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‘Bees, fucking bees!’ he yelled angrily. ‘They stung me all over.’

He removed his shirt, and Marcus counted the stings he had on his back. Nine. His left ear was already red and swollen, and the back of his neck was inflamed as well.

‘They attacked me, the sons of bitches!’ Karl hadn’t calmed down yet. ‘The pavo fell right into a beehive. The little mothers can have it, for all I care.’

Kevin and I had a hard time stifling our laughter.

‘You don’t mean that, Karl,’ Kevin said. ‘We’re not going to leave that turkey just lying there while we go hungry.’

‘You want it so bad?’ Karl said, fuming. ‘Go get it yourself.’

‘Yossi, are you going to help me?’ Kevin asked.

I joined him reluctantly. First we sprayed ourselves all over with repellent, both our bare skin and our clothes. Karl watched us with a smug grin. We crept up on the spot, approaching from opposite directions, and soon saw the buzzing swarm over the fowl. Kevin crept forward, and I did the same.

‘Don’t worry,’ Kevin said, ‘The smell of the repellent will surely keep them off us.’

I was standing about six feet from them and hadn’t been stung. Kevin took one more step, and the bees swarmed over him in one thick cloud. ‘Oooh, ohhh,’ he yelled, and started running blindly. He crashed into boughs, stumbled, and didn’t stop for anything