Fes Writes: Fes Regional Workshop Anthology

Khalil Ismaili Alaoui For a Few Drop More Melancholic jazzy tones played in my ears as countless sparky bubbles wriggled in the glass.

The bottle of soda stood graciously on the table next to a useless ashtray and a book I wasn't in the mood for. The music kept going on as I watched a captivating spectacle of uninteresting passersby.

I gazed at the faces of strangers, joyfully wondering what kind of people they would be like, or coming up with enjoyable psychopathic scenarios, where each pack of students nearby weren't studying for the finals but conspiring to rob a bank, where the old woman shopping for groceries was an infiltrating alien and the nice man with the fancy suit sitting next to me was a pimp.

My demented boredom-driven thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the sweetest of creatures. A bee showed up as if from thin air, hovered around my head for a while, then landed on top of the soda bottle.

The bank robbers, the lady alien, and the pimp were nothing compared to the entertainment I had watching an insect collect artificial sugar from the glass surface of a bottle.

The music in my ears conveniently switched from sad to ecstatic while the yellow winged specimen danced graciously, moving cheerfully like a hungry infant embracing its mother's breast. I could try and imagine, but the extent to which those drops of soda mattered to the bee was not an understandable notion for a species as complicated as ours.

That thought had taken me on a little trip of wonderment I didn't get back from until I realized that the bee had disappeared.

"It would appear that even a bee has better to do than listen to my twisted philosophy", I thought as I poured the last drops of soda into the glass and saw a bee swimming within.

As a clumsy attempt to rescue that poor bug, I picked it up with a coffee spoon and gently dropped it on the table. I was delighted to realize that it was still alive and watched it perform its tiny ritual of resuscitation as it dried itself.

It all started with the legs, rubbing each two together, which looked like the miniscule creature was conspiring to take over the galaxy. Then the wings, which looked like they were about to come off at any moment, miraculously took their original flawless shape back.

No sign of panic, as if the tiny lady bug hadn‘t almost died- well, it seemed to me like a lady, a gentleman would have died of laziness by now.

Ultimately, as if to finalize the revival protocol, the pair of antennas stood back up on the little