Zoe worked in an office, and after a long week she sometimes felt that she had forgotten what anything alive looked like. So she took a beekeeping course, and in the spring she carried two beehives up to the roof of her apartment building. The first summer was a disappointment. The bees made very little honey, and in July a swarm left one of the hives and landed on a neighbor's balcony. Mr. Brandt, who lived downstairs and was afraid of bees, complained to everyone in the building.
Zoe learned patience the slow way. She learned to use smoke, to keep her hands calm and to sit quietly, watching the entrance of the hive. In the autumn she knocked on Mr. Brandt's door and gave him a jar of honey. He took it carefully, as if it might fly away. It tasted of the linden trees on their street. The next summer he climbed the stairs to the roof, a little pale, with a bucket of water for the hives.