It goes without saying that Tyler was allowed to go to his party with Hunter and all charges against him were dropped by his jailer. Archie told me that he’d had a chat with Sharon and told her she was being too strict. She was so upset about my bees swarming her car that she relented. I drove them to Maureen’s with the cake tucked away out of their sight in the back of my SUV. Sure enough, it represented the Sullivan’s Island playground, with a tiny marzipan Tyler playing basketball with Matthew and Brian, and Hunter hanging upside down from the monkey bars.

Tyler shrieked with delight when the kids yelled, “Surprise!” There were presents and pizza and cannonballs into the pool. They played Marco Polo until the adults couldn’t stand it for another minute. They dried off and sang “Happy Birthday” loud enough to wake the dead; Tyler blew out the candles and they all ate cake. The parents took pictures of everything. Tyler’s parents weren’t there, but he was absolutely beaming with happiness. That was all I wanted to see. If Carin was watching she’d be pleased.

Maureen finally got around to asking me how I got Tyler out of restriction and to the party.

“I had just about given up and I thought, Well, we’ll have the party anyway,” she said.

“You’re right. My honey bees helped me.”

“You keep honey bees?” Alice said. “I love them!”

“No, how wonderful!” Maureen said. “They’re the most fascinating little creatures, aren’t they?”

“Uh, yass. Listen to this story.”

I told them about the bees and how I talk to them. Then I told them the story about how they used Sharon’s car for target practice on their cleansing flight and about how today they swarmed her windows. They didn’t know how to respond to the implications of what I had just told them.

“Well, first of all,” Maureen said, “I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am we put this little shindig together for Tyler. That is one precious little boy.”

“He was tickled to bits,” Alice said.

“And don’t you know he was probably missing his momma today?” I said. “It’s his first birthday without her.”

“Poor baby,” Alice said. “Well, time for me to go.”

Alice gave Tyler and Hunter a ride home with all of Tyler’s gifts, and I stayed behind to help Maureen finish cleaning up. Everyone else had said good-bye and gone home.

“Those kids are going to sleep like stones tonight,” I said. “They hardly got out of the pool, except to eat.”

“Yeah, they will sleep good, but my yard looks like we were hit by a tornado!” Maureen said.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll make it all go away. I need a big black garbage bag.”