The air fractures into filigree with the movement of wings.

Dragonflies, dozens, hundreds, emerge every March on one collective birthday, or so it seems.

They are one of Spring’s heralds for my part of the world. I know this because I’ve kept a sporadic journal for several years. I record my bird and insect sightings—and there is undoubtedly a cycle. Cedar waxwings, rufous-sided towhees, giant swallowtails, and dragonflies followed by the rupture of leaf and blossom.

Before Easter, no matter whether it’s early or late, there’s at least one more freeze. Sometimes, it catches the critters by surprise.

One morning, Todd and I went outside to start our yard work. The window ledges that face north and east were lined with dragonflies. The sight was somewhat eerie, as if a plague had struck them on the spot. Why they chose those places instead of the protection of shrubs and trees, I don’t know.

We lifted one dragonfly from its spot to see if it moved. It didn’t, until Todd held it in his palm. Then it began to stir. The human radiant heat was strong enough to bring it back to life. We laughed. They were all too cold to budge. As the sun and temperature rose, they flexed their wings and shuffled their feet.

By late morning, they had all taken to the air.

* * * * *

We were having a beverage on the patio when Todd noticed the nest.

Two wasps busied themselves under a hanging plant basket. I’d seen their work through my office window days earlier. The little abode had a slightly stout, conical shape. No doubt there was a brood to come.

“I need to get rid of that,” Todd said. He’d had encounters with their angered brethren.

“No, leave it alone,” I said. “If we don’t go near them, they won’t bother us.”

I watched the cells get sealed with white papery membranes. Within weeks, some of them were torn and ragged.

On a sunny and chilly afternoon, I ventured outdoors and looked at the nest from a different angle. I put my face within inches of it. Was that…? Yes, I saw the pointed face of a wasp peeking from one cell and the antennae of a brood mate nearby.

Oh, it must be too cold for them to emerge right now, I thought. Touched by what I saw, I went inside to get the camera. Took a photo.

Days later, I remembered the nest and the young wasps. I peeked to see if they were gone. They hadn’t moved.

They would never fly. They were stillborn.

* * * * *

One November morning before I went to yoga class, I glanced at the patch of purple echinacea still blooming in the front yard. There was a tiny lump on spiky coned center. Frozen, figuratively, was a honeybee. Her wings were straight out at her sides, and her legs were curled inward, a slight cling to the top of the flower. I remembered our dragonflies’ suspended animation and considered, maybe, she was too cold to fly. Todd had the camera that day, and I was left with no way to capture the oddly beautiful sight.

I thought about her last forage hours before. Had she been so occupied with her work—is that possible?—that she missed the sun’s fade to black? Had the temperature dropped more suddenly than expected, imperceptibly to a human being, and left her stranded with her evening’s bounty in her pouches and on her legs?

She spent the night without her sisters. Without their warmth. In cold weather, bees congregate in their hives and trade places with each other to keep the group comfortable and alive, wings in motion. The ones on the fringe of the cluster’s center will eventually move inward. This constant activity provides enough body heat to get them all through the night. It seemed impossible that she could survive alone.

When I returned an hour and a half later, she was still there. My hypothermic honeybee. Sunlight hadn’t reached the flower bed yet. I saw that she was leaning to her side. Oh, no, she’s dead. I cut the flower and attempted to bring her and it inside. She fell off. A brief search in the leaves yielded her gossamer little body. I scooped her on a dead leaf and brought it all into the house. My intent was to take a photo later, the fragility of the bee, the leaf, and the flower too wonderful to ignore.

I placed them on the kitchen counter. Then I went about my morning’s business. Two hours later, I passed the spot and saw the bee had moved. I’d stirred the air walking by quickly, I thought. But I stopped and peered. She was crawling. Her legs scratched along the leaf. The heat in the kitchen must have revived her.

She was still weak and couldn’t clutch the flower or a leaf, but she flapped her wings. She fell three times on her back—I felt terrible, was I hurting her?—but she kept trying to get up. Her underbody was gilded with thick gold pollen. Finally, I carried her safely on a dry oak leaf to the flower bed where I’d found her. I left her on a brick in the sun.

An hour later, she was gone.

I choose to believe she brought her evening’s treasure and a story of adventure back to the hive.

And that she visits the flower bed now and then.

TAGS: bees, Death, diapause, dragonflies, Echinacea, flowers, insects, Life, purple coneflowers, Ronlyn Domingue, spring, The Mercy of Thin Air, wasps

RONLYN DOMINGUE is the author of The Mercy of Thin Air (Atria Books). The debut novel was a 2005 Borders Original Voices Award Finalist and was acquired in 11 other countries. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Delta Review, and The Independent (UK). She earned an MFA degree in creative writing from Louisiana State University. In the past, Ronlyn worked as a grassroots organizer, project manager, teacher, and grant writer. Novel #2 is in progress, completion date heretofore unknown. Visit her at ronlyndomingue.com or Facebook. She will post on TNB the first week of each month.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Flash Nonfiction, Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.