Agapostemon seemed destined to get on the same train car each day after working his hateful temporary job. He called it hateful because his bosses who were called ‘the donkeys’, yelled at him and called him a retch on his first day because he had been drinking water at the water fountain. He did not recognize them as the bosses, because they had disguised themselves to look like they were his friends, the mud dauber wasps, and offered him water from the fountain. He had seen types of wasps before, but these were mean and hateful yellowjackets. Mud dauber wasps had been at least congenial to him and so he considered them to be his friends. The yellowjackets had disguised themselves as mud dauber wasps, which was easy because they were black and yellow just like the mud dauber wasps were. He wouldn’t have to have this job if he could just find his perfect job elsewhere. Remembering that this job was only temporary gave him hope. He looked at the wall above the seats of the nocturnal train that always had the words ‘TIME KEEPS ON GOING WITHOUT PERMISSION’ scrawled upon the wall in red capital letters. He wondered who wrote this and why. ‘Was this creature in the same job that he was?’, He wondered. He was happy that the train workers had not cleaned it or painted over it yet because it was comforting to him. He wondered if that creature was another shimmering blue sweat bee like he was. He caught sight of himself in the broken mirror that had been left on of the seats. He looked like a tired, worn-out crooked little being. As he straightened his posture he decidedly agreed with their criticism of him. He remembered back to a few hours earlier when the donkey bosses had called him into their donkey hive, built underground, and told him that they wanted him to join their Sunflower Society if he would go along with what they wanted him to do. Being part of the Sunflower Society meant that he could obtain a sunflower key to clock in his sunflower when he flew into work. He wanted to ask them if the rest of the agapostemon bees were part of the Sunflower Society as well, and if they were able to clock their sunflowers in. The donkey bosses had all of the Aga’s line up every morning to type the given sentences and eat brown bee droppings. The sinisters of the tp factory were always flying above them while the agapostemon bees were typing their made-up sentences of grief and alienation that they received from the yellowjackets while they hovered in rows in the metal bin of trash. The sinisters of the tp factory, located next door, had been hired by the donkey bosses to control the sweat bees to work harder and faster than any other group had worked before. These flying cockroaches were always flying above and hissing at one another and at the agapostemon bees if they were not working fast enough, which made him very afraid every second that he had to hover with all of the other agapostemon bees.
Aga knew that the nocturnal train had gotten off course when he saw a field outside to his left. The field contained large boxes of steel lined up in rows and he noticed that some were made of wood. He saw the very large black birds that had leather for skin which were always hovering around his home tree. He was surprised to see them out here, flying and attacking each other above these steel boxes that were covering the fields. They seemed to be fighting each other over a flying creature that had been caught and was being pulled apart by several of them. The sun was setting, and the sky was lit up with purple and red colors. Aga had not seen the open sky for a very long time because his home tree was a tall pile of metal next to a large brick building that had been destroyed by fire. Homeless creatures lived in the rubble of this building on each level. They were always screaming and hissing at each other at all hours of the night. Aga and his friends always kept track of all of the creatures who migrated in and out of the rooms. Aga would see some of these creatures at different places around the large city and he wondered if they recognized him at all since, he lived next door. This city was under large tarps, so the sky was hidden. He called his home tree a tree because he wished for it to be a real tree with limbs and branches made of wood that smelled of life and food with leaves that could rustle and shake in the wind. He imagined light breezes bringing drops of rain and other insects from far off places. He thought about how it could be, how he wanted it to be. His attention focused on one of the creatures that had been standing right in front of him. Aga noticed that the recumbent maggot had been staring at him out of the corner of his eye. Aga noticed his blue tag that was sewn on his right chest pocket. He was one of the recumbent maggots of the potato factory which was on the outskirts of the town. Aga wondered why he hadn’t noticed him before.
Aga stayed where he was. He did not want the recumbent to know that he was afraid of him, and he knew that he would be in trouble with this maggot if he went to a different part of the train because it would be obvious that he was running away from the recumbent. He looked out of the window again to distract himself; he hoped that the recumbent would move away from him. Recumbents didn’t ride on the nocturnal train because they had other transportation available, which were the shiny black cars that he sometimes saw strolling through their dark town. Aga tried to remember if he had seen this one before talking to the donkey bosses. Recumbents always looked the same; white, fat and extremely hairy. It was now black darkness outside, and Aga saw the city lights coming back into view through the window. He never flew to this side of the city before. He liked taking the train because he was always tired from work and he liked being driven around. He wished the train had not gotten off course today with this recumbent standing so close to him. He saw a gas station with Brochymena and Cucumber beetle standing in front of the glass door of the station coming into view. These creatures lived at Aga’s tall, metal tree at the bottom level. They were always talking about the gas station that they worked at. Aga hurriedly tried to wave at them but when he saw a girl sinister standing there talking to Brock and Beetle, he stopped. He noticed that her right wing was broken and mangled and she was dragging it on the ground. Her hair was matted together and stuck to her face, covering half of her eye. He had seen her flying above him and the other agapostemon bees several times while they were typing their sentences of grief and alienation. She always looked scared and full of strife. Many of the other sinisters would fly at her and throw her around while they were flying. Seeing her at the gas station, up close, was shocking to Aga. He had wondered why they had treated her that way and why she was at this gas station talking to Broch and Beetle. Unexpectedly the recumbent turned to look at Aga and he stared angrily at him with his face full of hatred. The recumbent motioned to a creature who was standing behind Aga. The creature used his hook to grab Aga’s left arm from behind and slid his right hook over Aga’s mouth and then wrapped one of his arms around his Aga’s neck. Aga struggled to breath and his fear turned into dread as the recumbent quickly grew wings and flew into the air scowling at Aga. He then angrily dove right into Aga’s face. The recumbent kept attacking Aga while he was being held by the other creature. Aga was so shocked that he did not know what to do. His head was full of pain and dizziness. The train had stalled at the gas station while the two creatures were attacking him, and Aga had wondered why. The recumbent and the other creature picked Aga up and carried him off of the train. Aga heard the recumbent speaking but could not understand what he was saying. He kept mumbling and mumbling with anger at Aga. Aga struggled to get away once they were off of the train. The other creature ran away from the recumbent and Aga into another shop with a blue door. The recumbent motioned to the girl sinister who had the broken wing, and she quickly ran over to help the sick sounding recumbent. Aga was extremely angry and understood then that the sinisters of the tp factory were really watching and evaluating all of the agapostemon bees for the recumbents and not just the donkey bosses who were the yellowjackets. Aga wondered if the donkey bosses knew how involved the sinisters were with the recumbents because the girl sinister seemed very fearful of this recumbent but full of respect as well. He tried to find Brock and Beetle, but they weren’t where they had been before. Aga felt relieved because he did not want them to see him in this position. The recumbent and the girl sinister continued to force Aga to walk through the street. She had her hand on his side which gave him odd feelings inside of his stomach. This made him fearful about the future and how he could feel about an enemy of his and the other agapostemons. He heard the recumbent grunting words to the girl sinister, and they both dragged agapostemon to the right and into a shop that had ripped scarves hanging next to the doorway. He wondered if this dark foreboding shop with useless ugly things had ever sold anything before. A really hideous beetle stood weakly behind the counter who seemed like he was going to faint. Agapostemon wondered if he had just woken up from a nap. He backed away in fear as they all three struggled to walk behind the counter and straight into the back room. Agapostemon saw another door with a black door handle which looked very new. The girl sinister opened the door for all of them to enter. Aga took a chance and started to make a buzzing sound and flapped his wings at the recumbent so that he could try to get away. He tried to push the recumbent backwards towards the front counter but there was a box in the way. Aga pulled on the girl sinister’s broken wing to break it in another place. The whole part of the wing broke off and she cried out in pain. She flapped what was left of that wing into Aga’s face, and it sliced him right under his eye. She laughed at Aga which made him angrier. He lunged towards her and hissed in her face, and she hissed back at him. She took her stick that she had under her wing and broke it into two pieces over his head. He felt waves of pain again and dizziness and confusion overtook his mind. He wanted to cry but he knew that would not help him to get away. She successfully opened the door just as the recumbent had gained his balance again and pushed Aga into the next room.
Aga stumbled in and tripped over the carpet that had been thrown onto the floor. The carpet was very small for the room but was too large for a front door entrance. He noticed that it was full of dirt and muck from other creatures that he pictured sliding over it as they went in and out of the room. He saw a gray partition that was in the center of the room that wasn’t sturdy anymore and looked as if it would fall over at any moment. Before tripping on the carpet, he noticed a bird cage sitting on a long table with two small boxes inside of it that resembled the boxes in the field that he saw from the train. One box was wooden, and the other was metal. He remembered how those black birds had been flying above them while he was looking at these small representations of them sitting in the rot iron bird cage that was sitting on the table next to the back wall. The girl sinister hissed at the recumbent and then she yelled in his face, “Too slow!” Aga regained his footing and ran over to the partition to see if he could get out that way to the other part of the room. He heard voices talking and then a single voice talking and then the other voices answering in unison. They started clanging on some sort of metal object and then chairs started moving around. The girl sinister flew over to where he was and pushed a lever that was on the wall down. The smaller door that was in the middle of the disabled partition opened, and he could see several creatures walking around in black robes and tall black hats.
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