Author: Hatice Ebrar Dürüyen (12 years old)
Translator: Sena Vardar (18 years old)
Illustrator: Aişe Meva Keleşoğlu
It was a day when the cats were meowing, the dogs were barking and the bees which scared the people were buzzing around, shaking their stingers. All of the kids were playing ball in the garden. The ball was sick of the children, and wished to go to Ball-land (the place where the balls would live without the kids).
“Hey! There is a bee on your shoulder.” screamed Nehir, pointing towards Faruk.
The kids stempeded. They hid behind the bushes, fearfully waited for the bee to go away. So, they got out, and kept playing their game when the bee went away.
Nehir had an allergy against bees, yet the bees always kept finding her. She, herself, was stinged by bees a hundred and sixty two times. This was why she was an anti-bee like the other kids.
“Do we have to live our lives by fearing bees? Why would we? Should they hurt us, we must hurt them too.” shouted Nehir while sending the ball.
Sena nodded as a back up sign for Nehir, and said “Yes, let’s shoot balls to them!”.
On that day, all kids collected jars behind their mothers’ back.
They woke up early the next day, and cathed the bees which were completely unaware of the situation. They emptied up the hives and caged the bees. Meanwhile, the bees stinged and hurt the kids, but the kids reached their objective. Poor bees lost the flowers, descents, lowlands they flew around every day. They were crying and hugging each other, praying to reach nature again.
On the first day without the bees, all mothers screamed “Where are the jars?” in the same hour, minute and at the same second. Even if the kids said no words about the issue, the mothers already got who the delinquents were.
The kids went out and played games without fear in the morning. They were happy with how things were. They got revenge from the bees who stinged them.
The days followed each other. On the 7th day without the bees, the bazaar, the stores were all empty. The greengrocers could not grow anything and the fields were emptied. Everyone was hungry, and they were trying to figure out why the food was not able to be grown.
The televisions and the newspapers had only two news stories: The food shortage and the bees. The experts were attaching the issue to non-existence of the bees. Since there were no bees, there were no animals to spread pollen from the flowers.
The kids were hungry for this reason too. Ending this hunger would be worth being stinged by the bees. They immediately arranged a meeting. They tried to find the best solution by arguing. In the end of the debate, they took the decision of doing a ballot to set the bees free. As the result of the ballot, the decision of setting the bees free was the best choice to be made for Nehir.
On the other day, they set the bees free by opening the lid of the jar they captured them in. With the great happiness the bees had, they forgot to sting the kids. They flew from one flower to another one with joy.
It only took a few days for the disequilibrium that happened in the world. The bees flew freely and ensured the pollution. The fields became full of products. Local bazaars put juicy apples, oranges and many fruits on sale. The kids were able to have a normal breakfast, lunch and a dinner after a long time.