Story Welcome to my home
author Yan Li
author Yan Li
“One, two, three,” Tom said,
as he counted the fies in his bedroom.
“Tom, don’t eat food in your room, please,”
his mom put her hands on her hips and tried not to lose her temper. “I’ve told you tons of times! You always leave your bedroom in such a mess; you should clean it up!”
Tom looked around his room.
His stuf was scattered everywhere,
from the bed right to the door.
A few stray white bread crumbs lay on the foor.
It wasn’t a bedroom to be proud of.
Tom didn’t care what his room looked like though.
He picked up some bread from the foor and ate it on his bed.
Suddenly, he heard a tiny voice say,
“Don’t eat it, it has germs.”
Tom looked around his room wondering
where the tiny voice had come from.
He didn’t fnd anyone so he kept eating the bread.
But something happened.
Tom found himself becoming smaller and smaller,
he ended up as small as an ant.
His bed became bigger and bigger,
bigger than an ocean.
Tom tried to jump to the foor,
but the foor was too far for him.
It was like he was stuck in the middle of the ocean.
“Do you need help?” the tiny voice spoke again.
“Who are you? Where are you?” Tom asked.
“Lift your head, please;
I’m sitting near the window.”
“Oh, my!” Tom cried out.
He found a huge spider stting on her web;
the spider was busying wrapping up a fy.
“How can you help me?” Tom asked.
The spider dropped a line of web in front of Tom.
“Grab the line and I’ll put you on the windowsill.”
“You’re not going to eat me, right?”
Tom asked, feeling scared.
“No, we’ve been friends for a long time,”
the spider said.
“Because fies love your place,
I’ve moved inside as my job’s to catch fies.”
Tom climbed up the line of web and pulled the line taut.
The spider dragged the line upward.
Tom closed his eyes and held his breath.
He felt like he was riding a roller coaster at a park,
but it wasn’t fun anymore.
“Here we are,” the spider cheered.
Tom opened his eyes and found
that he was standing on the windowsill.
“Since your room is too messy,
I need to clean it up. I suggest you should go to visit the home of the ant tonight,” the spider said.
“But it’s still too high from the foor,”
Tom felt hopeless.
The spider didn’t hear him and left.
A soft wind blew at nightfall.
Tom could smell the fowers in the air.
But at the moment, Tom felt so depressed and lonely.
“Welcome to my home,”
a bee’s head peeped out from a fower and
she rolled her eyes at Tom.
“Your home?” Tom felt curious.
“My name is Little Dot.”
Little Dot few over Tom’s head and said,
“I know you, you’re Tom.
I’ve seen you several times in your yard before.”
Little Dot used her feet and lifted Tom up.
Tom felt a strong wind against his face,
and saw the fowers like big lanterns swaying under him.
Little Dot few high and low to avoid the leaves.
Finally, Little Dot stopped in front of a rock and
knocked on the door.
“This is your home?”
Tom looked up and down the rock,
it looked like a castle.
“Yes, usually we build our home in rock crevices and hollow trees, which we believe are appropriate for our colony.”
Little Dot explained.
Another bee opened the door, and let them inside.
“Oh, your home is just like a huge storage area,”
Tom saw the bees arranging their
belongings into boxes one by one.
All the bees were very busy.
Some were cleaning the boxes.
Some were carrying the honey.
Some were splashed water around the room.
“We really need water,
as it helps keep our home cool and allows the nurse
bees to give raw honey to our babies,”
Little Dot explained.
Tom looked around, and was shocked by what he saw.
In their home, everywhere was very clean and tidy.
Also, the smell was really sweet.
“We’ve three huge rooms in our home,”
Little Dot showed Tom around.
“This room is our storage room;
we put our products here, such as honey and pollen.”
Tom saw a lot of boxes with labels on.
The boxes were all neatly arranged in lines.
“This is our baby room,”
Little Dot guided Tom to another bigger room in the center.
“Please be quiet,” a nurse bee came out and put her fnger to her mouth. She stared at Tom, “Who’s he?”
“Nice to meet you!” Tom said and smiled, but the nurse bee grabbed his arm and smelt him,
“We need to clean him in case he has any germs!”
“No, I don’t have any germs,”
Tom cried and struggled.
He tried to run away,
but the nurse bee asked someone else to catch him.
Tom ran very fast, not even turning around and
looking back once.
He could hear the bees shouting.
Finally, Tom found an empty box and climbed inside.
He held his breath and waited for the bees to go away.
After a while, Tom stretched his head out
and found no bees around him.
He jumped outside and walked to the corner.
He found the biggest room,
which was about three times
bigger than the other rooms.
But it was dark.
He couldn’t see anything inside.
Tom entered the room on tiptoe.
Unaware, Tom heard something crack, he seemed to have stepped on something.
“Who’s there?” the voice was so angry.
A huge bee showed up in front of Tom. This bee had a larger belly and stronger legs than all the other bees.
“Hey, who let you into my home?
This is my room.
I’m the queen and it’s my sleeping time,”
she said in an arrogant voice.
The bees running after Tom heard the queen’s voice.
They all came to her room and waited outside.
“I brought him to our home,”
Little Dot said with a trembling voice,
“It’s too cold outside;
please just let him sleep over for one night.”
“Shut up!” the queen snapped sounding annoyed.
“You know our rules; we don’t like strangers.
You two will need to be punished.”
The queen turned her body around,
“Take them to the storage area.”
The other bees came over and dragged Little Dot and Tom to the storage area and put them inside.
Tom felt sorry for Little Dot.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring you any trouble,”
Tom said.
“Don’t blame yourself,”
Little Dot said,
“We can stay together and have a lot of fun.
By the way, I’m a worker bee,
working is my life.”
The storage area was a bit cold and wet.
But Tom quite liked the place.
“The surface is really smooth,” Tom touched the wall gently.
“We, the worker bees started to paint our home.” Little Dot said proudly, “We covered the wall by using a thin layer of propolis. This can prevent the wall from the harmful germs.”
Little Dot put on some gloves and started to clean the boxes.
“Why do you build so many boxes?” Tom asked.
“Our boxes is called honeycomb by human. They are to be used to store nectar, pollen, water, honey and our babies in,” Little Dot said. “The boxes are so important for our survival; we need to store lots of honey for the winter.”
“Why are the boxes a hexagonal shape?” Tom wanted to take one of them and reached out to touch one of the boxes.
“Don’t touch it!” Little Dot said. “We can build honeycombs from squares or circles, but the hexagon is the strongest.”
Tom suddenly realized that he hadn’t eaten for a long time,
he felt so hungry.
His stomach started growling.
“Usually we don’t allow any eating of the food from storage,” Little Dot said, opening one of a box. “We collect the sugary juice from the heart of fowers to make honey.”
After eating, Tom wanted to help Little Dot to
clean the storage area.
Tom felt so guilty because he didn’t know how to clean.
He never did it by himself at home.
He felt so clumsy.
Finally, he spilled honey from a box that he was cleaning.
The strong sweet smell fooded out into the whole home.
The alarm bell started to ring.
Tom saw an army of bees running out like little
soldiers with arms.
“Something’s going wrong, Tom, hurry!”
Little Dot dragged Tom to the corner.
“What happened? What are they doing?” Tom asked.
“The guard bees always protect our home. They can sting intruders and also emit a scent to warn us of potential danger.”
Little Dot jumped up onto a shelf and looked outside.
“Oh no! It’s a honeyguide. It can fnd our home by its advanced sense of smell.”
“That’s the reason you wanted me to clean up to get rid of the sweet smell. All I did was make it worse by breaking the box,” Tom said.
All at once, Tom felt everywhere around him shaking
like there was an earthquake.
He was knocked to the foor.
Little Dot tried to catch him but failed.
Tom jumped up on his feet and followed Little Dot outside, as he was running he slipped over and lay on the ground.
He saw the honeyguide fip its wings and insert its beak into the rock crevice.
Little Dot stung the bird’s head bravely, and then she tried her best to lift Tom from the foor.
Finally, Little Dot dropped Tom on the fower outside
of Tom’s home.
From far away, Tom could see the bee’s home.
It looked like an abandoned castle, which toppled down to the ground.
Tom felt so sorry for Little Dot’s sufering.
He felt ashamed of himself.
“It’s not your fault. The smell is so strong that the bird can fnd us very easily,” Little Dot said.
“What about your home?” Tom worried.
“It’ll be rebuilt soon. We’re very strong,” Little Dot tried to show Tom her muscles but failed and laughed.
“I’m very weak; I will die after stinging someone.” Little Dot closed her eyes. “A worker bee’s life is very short. But it has a lot of meaning when I’ve a friend like you Tom, see you tomorrow.”
Tom couldn’t take his eyes of his little bee friend.
He didn’t know how long he stayed there until he felt the night wind blow his hair again.
The next morning, Tom woke up and found himself asleep on the ground.
He thought of his little bee friend.
Tom searched everywhere, under all of the fowers.
Finally, he saw a tiny fgure around the corner.
Little Dot’s body was stif, withered and cold.
Tom picked a leaf and covered the Little Dot’s body.
He cut a small box into a hexagonal shape, and put Little Dot inside.
Tom went back inside his home, as soon as he stepped inside he changed back to his normal size again.
He started to clean his room.
He arranged his belongings in closet neatly, like Little Dot had taught him.
In honor of his friend Little Dot, Tom built a scarecrow outside the bees’ home.
From that moment on, no birds or other animals dared to close to their home.
The spider moved out, because without all the fies
to catch she lost her job.
But she felt very happy to live outside the window
and watch her friend, Tom.
RO9I3 STORY للمزيد من القصص بالانجليزية زوروا موقعي الجديد
زيارتكم دعم وتشجيع لى
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق