Rose covered bees.

            A Story about the Body cracked me up. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into based on the headnote, so I was expecting a more “normal” story. As I read, I was enjoying the unique flavors in the story, especially since the author fit them into such a short story. I was even intrigued up to and through the double mastectomy, but once I got to the bowl of dead bees covered in rose petals, I found my face locked into a perplexed expression for a few minutes, even after I finished reading.

            I read the story to my friend, and he jested, “I feel like there’s gotta be some big moral. Is a bowl of roses, but it’s really just bees! Ya know? You see it, and it’s like, ‘Hey, sweet. Roses.’ but it’s really BEES!”

            I’m not sure if he quite hit the nail on the head, but it did make me think of the various sugar-coated things in the story: The bowl of bees covered in rose petals was clearly a well-thought out message from this woman. But what was she paralleling? Perhaps she considers this a satirical mirror to his behavior. Maybe she was enjoying his company, like roses, but when he walked away when he saw who she truly was, it stung like bees, revealing who he really was. I can see how he could disagree with her point of view. Obviously, since she had to forewarn him of her double mastectomy, her appearance was deceiving. Maybe he only thinks of her true image as the bees, and her façade as the rose petals.

            Upon further inspection, the headnote says Hass like to write and think about “the fullness and emptiness of things.” This is interesting, as it doesn’t take a very great stretch to see how all of these things are “empty” and “full.”

            I was captivated by both of these stories, and although they were both absolutely bizarre.