Sweet Resolve

A Dramedy Short which serves not only to entertain but to highlight the ongoing #plightOfTheBumbleBee. #saveTheBees The story sees a bold, empowered, vegan activist - MIRANDA (early 20s) - in a frantic search for sugar; to prepare a reviving tonic for an exhausted bee... dropped from the skies onto her windowsill that morning. Discovering the infirm creature as she rises for the day, Miranda fires up her Mac, and 'googles' what to do. Apparently simple cane sugar in water will save the beleaguered bee. There's only demerara on *Miranda's* breakfast-bar, of course. She scours the apartment cupboards - maybe something from a guest? Or a previous tenant? Nothing. Determined to save this fragile life, she rushes out to the store. Her local store, "Don't Panic, It's Organic". Miranda ignores the clerk's familiar welcome, and dashes to the shelves, practically tearing them apart in her growing haste. No, only demerara here, too. Actually! Wait! Maybe!? What's that fallen down the back?.... No - it's a bag of old flour. Again, no use. She falters in frustration, about to give up to the forces greater than her. Then, a lightbulb moment hits! McDonald's. Miranda enters sheepishly, awkward - clearly unfamiliar and uncomfortable; quite different from her earlier self. Here, thanks to the queues, she finds it impossible to gain the attention of anyone on staff. She tries to negotiate her way forward, just to ask about the sugar. A customer or two let her pass. However, soon an unpleasant BURLY MAN stops her. He misinterprets her actions as those of a line cutter. Miranda turns to the other customers, those who had let her through. They've all suddenly gone blind. She's brow-beaten to the back of the line by the looming bully. Back there, by the entry again, Miranda notices a pattern in the other customers, a possible chink in the impenetrable armour, and hatches a new plan: she aims to sidle past the lines, hiding behind the electronic ordering machines, and cheekily nip into the line right at the serving counter - making her query there. Indeed,the plan proves pretty successful. Near the counter, like Frogger, she manages to hop across a few lines, right up to an available Server. "Can I take your order?" Spying sachets of cane sugar right there on the counter, Miranda just laughs. She snatches a handful, turns, and flees... right into the large frame of BURLY MAN, a supersized meal now on the tray in his shovel-sized hands. Time seems to stop. The pair size each other up. Then, without warning, Miranda knocks the bully's tray skywards. By the time it returns - raining Coke and fries and bits of burger everywhere - Miranda is out the door. The remaining patrons are stunned in silence. A few seconds pass. Miranda's head peeks back around the doorframe, bold once more - "You're murdering the planet!". And then, this time, she is gone. Back at the apartment, a sugar-water drink is easily concocted, and placed before the poor bee. He laps it up enthusiastically, his strength returning with each lance of his tongue.