text: Jerome loves his bee hives. He works almost as diligently as the workers that stay busy all the time making sure the hive is full of honey and pollen while drones attend to the queen bee. Hives are very sociable places and the bees communicate so well it sometimes makes him jealous because humans do not communicate as well. He knows the main reason bees are so important is because they pollinate plants that are so vital to the survival of the plants. The plants are vital to the survival of all animals including humans. It breaks his heart every time he hears the bees are endangered. He protects his hives with everything he can so at least his hives will not become extinct. Every morning he checks the hives and takes just enough honey to fill the number of jars he knows he can sell in one day with one jar a week for himself. Living alone now he does not need the amount his family required before they were killed by the government during the pandemic a few years ago. The old government by the people and for the people ended early in the pandemic. The new government saw fit to punish those who refused to obey the new laws of complete social isolation with only one family member allowed to shop. The members could rotate who could go at any time but only one at a time could leave their forced isolation. He did most of the grocery shopping from a list approved by the government. Once a month his wife shopped for clothes or shoes for the children because she was better at knowing what would fit the older ones. The younger ones inherited what had been outgrown whether the clothes or shoes actually fit them or not. In isolation, how anyone looks does not matter. Selling the honey had taken some trial and error. Since no one outside the family could come closer than twelve feet, he had to think of a way his customers could get the honey and he could get the payment for it. His wife suggested they set up a system of ropes and pulleys that would send the honey on one set and the money could be sent to them in the other set. She made small baskets by hand that were attached and the system worked perfectly. The honey and the payment passed each other at six feet so neither side could reach the baskets to interfere with the transaction. She had always been handy with crafts and was really smart. God, how he missed her! Except the day she decided she had to take the children with her to try on clothes since their sizes were so different now. The older boy had shot up that last year as sixteen year old boys are known to do. The middle girl just turned fourteen and needed bras but it is difficult to know what size without trying them on. The youngest was just out of diapers but all the toddler clothes were too small for him. He had to try on some clothes so his mother would know what size to buy. The store was only half a block from their farm and as long as they each kept twelve feet from outsiders, she thought it would be okay for all of them to go together. She had not heard if more than one family member went out at once, all of them would be executed. When they did not return by dusk he went to the store to find out what was taking them so long. When he was within sight of the store he saw a small crowd gathered in front of it. Making sure to keep the legal distance, he started for the door. Something made him look up at the huge tree on the side of the building. What he saw sent him to his knees. His wife and three children were all hanging from limbs of that tree with signs proclaiming that was the fate of anyone who broke the law.He can’t remember how long he knelt there. He vaguely remembered finally getting up and going back home where he could no longer hold back the tears. Now the only thing he had were his bees. For days he could not force himself to even go outside. Then he decided he had to keep his hives going but only for himself and a few families in the area. Knowing the government routinely sent aircraft to spray insecticides to kill all insects whether beneficial or not, he built a shelter around his hives and painted it to look like the surrounding vegetation from the air.The front and back were draped with plastic he had slit just enough for the workers to go in and out and large fans mounted on the side walls pushed any insecticide out of the shelter. He remembered an old army trick they had used while he served his country. They could lay out a set of wires around the perimeter of their camp then attach a series of batteries to them. Anyone who tried to cross the perimeter would be electrocuted on the spot. He carefully bought the series of batteries saying they were for his various vehicles on the farm that he was setting up to use again. Everyone knew he had not farmed for years even before he lost his family so they believed him. The wires were easier. He went to the hardware store and bought a couple of reels of wire then did the same at the electric supply store and the discount store. He talked to an electrician and told him someone had been coming onto his property at night and stole all his supplies to put up an electric fence. He asked if there was any store he could replace all the wire and connectors that had been stolen? The electrician offered to sell them from his supply since he wasn’t able to do much work now. Soon his property was totally protected from outsiders. The wires were well hidden under normal leaves and plants. It would take at least one hundred pounds of weight to cause the wires to contact enough to do harm. Next he planted some of the bees favorite flowers in an area close to the shelter and covered them with a camouflage canopy dense enough to prevent insecticide from harming the bees. He started up his old tractor and plowed a field to plant other plants necessary to the bees. It would look like he was planting a crop for human consumption and the planes would not spray it. He plowed and planted another field closer to the house with routine vegetables for his table. His wife had taught him to preserve foods so he could can what he could not eat in a season. They had planted apple trees when the first son was born then cherry trees for the girl. By the time the last one was born, they had planted pear trees in the small orchard. Now all but the pear trees were mature enough to bare fruit. Next he bought a cow and a half grown bull. As soon as their pasture fence was up he turned them loose from the barn. Hr built a chicken coup and added the chickens. Beside the barn he built a pig sty for a few young pigs. Lastly he bought a stallion young enough to start working with but old enough to breed. For the sire fees he asked for a colt here and there but in money he only asked as much as the mare’s owner could afford. His farm had been going good for about five years when business began dropping off as he knew it would. In a hundred mile radius, his was the only operating farm now. Crops had failed year after year Wildlife continually decreased as well until none were to be found. In the last year most herds of cattle and horses had died along with large numbers of humans. People from town were flocking to his farm offering all they owned for a jar of vegetables or fruit or a cow or pig from his stock. No one could understand how he could grow all the crops and feed all the livestock when everyone else lost theirs. No crops could grow except on his land. No livestock could be fed except for his. He looked fit and well fed while everyone else was starved and emaciated. Did he have some sort of magic spell allowing him to prosper while everyone else went without all he had and especially without food? He assured them it was not magic. He farmed as he always had. His livestock were well fed from the fruits of his land and continued to produce offspring as well. He had plenty of honey from his bee hives and the bees pollinated his crops that fed him and his animals. One woman from town came with her Border Collie. She gave him the dog so it could live even if she could not. Jerome did not want to separate her from an obviously loved pet so he invited her to live with him and he would feed both of them. Then he asked her name and was surprised she was just a few years older than his oldest son would have been. He remembered her from all of her warnings to the townspeople that they needed to save the bees or they would die. She had aged unnaturally because of starvation but she was still the attractive woman she had always been. He invited her to have lunch with him and was more than welcome to bring her dog in as well. He fed the dog first with a bowl full of scrap meat and placed a fresh bowl of water beside the feast. He found out its name was Frieden. Frieden had come from a German family whose grandparents survived the Second World War. He had been a gift for her efforts to save the current world from death. His second name was Hoffnung. How fitting she had been given Peace and Hope as her reward. Over lunch he commended her on her foresight to speak out about saving the bees. His hives had tripled now and that is why he prospered while everyone else did not. He no longer worried about insecticides being sprayed but he did worry about people seeing bees flying around and trying to kill them. Most people blamed the bees for the destruction of all they used to have when it was actually they, themselves, who had caused the destruction by killing the bees.The government had become too small to be any further threat. The dictator called president had succumbed to the disease. Most of his cabinet had either fled or died at the hands of patriots trying to return the country to what it had originally been. A few had joined the patriots but none of them recognized killing the bees had destroyed humanity and the world. They did not live long enough to remember his little farm with its protected hives working tirelessly to keep that small farm alive and thriving. The next day Jerome went into the town that was now empty of life except for a few cats and dogs looking for food. He looked in the grocery store and saw a few cans of cat and dog food on the shelves. He took out the well used canvas sack and took all the cans that would help until he processed some scrap meat for them. He selected a few other items he knew they would need then remembered seeing animal treats still on the shelf so he went back for those. He stopped at the pet shop for some birdseed and to make sure no live animals were still caged. He saw a Border Collie puppy still alive and took it from its cage. Cradled in his arms and given some treats, the puppy gratefully gave his cheek a weak lick as if to thank him. He named her Liebe for the love she showed him. None of the other animals had survived but Frieden would have a mate in a few months. The stray animals had followed him so once out of the store, he put down a trail of treats. That would lead the poor hungry little ones to his farm where they would be fed. Day after day wildlife appeared and were fed as well. Since there were no more churches and ministers or judges, a month later Celeste and Jerome said their wedding vows to each other in the garden where his hives happily worked to bring back the world before the great extinction of bees that brought on the extinction of man except in a small corner of paradise where a wise man foresaw salvation by saving his bees.