The other day the gang was out for a walk. It had been raining for days and finally the sun had come out so they were happy to finally be outside again. They walked all through the neighborhood, visited all their favorite spots, then made their way home. They were almost to the door when Ed and Ted saw something on the sidewalk. They ran up to it and called everyone over to see. They all gathered around in a circle and looked down at a fat little black and yellow bumblebee lying there on the ground. The bee gazed up at all the faces around him and started to shake, he was very scared. He wanted to fly away but couldn't, his wings wouldn't carry him.
Ed and Ted couldn't just leave him there, so they got a big leaf and gently laid him on it, then carried it between them into the house. Once they got inside Ned took a look at the little bee to see what was going on that his wings wouldn't work. He stroked the bee's fuzzy little head to calm him down and told him not to worry, they would take care of him. Ned got a bit of sugar from the kitchen and fed it to the bee, then the little guy fell asleep.
Ed and Ted were very worried that their new friend was sick and desperately wanted him to feel better. Ned told them that for now he just needed rest. The twins found a little box and put some cotton in it, then they put the little bee there to sleep, nice and comfy. The bee slept for 2 days. Ned checked on him regularly and saw that one of the bee's wings was very swollen. He ran some tests on him and found that the wing was sprained. He assured the others that the little bee was just plain tired out and needed to sleep in order to heal. Just to make it clear to everyone, Ed and Ted got a black marker and wrote on the side of the box : Bed, not dead.
While he was sleeping Ed and Ted had decided to call him Jeffy, since they didn't know his name and they thought he looked like a Jeffy. They watched him closely the whole time he slept, just in case he woke up and got scared. Finally, he rolled over. One of his wings wiggled a bit and made a tiny bzzzzz sound, but the other wing stayed still. He hopped out of his bed and walked around a bit, but with his sore wing dragging on the floor he just walked around in circles. Ed and Ted ran for the others yelling, "He's awake! He's walking around! He's awake!"
Everyone was very excited to see the little bee up and walking, even if it was just in circles. They all wanted him to come see each of them, but when they called him "Jeffy" he had no idea who they were talking to. Finally Ned came out of his lab to see what the big commotion was. First he shooed the others away to give him some time and space to check things out, so they all went to have their breakfast.
He was very pleased to see the little bee up and around. He pulled a string out of his lab coat and ran it under the bee's belly, up over his wings and tied it there. He sat down in front of the little bee and told him that his wing was hurt and he needed to let it heal, so he'd have to not try to fly for a few days. The bee looked up at Ned, this serious looking hedgehog with his little round glasses who had taken such good care of him, and said in a high squeaky voice, "okay! And who's Jeffy?"
When Ed and Ted heard that Jeffy could talk they rushed over to him. They told him, "We didn't know your name, and we couldn't just call you "bee", and you look like a Jeffy. What's your real name?"
The little bee thought about that for a minute, then told them "My name was Buzzy, but I like Jeffy better, please you can call me Jeffy! Buzzy makes things so confusing! My daddy's name is Buzzy, my mommy's name is Buzzy, my sister's name is Buzzy, my brother's name is Buzzy, my grandma's name is Buzzy, my grandpa's name is Buzzy, my other brother's name is Buzzy, my cousin's name is Buzzy, my auntie's name is Buzzy ....." He went on and on and on with his list of Buzzy relatives for a long time. "But please you can call me Jeffy! A name all my own!"
Emilio, being the friendly guy that he is, knows a lot of guys in a lot of places and thought he'd see if maybe he could track down Jeffy's family. But it turned out that Jeffy was very, very far from home. He had ridden on the windshield of a bus for many, many streets in many, many directions before he finally fell off on TOMH&R's sidewalk. Jeffy was very sad as he explained it to him, so Emilio told him that he was part of their family now and forever. That cheered Jeffy up some.
Jeffy walked around a while longer until he got tired again and went back to his little bed. He hadn't had anything to eat except the bit of sugar Ned had given him so he was starting to feel a little hungry. The others were just finishing their breakfast so Ricky brought him a mini-wheat from the kitchen. Jeffy licked the frosting off of it, then went back to sleep. He napped off and on all day, nibbling on the mini-wheat every time he woke up. By the next day he was feeling considerably better. He woke up with the rest of the gang and gobbled another whole miniwheat right away. At the end of the day Ned took the string off that was holding his wings down and told him he could give it a little try if he felt like it. Jeffy did a little hop ...walked a bit ... another little hop ... walked a bit ... another little hop, fluttered his wings - bzzzzz - and wobbly flew halfway across the room! Everyone clapped and cheered. Ed and Ted were ready with another mini-wheat when he landed, they figured he'd be hungry after all that work and he sure was. He gobbled it up faster than the first!
So there we have it ... another friend for TOMH&R. Ricky is getting quite close to Jeffy, he likes not being the smallest anymore. Jeffy is still taking it easy and not flying too much but he will get stronger every day. Jed and Luigi worked on a cake all day to celebrate -- chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! 