Hour of the Bees

Carol finds the city stifling and overwhelming; she misses the ranch. She receives a text from Gabby asking if she’ll come to a pool party with lots of their school friends, but Carol responds that she’s too tired. The next day, she goes shopping with friends; they buy matching messenger bags for school.

The family visits Serge in The Seville. Carol is distressed by the center’s prison-like security and by the fact that Serge is sleepy and disoriented: He has been given sedatives. Outside his room, Carol asks Raúl what happened between him and Serge. Raúl agrees to tell her, beginning with, “Once upon a time, there was a tree stump” (256).

A police officer dropped Raúl back at the ranch. It was a familiar routine. Serge grounded his son, but Raúl angrily packed his bags and left. Rosa returned. Serge told her that Raúl was gone. Calmly, she said that he’d be back one day. Suddenly, Rosa collapsed; she was sick.

Raúl explains to Carol that his mother had cancer, but Serge wouldn’t let her leave the ranch to get treatment.

Carol walks to junior high school with her friends. She’s distracted by thoughts of Serge and the ranch. When students introduce themselves and their preferred nicknames, Carol says that she prefers Carol (as opposed to Carolina) and that she spent the summer on her grandfather’s sheep ranch in the desert. The teacher tells her that her grandfather must be happy that the drought has broken; Carol hadn’t heard about this and is amazed.

At home, Carol rushes to tell her mother about the rain. She asks if they can go to see Serge, but Patricia has errands to run. Carol tries to call The Seville, but Serge doesn’t pick up. She goes to sleep but wakes up at one o’clock in the morning; it’s still raining. She sees Alta’s car keys.

Carol takes Alta’s car and drives through the rain to The Seville. She considers that she would have introduced herself differently in class if she was given the chance. The Seville is locked, but she remembers the door code that her father used. A nurse rounds the corner, but a bee flies in her face, distracting her as Carol sneaks by.

Serge is slow because of the sedatives but eventually recognizes Carol and hears that it’s raining. He asks her to take him home. He instructs her to wait out in front with the car. She tells him the code for the door, but he quickly forgets it and trips the alarm on his way out. Patricia calls Carol. Carol assures her that she’s safe and hangs up. Carol asks Serge how the story ends; Serge tells her that it ends with death.

As they near the ranch, Carol loses control of the car, which flips and rolls. It comes to rest in a green lake.

Carol opens the car’s convertible roof, and they climb out. Amazingly, a large, black tree stands on the lake’s shore. Carol realizes that her phone is gone and goes to the ranch to use the landline. She manages to call 911, but then the connection is cut off. She returns to Serge, who is climbing into a boat. He urges Carol, whom he calls Rosa, to get in. They paddle into the lake, but a wave capsizes the boat. Carol helps her grandfather climb back into the boat. She’s washed against the tree’s roots, which seem to hold her. She sees bees bringing drops of water to the lake, which the tree seems to be drinking. Reflecting that she must be dreaming, she passes out.

Carol wakes in the branches of the tree, 30 feet above the lake. She jumps into it and swims to the shore, where Serge lies. He weakly comments on the amazing return of the water by the bees.

A rattlesnake appears. It lunges at Carol, but the bracelet takes the impact of its fanged bite. It bites Serge, and he collapses in pain. Serge tells Carol that it’s all right and asks her to stay with him.

Carol is awakened by Alta, who has arrived with Raúl and Patricia. Alta is relieved that Carol is okay; she’s uncharacteristically loving and gentle. Carol confides that it hurts her feelings when Alta reminds her that they’re only half-sisters. Alta apologizes and admits that she found the summer on the ranch difficult; she felt excluded from the nuclear family of Raúl, Patricia, Lu, and Carol.

Carol and Serge are taken to the hospital by paramedics.

Carol has second-degree sunburn but is otherwise unhurt. Alta’s car can be repaired; Carol has to pay for the repairs out of her pocket money and lifeguard money.

Serge won’t live much longer; the doctor’s say that his organs seem very aged. The doctor comments on an old chair in the corner of the room that they call the “lucky chair” because patients tend to feel better after they sit in it. It’s made of black wood.

They go to say farewell Serge. Serge presents Alta with a wooden bracelet, like Carol’s but made of newer wood.

Alta, Patricia, and Lu leave. Serge tells Raúl that he must tell him the end of the story. He begins, “Once there was a tree stump” (317). Serge wanted Rosa to go to get treatment in the city, but it was she who refused to leave the ranch. One day, Rosa turned into white blossoms and floated away, leaving only a seed.

Raúl is shocked; he always presumed that it was the other way around: that Serge insisted on Rosa staying at the ranch as she was dying. Raúl tells Serge that he called off the sale of the ranch; he promises never to cut down the tree that Carol planted. Serge asks Raúl to feed Inés, and Raúl starts to cry. Serge whispers that the bees are coming, and then he dies.

Raúl, Carol, and Lu arrive at the ranch. Raúl was devastated to have to destroy the ranch house, which was full of termites.

They’re building a new home on the ranch property and plan to move there. Carol and Alta will attend the local school. They plan to go shopping later that day.

Raúl and Carol climb the tree and swim in the lake. Rather than sheep, Carol, who now prefers to be called Carolina, suggests that they could have beehives. A bee buzzes past, and Carol whispers a greeting to her grandfather. She teaches Lu, whom they now call Luis, the Spanish word for tree. She climbs into the tree and watches the stars come out.