Once upon a time, there was a family of flies. They were having lunch on a lovely-smelling piece of manure not far from the cowshed and really enjoying themselves. Well, not everyone was enjoying it. The little fly was frowning and didn’t want to eat the manure.
“It stinks. I don’t get why we can’t just fly over to the garden, where everything smells nice and there’s real food,” the little Fly grumbled.
“Because people keep an eye on that food,” explained Daddy. “Do you want to get whacked by a flyswatter or something?”
“No, but I don’t want to eat yucky, stinky manure,” she kept grumbling.
“You’re a fly, sweetheart,” Mom tried to explain. “Flies feast on leftovers; that helps break things down and keeps the world nice. And of course, we snack on manure. You’re a fly, so you’ll just have to get used to it.”
“But what if I don’t want to be a fly?” buzzed the little fly, and she flew away.
She landed on the garden fence. From there, she could see the bees flying from flower to flower, gathering sweet-smelling pollen from the blossoms in the garden.
“I want to be a bee, they don’t have to crawl around on manure,” she buzzed, watching the Bees enviously.
Just then, a huge hornet flew up to her.
“Flies are useful too, be glad you’re a Fly. But if you really want to change that, I’ll give you three hornet wishes. Because I’m a magic hornet, you see. All you have to say is ‘by the hornet’s command,’ and your wish will come true. Just remember, make sure they’re wise wishes.”
The hornet flew away, and the Fly was left on the fence all alone. She didn’t think twice and blurted out, “By hornet’s command, let me be a bee!”
And puff! The Fly became a bee. She dove into the flowers and sniffed them.
“This is much better than manure,” thought the Fly—now a bee—to herself. Until another bee buzzed over to her.
“Hey, what are you doing? We need to collect as much pollen as we can and hurry back to the hive,” the bee told her.
And so our Fly-turned-Bee had to spend the whole day gathering pollen, carrying it to the hive, and making honey. She was so worn out—she couldn’t even sit down to rest for a moment. She really wished she could just take a break. But as soon as she sat down on a bench in the sunshine to relax, someone plopped down right next to her.
“Watch out, you!” her bee friend shouted. “Careful you don’t get squished! We bees can sting, but only once. After that, we die.”
That gave the Fly quite a scare. She quickly buzzed off and landed on a fence. The Bees called for her to get back to work, but the Fly was just so tired! This life wasn’t for her. Being a bee was way too hard.
“By the hornet’s command, let me be a wasp. They don’t work nearly as hard,” said the Fly.
And puff! Instead of a bee, a wasp was sitting there. She was bigger, slimmer, and faster. Wonderful! When she met another wasp, she greeted her.
“Hi there, what happens if a human squashes me?” the fly-wasp asked right away.
“You sting them and fly off. We wasps can sting as many times as we want.”
“That’s awesome!”
“Not really. People are afraid of us and try to lure us into bottles with something sweet, and then we end up drowning,” her wasp friend warned her. “But we’re still useful. Without us, some other pesky bugs would take over.”
“I don’t want to eat bugs either. And I definitely don’t want to be even more of a nuisance to people than I was as a fly. By the hornet’s command, please turn me back into a fly.”
And puff! The lovely wasp turned back into a fly. She flew home, where her fly family was waiting for her.
“Our little fly, we were starting to worry about you,” said Mom.
“Today I’m treating everyone to lunch in the garden where the wasps have nibbled the apples. We’ll have a real feast,” said Daddy.
Aren’t we having manure for lunch today? Hooray!” cheered the little fly, and off she went with her family to the garden for some apples.
And so the little fly finally understood that every creature has its place in the world and its own kind of work to do. She buzzed happily around her family, relieved to be exactly what she was.