downpipe can cause flooding in the Factory premises’.
The reader may be thinking that the items Pearl has raised are a bit mundane or irrelevant to the story. Virgil was of the same opinion and kept fidgeting with things that Dragon Flies fidget with. However it demonstrates that Pearl is a very caring creature and besides if these issues weren’t dealt with now we may not have a story!!
The final item on Pearl’s agenda was the day away and picnic for all present, together with the Ten Ants. The Ten Ants had of course been promised a picnic for their efforts the previous day. The Ten Ants were quite a sociable lot and would be terribly disappointed if there was no picnic.
Virgil stopped fidgeting.
‘Virgil you know the area around here well’, said Pearl also turning to Louie. ‘Louie does either of you have an idea of what could be a good place to go to for a picnic with the Ten Ants?’
Virgil responded immediately and with quite a degree of excitement. ‘Yes I just haven’t been able to wait to tell you all! I know of a wonderful place that I discovered recently quite by accident. It is a full day trip away but I know everyone would just love it!’
‘Where?’ said Louie and Pearl at once.
‘Well’, said Virgil. ‘I would like to keep it as a surprise. I would love to take you all there because I am thinking of using it as a tourist destination for day trips next summer. I would really appreciate some feedback on what you all think of this beautiful place!’
‘Wow’, said Louie. ‘This sounds exciting!’
‘Agreed’, said Pearl.
‘What I suggest’, said Virgil. ‘Is that we all meet here at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday, load up and head off at 9.00 a.m. Louie if you could arrange for the Ten Ants to be here. I can’t pick them up as I will be busy preparing for the trip. Everyone needs to bring what they require for the day and perhaps a little extra in case of emergency. We can load it all into my number two cargo container’.
Virgil’s cargo containers, varied in size from one to three (three being the largest). These containers fitted neatly underneath his fuselage and could be filled with all sorts of goodies. The containers had been made at Louie’s Factory by the Ten Ants some time ago. They were made from woven dried grass covered with the cement bees use for honeycomb. They were of a light ‘fibregrass’ construction ideal for air transport use.
Virgil went on to suggest with a twinkle in his eye. ‘Bring plenty of chocolate cake and red wine; let’s make a ball of it!’
For those who may be worried about the possibility of drinking and flying (and quite rightly so) it needs to be pointed out that dragonflies and other insects are a unique species in that they are not affected in their ability to fly by the consumption of red wine, no not at all! It might be because they have six legs and that this is a sufficient number of legs to never become legless! Hmmm, really?
The three concluded the meeting with some happy banter about the pending picnic. Louie and Pearl tried in vain to get Virgil to tell them where they were going for the day on Saturday, but he wouldn’t!
With the meeting over Pearl thanked Virgil for making himself available. Being lunch time Louie and Pearl headed back down the stream to the Nest Café for a snack.
The following morning the Factory was back in full action again. The Ten Ants were hard at work when Louie arrived about 9.30 a.m. Louie checked with Import as to how things were going and said he would like a meeting with everyone in his office sharp at ten.
Import mumbled to himself. ‘Probably timesheets and over claimed hours again’, and went to tell the others.
At 10.00 a.m. the Ten Ants duly filed into Louie’s office, or the ‘bored’ room as they referred to it amongst themselves.
When the Ten Ants were seated Louie said with a look of mischief in his eyes. ‘Right you lot; timesheets’.
There was a groan from the Ten Ants seated around the table. ‘Aw not again Mr Louie!’
‘Yes’, said Louie laughing. ‘I want to leave them and discuss them next week!’
‘Yea!’ the Ten Ants cheered.
Louie went on to tell the Ten Ants about the picnic on Saturday and how it was a surprise destination and there would be plenty to eat and drink. The Ten Ants were really happy and excited about the whole deal.
‘Sounds like a mystery tour’, said Expect gleefully.
‘What I need you to do’, said Louie. ‘Is to get you all to make your own way to Virgil’s hangar on Saturday morning and bring with you anything you might need for the day. Be there sharp at 8.30 a.m.’.
The Ten Ants really were happy about the whole prospect of the day away on Saturday. They had secretly thought that the picnic, which had been promised to them, might have been forgotten.
Louie in concluding the meeting explained to the Ten Ants that he was very proud of them all for what they had done two days ago and that he really couldn’t have a better team.
‘The fact that you all supported me in this time of crisis’, Louie continued. ‘Makes me feel very very humble. Our Queen and leader Pearl Baker-Moth, has expressed to me the same. You are all heroes!’
Some of the Ten Ants had tears in their eyes. Mr Louie was quite a good boss really!