Bumblebees, Doodlebugs, and Freedom Riders
by
Eva Rilot
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 by Eva Rilot
Bumblebees, Doodlebugs, and Freedom Riders
Somewhere in Mississippi
The bumblebee lazily stepped from one rose bloom to the next, causing the flower to lower under his weight. He paused for a moment, allowing the flower to right itself, and then gathered his share of the golden bounty. After awhile, defying every law of physics, he took off and lumbered towards home. Underneath the rose bush, the red clay was bordered by an old highway that had deep ditches on each side. Across the highway from the bushes, a snake lifted his head and tasted the air. Nothing threatening was detected, so the snake slithered out of the ditch and onto the highway. The pavement was hot and felt good to the snake. A rustle from the other side of the road caught his attention briefly. A rabbit hopped from one side of the fence to the other. The clover grew thick in the ditch, and it was a good place to hide while he feasted. A doe suddenly appeared on the other side of the fence. She smelled the air to detect any signs of danger. None were detected, and she turned back to guide her fawn while crossing the road. All of a sudden, the snake felt a vibration. He decided to go back into the ditch. The fawn was almost across the road when the station wagon appeared over the hill. The station wagon slowed to see the little fawn and her mother, but did not stop. After the car was gone, a cloud of dust left in its wake slowly descended back to the earth. The snake came back out and once again took in the heat of the highway. The doe and her fawn frolicked in the pasture field on the other side of the barbed wire fence. The rabbit had his share of clover, and bounded across the highway back towards his home. All of nature's children were safe and happy for the moment.
The little blond headed girl sat in the garden of her aunt's house. She had come to stay with her for the summer. Aunt had shown her how to catch doodlebugs. All you had to do was to stick a broomstraw down the doodlebug hole and it would attack. You could trick it into thinking it had caught an unsuspecting insect, and then you had him. The little girl caught one, then quickly crushed it with her bare foot. They sure were ugly bugs, she thought. A bumblebee landed on a flower close to her, and she knocked it down with her shoe then crushed it.
Down the road, she heard a car approaching. Aunt's house was on a hill overlooking the main highway. You could hear a car coming down the road before you could see it, and she liked to play a guessing game of what kind of car it was going to be, and what color it was. This car was a blue station wagon, and it looked like three people were inside. Suddenly, there was a loud 'pop,' and the station wagon pulled over to the side of the road.
Three men stepped out and onto the highway. One man opened the hood of the car. The little girl studied them for a moment. There were two white men, and a black man. They looked to be very young, almost teenagers. The little girl slowly walked down the hill to get a closer look.
"Hey ya'll!" she hollered from the yard. "Did you break down?" she added. "My name's Mary, what's yours?"
One of the men looked in her direction, and said "Hi, I'm Michael. This is Andrew, and he's James. Nice to meet you."
"Is your car broke?" asked the little girl.
"I think we can fix it," said Michael. "There doesn't look to be anything wrong. We can make it to the next town."