Where Have All the Summers Gone? (c)2009 Perry Wilson

Perry took the freewrite challenge at the Summer Dream Festival in August 2009.
Prompt was: You (or your character) have moved into a new house and while lcenaing you find an old photograph (or an old diary) in the basement or attic…

Where Have All The Summers Gone?

“Joe come see." I gave the old book a gentle rub to remove some of the dust and cobwebs.
“What?”Joe stomped down the wooden stairs to the basement of our new house.“Did you find buried treasure?”
“Maybe,” I laughed. “But not the kind you mean. Look.” I handed him the book. “It’s a diary.”
He laid the bok in his lap and let it fall open; it naturally did at about the one-third mark. “Today was a good day—” he read, “the bees seem to be returning.”
“Huh?” I reached for the book. “What do you mean?”“It says right here.”Joe pointed to the faded ink. “See?—bees.”
“Look deeper.”

He flipped back toward the front of the book. “I got the cherry dusted.” He looked up. “I’ve no idea why dusting furniture would be so important.”
I turned back to the shelf where I’d found the book. “Look at these.” A box of squat glass jars and chicken feathers was the only other thing on the shelf.
“There’s string there too.” Joe touched the feathers aside.
“Read more.” I didn’t even know where to start looking for an answer to this mystery.
“The hives are starting to populate, but the bees are sluggish.” He shrugged.
“ It might help if we knew what bees are.” I took the bok and put it back in the box, returning it back to the shelf. “Maybe we’ll have time to do research when we’ve settled in.”

______________________________________