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The 26 eclectic-genre
short stories for my #AtoZChallenge are excerpts from travelogue notes by
novel character
Gahlen, who first appeared in SHARDS OF
MEMORY – Oral History in a Heartbeat.
Each A-to-Z daily post is a complete,
stand-alone tale - partly true, partly fiction.
Kolaches with Birds and Bees
Genre: Young Adult Science Non-fiction
(363 words)
We were
gathered around Selena and Micha’s kitchen table. While visiting this quaint
Czech village, they had invited us to their home for coffee and dessert. The
table setting included urns of steaming hot coffee and platters of round
pastries topped with sweet fillings.
When
their young daughter reached for a poppyseed-filled kolache, Micha slowed her
hand. “Tereza, tell our guests something you learned in school.”
Her disappointment
slowly turned to delight. “We learned about the birds and the bees. Would you
like me to recite the lesson?”
Our nervousness
over hearing a lesson on reproduction was clearly misinterpreted.
“Tereza,”
her father said, “our guests are growing restless for dessert. Give your report
so they can enjoy your mother’s kolaches.”
“Our
temperatures and seasons,” Tereza began, “are not much different from weather
in your Wisconsin. Snow comes often in winter. Otherwise, we have warmer temperatures
and enjoy the entertainment of what is called the birds and the bees. Let me tell
you about this.
“Here
in Hosti, Bohemia, we have many colorful birds: grouse and rose finch and even
woodpeckers. In fish ponds, you will see white-tailed eagles and cranes. Storks
and buzzards frequent our wooded areas and valleys. But we have no crows, none
at all.
“Instead,
magpies have taken over, especially the white-throated ones. They are not nocturnal
and do not keep company with nightingales. They tend to frequent areas where
hives of honey bees proliferate. That is how bees keep their population high,
by . . . um, proliferation.”
Tereza
stopped until her mother offered encouragement.
“The
magpies do not eat honey and they are not bee-eaters. They prefer eating mice
and cockroaches, and spiders whole. That is why these birds and bees get along
so well together, or rather apart. They do not eat or sting each other.
“I
like magpies because they eat things I really, really do not like, especially
creepy crawly spiders.” Smiling, she said, “Now for dessert.”
Selena
gave us a conspiratorial wink. “She only agrees to tell her birds and bees
story when promised an extra kolache, preferably poppyseed.”
No
one fought over a choice of prune or poppyseed. There were plenty for everyone.
*****
