The Nest Read Free Page A

the time she worked for us. She spoke very calmly, and sometimes I wished she’d talk faster. I got impatient waiting for her to finish sentences. She lived in a basement apartment a few streets over. Her clotheshad a musty, scalpy smell. Nicole really liked her. She said Vanessa was good at playing castle and talking about bugs and horses.
    I was inside watching TV, where it was air-conditioned and there were no wasps. Dad had showed Vanessa my new EpiPen and where we kept it in the medicine cabinet of the downstairs bathroom.
    Through the sliding patio doors, I could see into the backyard. Vanessa was on the deck. She walked to the table and poured a drink of lemonade for Nicole, who was on the swings. Then Vanessa stared at the wooden table and kept staring. Her look was so intense, it made my skin crawl.
    I went to the door and slid it open. “What’s the matter?”
    â€œShh.” Without looking up, she waved me over. She nodded. There was a big wasp on the table. It had pale markings, like the one that had stung me a few days before.

    â€œI’ve never seen one like this,” she said.
    â€œIt’s not a yellow jacket,” I told her.
    â€œOr a hornet. Hmm.” She seemed genuinely curious. “Maybe it’s an albino. But it’s definitely a social wasp. A nester.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œLook what it’s doing.”
    The wasp was scraping its head along the surface of the table. There was a very faint clicking sound.
    â€œYou see its mandibles?” she whispered.
    â€œWhy’s it eating the wood?”
    â€œNot eating it. The adults just eat nectar.”
    â€œSo what’s it doing?”
    â€œCollecting it.”
    Behind the wasp I saw a pale line where the surface had been scraped off.
    â€œIt takes a bit of wood fiber, mixes it with its own saliva, and then regurgitates it.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œTo build the nest. Look, there it goes.”
    I took a step backward as the wasp lifted off and rose into the air. Almost in the next moment another insect landed heavily on the table. It took me a second to realize it was actually two bugs. The one on top was a big silvery wasp, and it was clutching a dead spider beneath it. The spider was bigger than the wasp, and it took the wasp a couple of tries to lift off again. Slowly, like an airplane with heavy cargo, it rose into the air with its kill, slewing off in the same direction as the first wasp. My breakfast lapped greasily against the sides of my stomach.
    â€œLooks like you’ve got a nest nearby,” Vanessa said, holding her hand to her eyes as she tracked the wasp.
    It was high up now and didn’t seem interested in stinging me, so I followed Vanessa as she walked along the side of our house, past Dad’s favorite Japanese maple. We tilted our heads way back.
    â€œSee it?” she asked. “Waaaaay up there.”
    Under the eaves, right at the peak of the roof, was a tiny semispherical ball. A few shapes moved around on the outside. Our wasp disappeared inside.
    â€œIt’s all different fibers from trees or plants or wood tables. That’s why the nest can have several different shades.”
    â€œIt’s just kind of gray,” I said.
    I looked more closely at the wooden posts of our fence, and everywhere I saw little white lines. The wasps were eating our fence and table to make their nest.
    â€œIt’s amazing,” Vanessa said. “They’re amazing little architects and engineers.”
    â€œI’m allergic,” I reminded her.
    â€œI know exactly where your EpiPen is.”
    The nest was above and to the right of the baby’s room.
    From down the street came the sound of a bell ringing. Nicole ran over, looking all excited.
    â€œIt’s the knife guy!”
    She bolted into the house so she could watch from the front door. Nicole was fascinated by him. He’d started coming around just this summer. He drove a