Bee Day — Sound Sketches

Seventeen-year-old Anninka waits for guests—and her beloved—in a dimly lit room in front of her dressing table; an Angel in a bee costume promises to protect her. The guests bring gifts: raspberries, golden pocket watch, lotus, a white book, a toy gun, an umbrella, a ball of yarn, a fishing rod with lures, chess pieces, and holy baptismal water. The clock chimes four times—she was born at four, and the prince must arrive at four. He arrives—tattered, yet handsome and fiery: the son of a slain prince, betrothed to Anninka as a child. After putting the household members to sleep, he is left alone with her (almost: «I am here, ” the Angel says); he extracts a white grub from the raspberries and eats it—“so that the heart would mature, and then stiffen»; in exchange, he promises a «crown» and threatens demons. Anninka shoots his single eye with a toy gun; for three minutes, the candle burns down in silence. The beloved stands up, already dead, in a scuba diver’s suit—“I am at the bottom»: the umbrella, yarn, and fishing rod are not taken from him. He confesses: his father was killed, his mother fled, and the estate burned down along with the boy—“I am not a cruel prince; I am a useless spirit, a lonely spirit.» Instead of a fight, there is a game of chess: «Checkmate, ” Anninka says. „Father, ” the beloved replies, and shatters her crystal pieces with a book: „Today I have won!”—and dances a triumphant dance. „He is incurable, ” Anninka says. „He killed his own parents.“ „I will heal him, ” the Angel says, stinging him with an iron nose-stinger: „the bee’s venom transforms the demon into an angel.“ The beloved becomes a living bee and flies out through the window flung open at dawn—“now I can love you, I can love freely.» A swarm covers the scene: «The gold of the day will become honey.»