The Murmur of Bees

After dropping Francisco at school one day, Simonopio hears a sound wagon. The announcer says that on Saturday evening at the river, someone will sing underwater without instruments. Simonopio wants to hear this because he can’t talk to the fish. He sees that Francisco has climbed onto the truck and is waving at people. Simonopio puts Francisco on the horse. Francisco makes Simonopio promise to take him to the event on Saturday.

Francisco tells Anselmo it’s time to plant orange trees on his plot, the only property in the area that wasn’t already replanted. In 19 years of sharecropping, Anselmo never produced the agreed-on amount. He continues to delay and react hostilely to anything Francisco asks.

Francisco experienced great financial loss in 1928 when the bank went under. Fortunately, he’d already planted his orange groves, which brought in a profit. He must produce a crop he can sell. He issues an ultimatum to Anselmo: On Saturday, he’ll show up with orange trees and plant them. If Anselmo doesn’t comply, he must leave: “The news did not go down well with the campesino” (320).

Instead of doing any farm work on his land, Anselmo takes the rifle Francisco gave him and practices shooting.

Francisco Junior waits impatiently for Saturday. Everybody in Linares plans to go hear the man sing underwater except his parents. They say Ronda, the singer, is a con artist. Even though his parents don’t give him permission, Francisco thinks Simonopio will take him.

On Saturday, Beatriz and Francisco Senior announce their plans for Francisco Junior’s birthday. They let all the workers go to the river, assuming Ronda will be scorned. Francisco Senior begins sharing things with his son that were shared with him as a little boy. Today, he’ll take his son to Anselmo’s. Together they’ll plant a half-dozen trees. They’ll take a picnic lunch and a .22 rifle given to him by his father, which his grandfather gave to his father. The father plans to pass the rifle along to his son.

While providing blankets for her son and husband, Beatriz sees a moth in the cabinet and rushes to check for an infestation. Thus, she doesn’t speak to them as they ride the cart away.

Francisco Junior rides with his father, so Simonopio feels content to go to the river alone. He builds a fire for Reja and waves at the departing father and son. He takes shortcuts to the river and sits on a rock in the middle of it. Because of the cold weather, the bees don’t accompany him.

Francisco Junior is thrilled to go alone with his father, with whom he desperately wants to bond. After stopping for lunch, they arrive at Anselmo’s plot. His father digs holes for the orange trees, and they find themselves covered in dirt.

Francisco Junior says he doesn’t remember what happened next. He awakes in his bed three days later, wondering what he did wrong. Beatriz weeps inconsolably beside him: “She just cried, unable to explain to me that life had sent us down a new road” (336).

All his life, Francisco Junior maintained he didn’t remember what happened that day after the planting. The narrator says people accepted this because he was young. Later, they accepted it because he was old.

The narrator speaks to himself, saying it’s understandable that he’d want to forget what happened, that locking away the memories allowed him to become a well-developed, successful human being. Now, the narrator says, the time has come to combine what he remembers with the memories of others to grasp fully what happened.

Simonopio sits on the rock in the river, wrapped in a blanket. All the townspeople grow quiet as Ronda appears in a gown. He takes off the robe, hands it to his son, and leaps into the water.

The underwater singing turns out to be a scam when Ronda comes up behind a mill that has water flowing over it and sings a terrible song. People shout in disgust and throw food. Simonopio expected a miracle and is disappointed. He visualizes Francisco Senior and Francisco Junior. He first sees a scene of harmony but then realizes something terrible is happening. He senses a weapon and a heart that stops: “[…] the strange boy of the Morales family—the one everyone who witnessed the events that day thought was mute—let out the most powerful scream they had heard in their lives” (345). He dives into the water, leaving his shoes on the rock, runs through the crowd, and sprints into the hills.

As they remove the orange trees from the cart, Francisco Senior helps his son jump down to the ground. He reflects happily on the fulfillment of this day. He thinks about what a good job he did in transforming the land and how his vision has created something profitable for many people. He looks up as he puts the first tree in the ground and, in the distance, sees Anselmo and his son.

Riding along the road, the now-elderly Francisco Junior asks the taxi driver to stop. Because riding to his childhood home is such an emotional experience, he has trouble breathing. He sees orange trees he thought might live forever that are now dead or dying.

This chapter explains the purpose of the story. Francisco Junior, a widower, has memories that will no longer remain silent. Riding toward Linares, he decides to tell the taxi driver the whole story of his childhood. Doing so helps him understand the part everyone played in his story. At last he sees things in the spherical way Simonopio did.

Standing outside the taxi, Francisco Junior is filled with incredible pain. He remembers not the happy, smiling boy Simonopio. Instead he remembers him with a look of incredible desperation. Francisco realizes the only way to cope with this pain is to continue telling the story to Nico, the taxi driver, whose name he knows without asking or being told. He gets back into the cab.

The narrative returns to Simonopio running through the hills. He summons the bees, not knowing if they’ll answer. He realizes this is the day he anticipated all his life in which the lion and the coyote come together.

Francisco Senior wishes Anselmo had arrived earlier with his son to help plant the trees quickly. He decides to tell Anselmo to come back tomorrow and they’ll finish planting. He waves at Anselmo, assuming Anselmo will wave back. Instead, Anselmo raises the rifle. Francisco realizes he and his son are the targets and turns to protect his son. A shot rings out.

Anselmo and his son hide, waiting, as Francisco digs the holes. Anselmo repeats that this is his land. He won’t allow the landowner to steal it. As the first tree goes into the ground, Anselmo stands up. He sees arrogance in the landowner’s wave. Showing his own arrogance, Anselmo raises the rifle and starts to sing.

Simonopio hasn’t yet arrived at the scene when he hears the gunshot. He smells gunpowder and death in the air.

Francisco Senior falls forward, knocking Francisco Junior to the ground beneath him. Francisco Senior’s thoughts are clouded. His mind is a jumble of confused thoughts. He hears his son moan. His mind clears, and he realizes he has been shot. He can’t feel his extremities. He sees his blood flowing and feels tears on his cheeks. He thinks about his family and how he wishes he could see his daughters. He wishes he could feel his son. He wants to plead with Anselmo to spare his son’s life. He hears Anselmo close by and sees his boot step on his hand. He whispers a prayer that his son’s death may be quick. He doesn’t feel the bullet that kills him.

Castigating himself, Simonopio knows he has broken his promise never to leave Francisco Junior alone again. Running, he hears the second shot. As he approaches, he sees the assassin. He knows the bees are coming; he can already hear a great swarm of them. Anselmo rolls the body of Francisco Senior over and sees Francisco Junior. As Anselmo picks up the youth by his shirt and shakes him, Simonopio lets out a great roar like a lion.

Anselmo feels satisfaction after shooting Francisco Senior. He’s surprised to find Francisco still alive. He steps on Francisco’s hand and realizes the only part of his body that works are his eyes and mouth. Anselmo shoots Francisco in the neck. He hears moaning and realizes that Francisco Junior is beneath his father. He rolls the body over and picks up Francisco Junior, shakes him, and holds his knife to the boy’s neck. Francisco Junior looks into his eyes and says, “Coyote.” Anselmo hears a terrible roar and a rushing sound and realizes the devil has come for him. Looking up the hill, he sees his own son running away. He sees Simonopio racing toward him as a giant swarm of bees descends on him.

The bees catch up with Simonopio and pass him, pursuing Anselmo and his son. Anselmo drops Francisco Junior and runs away. Although the bees are sacrificing themselves, they won’t stop until they kill Anselmo and his son. Because Francisco Junior has multiple injuries, Simonopio decides to find a place to keep him warm and safe.

Beatriz waits at Amistad with supper and a birthday cake. When the two Franciscos don’t return before sunset, she asks who has seen them during the day. By nightfall, searchers go out. Beatriz’s two brothers return with the cart. They tell her that Francisco Senior is dead and Francisco Junior is missing. Beatriz shouts at the top of her lungs for Simonopio.