The Beekeeper's Lesson

Marcus Chen was seven the summer his grandfather kept bees in the backyard of their home in Asheville, North Carolina. One August afternoon, a honeybee landed on Marcus's forearm, and the boy froze, eyes wide, lip trembling. His grandfather knelt beside him, steady as a stone wall. "Watch," the old man whispered. He pointed to the bee's abdomen. The stinger was gone — torn away in some earlier encounter.…