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We have had an obsessively reclusive family living next to us for several years, and they acted really strange (when I read To Kill a Mockingbird, the story of the Radley family struck a strange chord with me). I know the woman would not go out unless she was covered completely head-to-toe, without an inch of skin showing, and with a hat and sunglasses, and toting an umbrella to boot. And she was about the only person who left and entered that house. I'm not even sure how many people actually lived there. I think it was just she and her son. A man I assume to be their father visited them on occasion. Probably they are divorced. I really have no idea.

Anyhow, she last month got taken away in an ambulance, so my mother said, to the Institute of Mental Health. Kind of expected, given the behaviour she was exhibiting. About two weeks ago, the son moved out. Today, some workers come to spruce up the house, which is in quite a state of neglect with overgrown weeds, peeling paint and all that. Their backyard resembles a jungle, for heaven's sake.

So they get to work, bright and early in the morning. And soon enough, they discover another unpleasant secret about that house: it actually harboured a colony of bees within its walls (or under the roof or something), because they began knocking around and these bees just started flying out. And their numbers are not inconsiderable. I'll estimate several hundred, and they formed this live, crawling mass on the roof which I can see from our window.

I have a bit of a natural aversion towards insects, even harmless ones, so I was quite scared. Fortunately, I just looked out and the clump has vanished. I wonder where they all are now.

The thing is, those people lived for years with a bee colony in their house. A BEE COLONY. It does not appear overnight, so it is reasonable to assume it has been there for years. We knew the previous neighbours, and they had exterminated a hive or two of not just bees but hornets before, so I guess I should not be too surprised, but, what the hell? How can anyone not notice a bee colony living quite literally under your roof? I really wonder what they were doing in that house. They had the lights on everyday until 5am or something. They never seemed to eat. Maybe they'll find corpses under the flooboards sometime. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, really.