Dalton – Drucilla's Corner

A Gift from a True Friend

The knock on the door was far too timid to be Dalton. Drucilla was lying on her bed, deep in thought. The knock was so soft, she thought she may have only imagined it. After all, who would have the audacity to knock on the queen’s bedroom door without being asked to do so?

The timid knock came again. Drucilla sat up. At first, she wanted to punish whoever it was that dared to disturb her rest. Then she thought better of it. That was something the old Drucilla would have done. The new Drucilla had no intention to punish anyone anymore. Without even knowing who was there, Drucilla was prepared to let her visitor come in and state his business.

Responding to the queen’s command, the door opened slowly and Helen’s face appeared in the room. “I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she whispered. “I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

Surprising Surprises

Drucilla is napping on her bed. She has had a long night battling a leaky roof in the insekt hotel. At this very moment, she is dreaming about moving into her new beehive. Sad to say, its construction has only just begun, so it will be a long time before Drucilla’s dream comes true. The queen cannot hear Dalton tiptoe into the chamber. When he sees that Drucilla is fast asleep, he turns to leave. In a rare moment of indecision halts at the door and turns himself around to approach the queen again. This repeats itself twice until the queen is pulled out of her dreams by Dalton’s frustrated sigh.

Drucilla (sits up and blinks): Who’s there?

Dalton (stands erect): Captain of the Royal Guard, my queen!

Drucilla (yawns): Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that?

Those Simple-Minded Humans

Dalton smiles as he heads back to the royal living quarters. The queen unexpectedly gave him the afternoon off. Since she showed no sign of illness, Dalton hurried out of the chamber before Drucilla changed her mind. The queen has been known to reverse such decisions in the past. But the sooner Dalton or her court bees are out of her sight, the sooner she forgets about them and turns her attention to other things.

Dalton’s Worries

Dalton has almost finished closing up the entry to the royal living quarters with beeswax. Behind the wall, all was quiet. He turns to us.

Dalton: Shhhhh! Her royal Majesty is sleeping and I don’t have the heart to wake her. The last two weeks have exhausted her so much, I fear for her health. This week has been especially rough since Frank has been here. Because he’s such a big guy. I had to put him in the assembly hall. It is the only chamber in the hive where he can stand up straight and stretch himself. This means we can’t use the assembly hall for any other purpose. A lot of worker bees are angry about that. I must admit, between taking care of Frank and keeping the protesting worker bees away from the Queen, I feel a bit taxed myself.