Argggghhh Matey, Pirates! (Bedtime Story)

A pirate ship sails into the Honeybee Neighborhood, and Mrs. Honeybee’s mysterious pirate past comes to light, leaving everyone wide-eyed (and Roger Robot double-checking “pirate protocols”). Mr. Honeybee springs into action to repair the ship, while Melodybee nervously dons a pirate hat, and Harold chases a mischievous parrot. With the ship ready to sail, Mrs. Honeybee’s pirate friends share stories of treasure, daring adventures, and a farewell that leaves everyone dreaming of the high seas! - Love, Mrs. Honeybee

Featuring: Mr. Honeybee, Melodybee, Roger Robot, and Harold

Transcript

Bedtime with Mrs.

Honeybee.

Today,

In the Honeybee neighborhood,

We'll be getting a visit from some friendly pirates that have an interesting history.

Arrrr,

Matey?

Melody Bee,

Is that my eye patch?

Maybe.

And is that my pirate hat too?

Also,

Maybe,

I found some pirate paraphernalia for you too.

But first,

You have to say the secret code.

Arrrr,

Matey?

Then,

And only then,

Will I tell you where your pirate hat is.

I put the pirate stuff in the pirate box in the attic,

So I technically know where it is,

Or at least have an idea.

But here goes nothing.

Arrrr,

Matey?

Here's mine,

Here's mine.

Shiver me timbers.

Whoa,

Those were good.

Wait,

Were you two really pirates for a summer?

Maybe.

Maybe.

These visiting pirates are my old friends after all.

All you have to do is close your eyes,

Get cozy,

And listen to the sound of my voice.

Mrs.

Honeybee will be your guide.

Let's begin.

You are here,

Walking to the side gate of our house to let yourself into the backyard on this crisp,

Beautiful morning.

Birds are singing,

Rejoicing at the first light of the sun as you reach up to unlatch and open the gate.

You know that we are back here,

In the backyard,

Enjoying our morning coffee and tea and even some fresh-squeezed orange juice that Melodybee finished a batch of.

We made your favorite breakfast,

And it's sitting on the table outside,

Waiting for you when you arrive.

As usual,

Harold sees you first,

But this morning he's still too sleepy.

Instead of bolting up from his spot on my lap to greet you,

He lifts his head,

Perks up his ears,

And puts on a big smile as you walk over to your spot at the table.

Good morning,

My little Honeybee.

Come,

Come sit.

We have your breakfast here for you.

Melodybee,

Can you please pass the maple syrup?

Sure,

Mr.

Honeybee.

Here you go.

Maybe we could grow a maple tree one day.

Ooh,

And have fresh maple syrup for breakfast.

Mmm,

That sounds delicious.

Um,

The garden is filling up,

Isn't it?

Where should we put it?

Hmm,

Question.

Maybe on the side of the house by the gate?

That could work,

Though it might block some of the sunlight to the nightshade planter box.

I wonder why they call them nightshades.

Huh,

I'm not sure.

Maybe because they grow in the night and in the shade?

Well,

That would be delightfully literal if so.

Sometimes,

That's how things get their names,

You know.

Birds especially.

Have you ever seen a sad flycatcher?

Is that a bird?

Yep.

Maybe they're too sad to be seen.

Aww,

Turn that frown upside down,

Flycatcher.

At least aim for content,

Flycatcher.

Roger Robot hears us laughing over breakfast and joins us outside after he's done charging.

Good morning,

Everyone.

Did I hear a mention of a sad flycatcher?

Yes,

We were just talking about them.

Have you seen one?

I've seen it all,

Mr.

Honeybee.

I've seen it all.

Roger holds his arm out,

Snaps his fingers,

And the screen rolls down slowly out of a hidden compartment below his elbow.

He proceeds to show us live footage happening on the other side of the Honeybee neighborhood.

Two sad flycatchers with their yellowish-green bellies and their brown heads are catching flies and luckily look plenty chipper while doing it.

Well,

It's good to know that sad flycatchers aren't all that sad.

At least not all the time.

I guess the wrong name must have stuck.

We finish our breakfast and Harold finally finishes studying our feet for even the smallest delicious morsel to drop from the table.

We recline in our chairs,

Rubbing our full bellies and admiring the beautiful sky of the newly risen sun.

You decide to take Harold up into the treehouse to get a better view.

You haven't been up in the treehouse for a while,

So you want to see if anything new has sprung up around our chunk of the Honeybee neighborhood.

Harold races you over there,

Followed closely by the ever-curious Roger Robot,

Who doesn't like much of anything to go on without him knowing about it.

There are sights to see up high in this tree and he's not gotten a chance to see and record them with his own eyes yet.

Besides,

The high-up vantage point seems to suit him best.

Roger loves a thorough,

Panoramic scan of the area like any robot would.

Carrying Harold in arm,

You reach up to the first rung of the ladder with the other hand.

Right hand,

Right foot.

Left foot.

Check to make sure Harold's okay.

Wobble just slightly,

Then again.

Right hand,

Right foot,

Left foot until you are all the way up the ladder and in the treehouse.

Looking out the wide-open window,

You can see all the way to the Honey River,

Over to the Pupple Park,

Up to the top of the hill where the oak tree is planted and all the forests and neighborhood streets in between.

Take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Feel your chest and your spirits lift,

Seated at this high-up perspective.

Then,

Slowly,

Breathe all the way out through your mouth and lean against the wooden windowsill to take in the sunrise and the soft morning sunshine.

Leaning slightly out the window,

You can see Roger Robot still struggling to pull himself up by his arms only.

His wheel does him no good in this situation.

Before you can reach out a helping hand,

Roger looks up at you,

Still in the window.

Holding on to the lowest rungs of the ladder with both hands,

He asks,

Does anyone have more legs than spiders?

Legs seem rather beneficial,

And to have that many seems like the highest honor.

You think for a moment at Roger's question,

But Mr.

Honeybee interjects with an answer first.

Well,

Unless the centipede is also misnamed,

They should have 100 legs or feet.

Oh,

Roger,

Millipedes have even more.

I think they have 300 feet.

You'd think with all those legs they'd go faster,

Right?

They're doing the best they can,

My dear.

Roger that.

Spider it is.

Puzzled at Roger's line of questioning,

You look back up at the sunrise,

Assuming he'll get himself up the ladder in his own way.

The sound of a snap brings your attention instantly back down to him at the bottom of the ladder.

In an instant,

Roger Robot transforms into a blue robotic spider with exactly eight legs and his same signature smirk.

Your jaw drops when he arrives up in the treehouse in an instant.

Snaps his fingers once again and transforms back into the one-wheeled robot you know him to be.

Ah,

That's better.

Wow,

Would you look at this sunrise.

Such a clear day today.

Roger wheels up next to you in the window and it seems the window of opportunity for you to ask what just happened has passed.

Instead,

You stand elbow to elbow with Roger Robot,

Perils squeezed between you with his two front paws up on the windowsill and enjoy the peaceful calm of the morning.

Your eyes follow the shimmering flow of the Honey River down from the mountains through the forest until it eventually reaches the ocean.

It's such a clear day that you're actually able to see the ocean's horizon.

Where the crystal blue sea meets the clear blue sky,

It appears to go on forever.

You don't expect to see anything sailing along that horizon,

But today seems to be presenting you with much that you didn't anticipate.

Floating in from the high seas,

A pirate ship with a flag whipping in the wind gets bigger and bigger.

It makes its way in from the ocean and up the Honey River.

You look for Roger and Harold's reactions,

But they're looking toward the mountains instead.

You lightly nudge Roger Robot with your elbow and both of them look toward you and the pirate ship.

Pirate's incoming.

Prepare pirate protocols.

I repeat,

Prepare pirate protocols.

This is Code Crossbones.

Roger Robot busily consults his protocols,

Measuring their distance as Mr.

Honeybee and I climb up into the treehouse,

Thoroughly alarmed.

Oh,

Your friends are here,

Mrs.

Honeybee.

They got here early.

Their trip back must have gone more smoothly than they were expecting.

That's good news.

Great news.

Melody Bee cautiously flutters up to the window of the treehouse to see what we're seeing,

Trying to figure out where her reaction falls between Roger Robot and Mr.

Honeybee's and mine.

I can't tell.

Are we alarmed or excited that there's a pirate ship floating up the Honey River right now,

Right before our very eyes?

Don't be silly,

Melody Bee.

We're excited.

Roger,

I don't think pirate protocol is a thing.

Is it?

Only for hostile pirates.

There's a failsafe in his hard drive that makes him double-check just in case.

Remember when they brought their rowdy friends last time and their visit ended in a pirate duel?

I just want to be prepared,

Just in case.

Good to know.

Well,

No pirate protocol for today,

Roger Robot.

These pirates are my friends.

We aren't going to visit the pirates,

Right?

We're just going to watch them float on by,

Not leaving the safety of our garden?

Of course we're going to go visit our friends.

Come on,

You'll love them.

Roger Robot puts on his off-roading wheel and we make our way through the forest to the banks of the Honey River.

The pirate ship almost takes up the whole width of the river.

The pirate captain carefully navigates along the deepest part of the river from up in the crow's nest,

Making sure to avoid any more rocks or sudden changes in underwater depth.

When she sees Mrs.

Honeybee,

She waves with a big smile.

From your first impression,

They seem like very friendly pirates.

Roger Robot is still not so convinced,

And Melody Bee has taken the opportunity to agree with Roger for once.

Maybe we should just go back to the garden instead of approaching the foreboding pirate ship with a black skull and crossbones flag.

Maybe?

Since when do you agree with Roger Robot?

Precisely when,

And only when,

It lands me back in my beautiful garden.

I can just see how pleasant it is there now,

How not full of pirates it is.

Nonsense,

Melody Bee.

These are some of my best friends.

We've spent so much time together.

Oh,

The stories we could tell.

Right,

Captain?

I shout up to Pirate Captain,

But she's focused on navigating the narrow channel upstream.

The docks of the Honey River,

Where Mr.

Honeybee's boat is tethered,

Are much too small for the pirate ship.

Instead,

The skilled seafaring captain finds a slushy,

Muddy part of the bank and wedges the ship stuck momentarily.

Once the masts have been lowered,

The crew of pirates,

All dressed in matching but weathered black and white striped shirts,

Descend from all levels of the ship to anchor it in place with a special mud anchor.

The smiling captain and her first mate walk in calm strides along the wooden deck of the ship before hopping right off the bow of the ship and landing in the soft sand.

The captain's first mate takes a tumble in the sand,

But we're all there to help him up.

It's been so long.

I am so happy to see you.

What's it been?

At least five years since we've seen you?

I think so.

And more than ten since that semester at sea we hosted together.

I always manage to learn something new from you,

My friend.

I love our adventures.

After our hugs hello,

We introduce you,

Melody B,

Roger and Harold to our pirate friends.

They are so thrilled to meet you finally.

The only way,

They usually receive messages is through a trusted network of messenger pigeons that get important information to the colorful parrot that's perched on their first mate's shoulder.

Hello there,

Little guy.

I'm sure you have all the free time you want now that I sent the captain and the first mate here up with satellite phones,

Huh?

It's been so nice talking to you more regularly.

What a wonderful idea you had,

Mr.

Honeybee.

What would we do without you,

My dear?

You definitely wouldn't be talking to these folks as much.

And it's a good thing,

Too.

I know.

I was so grateful you had something to send out a distress signal with.

What brings you this way?

Is everything okay?

How's the ship?

You're coming from the other side of the planet.

It and you must be exhausted.

It's all right.

As the sunburned crew fills in around us,

The pirates explain that they hit some coral along the coast and they needed to stop and repair the bottom of the boat as soon as possible.

They know from experience that there's always a helpful hand ready to be lent along the Honey River.

So her first thought was to come here to us.

Mr.

Honeybee wades into the river to help assess the damage,

Then walks heavy,

Dripping steps back to his boat on the dock where he keeps an extra toolkit for these exact boat emergencies.

Standing on the banks of the river,

Take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Feel the coolness of the air coming in through your nose,

Finding its way to your lungs and rounding your chest out bigger and bigger.

Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth as you notice the subtle taste of sea salt on the breeze that the pirate ship brought with it.

While Mr.

Honeybee helps the captain and her first mate repair the ship and reinforce it for the rest of their voyage,

We all get special treatment from our visitors.

The colorful parrot loves to meet new friends and zeroes in on Harold.

What better way to introduce yourself than to gently perch yourself on the head of your new friend?

That is exactly what this parrot did.

He landed gently on the top of Harold's head,

Right between his fluffy ears.

Harold looks up,

Trying to see the parrot and crossing his eyes to do so.

Trying to get a better look,

Harold whips and snaps back and forth,

Back and forth,

Trying to see something that he's not physically able to.

The parrot's wings spread out to steady himself as Harold jerks back and forth,

But the parrot enjoys teasing our little furry friend.

Roger Robot appreciates kind-spirited teasing in all its forms,

So he approaches the parrot for some information.

Instead,

Another one of the crew members in her black-and-white striped shirt sees that Roger does not have one leg to speak of and hops down from the ship to attach two peg legs on either side of his wheel.

They are longer than his wheel is tall,

So when they're properly adhered,

He can stand taller and waddle a great deal faster than he expected.

He waddles up and down the banks of the river,

Honing his newfound ability.

Talk to me.

Talk to me.

The parrot has grown tired of teasing Harold and instead lands right on your shoulder next.

He's a very,

Very friendly parrot and whispers funny pirate jokes in your ear.

They're so good that we have to tell Mr.

Honeybee.

Ooh,

Mr.

Honeybee,

This parrot is going to give you a run for your punny money.

Oh yeah?

Let's hear it.

Um,

What grades do pirates usually get in school?

High C's?

Get it?

That was a good one.

Speaking of school,

I have to tell you how I met this wonderful crew,

My little Honeybee.

Ooh,

Tell us,

Tell us.

You already know the story,

Melody Bee.

I know,

But I love it.

As I tell the story of our first pirate meeting,

The crew members make sure you're properly fashioned.

They bring you out your very own pirate hat,

A hook hand,

And even a peg lang for you to waddle on like Roger Robot.

As you can see,

My little Honeybee,

These pirates are a wonderful bunch.

They've been some of my best friends since the first day we met out on the high seas.

You know how much I love history and people and learning about both.

So in college,

I decided to do a semester at sea.

Over the course of a summer,

A small group of students sail around the world,

Stopping to learn a little bit about each place that we traveled to.

It was one of my favorite experiences.

I learned so,

So much that I carry with me to this day.

At one of the ports,

A group of pirates were also at the docks.

They had just recovered some deep-sea jewels,

And I bumped into them as they were returning the jewels to their homeland after centuries at the bottom of the ocean.

I was so struck by the kindness and bravery and generosity that I had to know more.

I went on to find out that these aren't just any pirates.

You see the captain?

Well,

She's an expert scuba diver.

She's specifically trained as a scuba diver and a pirate.

The captain and her first mate scour the oceans for shipwrecks,

Research where they came from,

Then take them back to shore to be reunited with their homeland.

Isn't that just wonderful?

Done.

This pirate ship is just like new,

Ready for the rest of your voyage.

Aye,

Aye,

Matey.

Let's go.

Let's go.

The parrot whispers one last funny joke in your ear,

Then flies off to visit with Mr.

Honeybee,

With Harold chasing him the whole way.

Roger Robot wobbles back our way,

And together we all explore the pirate ship.

The captain shows you up to the crow's nest,

Where she kindly requests your help steering the wooden ship wheel to help pull back from the shore.

Before we get too far away,

We jump back down from the pirate ship and see them off with smiles and waves until we meet again.

Always remember,

Mrs.

Honeybee believes in you.

You are special and you are loved.

I can't wait to see you again.

Reviews

Loved it!!!! Can u make a story about CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW? HE IS MY FAVORITE PIRATE FROM PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN

Amazing story the history of pirates is so ineteresting 🏴‍☠️

I literally cannot remember any of it but still amazing. I love how you’re constantly making new ones not too long not too short. It’s like Goldilocks. I’mma listen to it again so I can actually hear the story BTW.

Can you make a pizza 🍕 adventure for me and my best friend and all the little honeybees.???