Too Sweet

Throughout the summer, one of my favorite things to do on the weekends was to sit outside on a chaise lounge chair, with coffee and a book or the newspaper. So imagine my excitement when I was able to continue doing this through October without getting the chills. Several weekends ago I was sitting outside, enjoying the sun, reading the Sunday paper with some coffee when a yellow jacket landed on the deck about a foot and a half from my face at eye level.

I looked up from my paper and watched the yellow jacket. It sat on the rail of the deck for about 10 minutes while completing a very elaborate grooming process. I felt like some sort of spy watching it. It used its back legs to brush off its wings. It did this several times, as though it were cleaning them. When the wings were complete, the yellow jacket lifted its stinger and brushed its back legs over the stinger repeatedly before using its back to brush under the stinger. It repeated this action as well. When that was completed the yellow jacket used its front legs to brush the black antennae. I was so close; as though I were looking through a microscope. I could see the small hairs on its body, and each stroke of each antennae. I sat there amazed. Frozen. It was the sort of thing you would expect to see on a nature program, not while relaxing on your porch. I did not know yellow jackets cleaned themselves off in this way. It was incredible.

I finally looked away while it was still grooming. I put away the section of the paper I had been reading. My eyes turned back to the railing to see that my little friend was gone. I knew my eyes shouldn’t have strayed. But I suppose he couldn’t sit on the railing forever. I had wished my camera was closer; I would have made a short movie but I dared not move to get it knowing he would fly off.

I reached for my coffee mug. Before I could take a sip I saw something floating. It was my friend, the yellow jacket. Inside the mug he floated on the surface of the hot coffee. He was no longer yellow and his long body was deflated; wings spread apart. The subtle sweetness of my coffee got the best of him. Either that or he was on an elaborate suicide mission. Either way, I felt a bit sad as I scooped him out of the mug and threw him in the trash. I dumped the coffee out too.