16.

I was panting and wheezing, feeling completely out of breath, by the time I had managed to find my way outside of the complex where I had been held for way too long. As I continued to clutch that briefcase, I cautiously peeked back inside and down the long corridor in the hope of seeing Jasmine. There was no sign of her, but I could hear the unmistakable sound of "BAM!", "BONK!", "WHAM!" and "KaaaRUNCH!" echoing down the corridor beehind me..

"I wonder who's winning?" I thought to myself, hoping it was Jasmine.

It seemed as if hours had passed (even though it was probably only about 87 seconds - it just felt longer than that), when I heard the sound of stilettos clicking rapidly toward me and soon spotted Jasmine running toward me, an almost-imperceptible bead of perspiration resting on her delicate forehead.

She stopped for a moment after reaching me to catch her breath, then finally asked me, "So, would you care to go grab a bite to eat?"

"Eat?" I asked. "But what about all those bees who were chasing us?"

"Oh. Right. Do not bee worried. I was able to convince all of them to enjoy a nice, long nap, in a manner of speaking." she said with an unmistakable tone of pride in her voice. "They will no longer threaten us."

"That's a relief," I said, feeling relieved.

"So?" Jasmine asked.
"So what?" I asked.
"Lunch?"
"Lunch?" I asked.
"Yes. Would you care to have lunch? There is a little place that is not far from here. I beelieve you would enjoy it."

After beeing held captive for such a long time and beeing subjected to the horrors I've already described, and after just barely escaping with my life -and that briefcase - I couldn't beelieve Jasmine was beeing so
incredibly nonchalant about the whole thing and that the only thing she could think of was to have lunch. Still, I was hungry.

"Sure. Let's have lunch," I said.

So we did that.

The small café Jasmine was talking about was actually about a three-mile hike through a lot of deserty landscape. It was a small place that only had about two tables and four chairs in it. When we arrived, one of the tables was taken, so we took the other one.

Right after we sat down, a small drone came up to us, handed us each a menu, then said something I couldn't understand. Jasmine smiled at him and said something back, which I also couldn't understand. (I've decided since then that they were speaking a language I didn't understand. I'm not sure, but I think it was Berber - like the carpets. I really should learn that language someday. It's very beeautiful, ya' know.)

"I have taken the liberty of ordering for us," Jasmine said, as she took the menu out of my wings and stacked it with hers on the corner of the small table.

While we were waiting for our order to arrive, Jasmine leaned across the table toward me, speaking to me in a low, sultry whisper.

(to bee continued)

. . .

Tune in next Thursday, as I get closer to finishing my gripping tale of adventure, intrigue and utter misunderstanding!

So, I plan to pay another visit to the Hive later on today to find out if anybody else is awake yet. I’m pretty sure I heard a bunch of alarm clocks going off yesterday…or maybee it was just on TV.

Anyway, I hope everybody has a inexplicably tremendous day!

I’ll see ya’ later!