The Secret Life of Bees

The women at the pink house wake up to what will be one of the hottest days of the year. August takes Lily along to “water” the bees, and Lily is stung for the first time. When August and Lily are back at the house after lunch, they are pulled into a sprinkler session with the hose that Rosaleen and May are having on the front lawn. After August and Lily join in, June comes outside and yells at them for making too much noise. Lily sprays June with the hose, and while she June initially angry, she eventually collapses with Lily soaking wet on the lawn, and when they get up, June hugs Lily. Everyone in the house goes to bed early, and when Lily can’t sleep, she goes into the pink house to find May making a trail of marshmallows and graham crackers to lead a cockroach out the door safely. Lily doesn’t pay much attention to this until she recalls one of the only things T. Ray ever told her about her mother: She didn’t like to kill anything, and she wouldn’t even squish a cockroach; instead she would lead them out the door with trails of marshmallows and graham crackers.