Visit to a Queen

By Connie Mullowney and Betty Poe

“Visit to a Queen” teases the imagination as any children’s story should, but, at the same time, teaches some important lessons—about honeybees and humans and why we all must work together, even sacrifice, for a true community of caring, sharing and, subsequently, true success. Lucy and Peter Glee, city kids enjoying a summer vacation with a “crazy” beekeeping uncle in the country, learn about living passionately in the present, at the same time being prepared for what lies ahead for them as adults. They also come to realize that the length of your stay on earth is less important than what you do with that time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669840879

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Copyright © 2022 by Connie Mullowney, Wes Skillings. 844609

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval

system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either

are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and

any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is

entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914133

Rev. date: 01/12/2023

CONTENTS

Preface…

Chapter 1 Under the Apple Tree

Chapter 2 Gabby

Chapter 3 Jack Drone

Chapter 4 The Magical Flight

Chapter 5 Guardsmen of the Beehive

Chapter 6 Jennie, the Worker Bee

Chapter 7 Vulca, the Builder

Chapter 8 Fliga, the Honey Gatherer

Chapter 9 Bonnie, the Nursemaid

Chapter 10 Queen Beatrice, at Last!

Chapter 11 Queen without a King?

Chapter 12 How the Queen Came to Be

Chapter 13 Back to the Apple Tree

Chapter 14 Inside the Cover

Chapter 15 Back to Uncle Bob’s

Chapter 16 Dreams and Memories

Summary by Author/Editor

PREFACE…

C onnie Mullowney, my mother, wrote the original manuscript and entitled it Visit to a Queen. I was a young child when she would read a bedtime chapter to my sister and me before she tucked us in at night. We were always eager to hear the next reading of her remarkable tale which, we would realize later, was a gift to us that kept her alive in our hearts after she left us too soon. I particularly enjoyed visualizing detailed pictures of the story in my mind, but I was too young to realize how masterfully she had captured the sacred communal society of the honeybee as both a teaching tool and a great children’s story.

The images her story aroused in my imagination fueled my passion to be an artist and illustrator. I knew some day I would put those images on paper. My mother died soon after completing the manuscript, which sat in a drawer throughout the rest of my childhood and my fledgling years as an adult. It was only several years after receiving a degree in Fine Arts that I dusted it off and decided to illustrate Mother’s book. There have been fits and starts to editing and illustrating the book over the intervening decades, but the project has finally been realized.

I credit this story and the wondrous images it evoked in me as a child as the reason I was never afraid of bees. Instead it taught me to respect these amazing insects and the lessons of their brief, hard-working lives.

With this in mind, I have attempted to render those vivid mental pictures that delighted me so long ago. I hope to pass on that delight to all who read it.

A special thanks to Wes Skillings for all his efforts in editing, updating, summarizing and adding the culminating two chapters of the book, painstakingly remaining true to my mother’s writing style and her wondrous imagination.

—Betty Poe Krauss

1

CHAPTER

Under the Apple Tree

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F or almost two hours, Peter and Lucy Glee tramped up and down between the rows of apple trees. They wanted to count every tree on Apple Acres, but there were too many. They became too tired to care. At last, they plopped into the soft grass under one of the trees. Little did they know that this was a very special tree. Why should they? It looked like every other tree in the orchard.

Peter stretched out in the shade and threw down the book he was carrying. It landed with a thud at his feet.

I don’t like the country, he groused. I wish I had never come here.

The unhappy words floated up through the branches to the ears of a strange little creature hidden at the very top of the tree. This prompted a giggle—a cheery sound the grumpy twins did not hear. Maybe the giggle was drowned out by the humming of the bees around the flowers? Or maybe Lucy and Peter were just too busy grumbling to hear anything?

It’s not very exciting here, agreed a pouting Lucy. Nothing but apple trees and bees! Nobody to play with around here and just that silly old book to read!

Peter kicked the book away as if it were the root of all their troubles. Who wants to read about bees anyway? he snapped with an angry glance at the book.

The little creature high in the tree shook his head in disapproval. He believed children should be happy, especially when your last name was Glee. There would be plenty of time for being grouchy when they became adults. They were tired of the country already, he realized, and there were still several days of spring vacation ahead. It was time for him to do something about it.

Oh, by the way, the tree creature had magical powers, and that is why he already knew a great deal about the twins. He knew that in all their ten years, they had never visited their Uncle Bob’s orchard before. They were city children. Their world was a noisy, stressful one of subway trains, taxis, and traffic lights that told them when to cross the street. They were accustomed to the noise and bustle of the city, and they missed their playmates.

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Lucy, standing up and sniffing at the flowers on a low-hanging branch, announced to her brother, I think I’ll pick some.

Uncle Bob said not to pick them, warned Peter half-heartedly.

Lucy sensed her brother wasn’t about to tell, and she was bored and feeling a little naughty. She’d take the chance, breaking off a good piece of a branch and watching with mild interest as honeybees gathered, buzzing loudly. The constant hum only made Peter feel even sleepier despite the hundreds of bees droning around the tree.

Meanwhile, Lucy reached for another and suddenly yelped a sharp, startled cry.

Peter! Peter! My arm!

What happened? asked Peter as he leapt to his feet, fully awake.

It was a bee! A bee stung me! One of those nasty bees! Lucy yelled, her hurried words toppling into each other. Oh, Peter, it hurts.

Lucy began to sob loudly, dropping the flowered branch to the ground and holding out her arm for her twin to see. A big white lump, angry red in the center, was swelling on her wrist. It looked like a needle prick, but it hurt much more than that.

Peter put a comforting arm around her