The Secret Life of Bees

On the forty-second page of “The Secret Life of Bees: A Novel” (a New York Times bestseller) author Sue Monk Kidd wrote (some emphasis added):

growth, shampoo, brush, toothpaste, toothbrush, rubber bands for my hair, all the time watching the window. What else? catching sight of the map tacked on the wall, I snatched it down, not bothering to pry out the tacks.

I reached under the mattress and pulled out my mother's picture, the gloves, and the wooden picture of black Mary, and tucked them down in the bag, too.

Tearing a sheet of paper from last year's English notebook, I wrote a note, short and to the point: "Dear T. Ray, Don't bother looking for me. Lily. P.S. People who tell lies like you should rot in hell."

When I checked the window, T. Ray was coming out of the orchard toward the house, fists balled, head plowed forward like a bull wanting to gore something.

I propped the note on my dresser and stood a moment in the center of the room, wondering if I'd ever see it again. "Goodbye," I said, and there was a tiny sprig of sadness pushing up from my heart.

Outside, I spied the broken space in the latticework that wrapped around the foundation of the house. Squeezing through, I disappeared into violet light and cobwebbed air.

T. Ray's boots stomped across the porch.

"Lily! Li-leeeee!" I heard his voice sailing along the floor boards of the house.

All of a sudden I caught sight of Snout sniffing at the spot where I'd crawled through. I backed deeper into the darkness, but she'd caught my scent and started barking her mangy head off.

T. Ray emerged with my note crumpled in his hand, yelled at Snout to shut the hell up, and tore out in his truck, leaving plumes of exhaust all along the driveway.

More information about “The Secret Life of Bees: A Novel” (and the book itself) is available from:

• Powell's Books
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble

(Penguin Books, January 2003. Paperback, 336 pages. ISBN: 0142001740; EAN: 9780142001745.)