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Oh Butterfly - A Short Story

I came home after a long and boring day at school. Well, being a 2nd-grade student, I can endure only so much torture.

By vaisrinivasanPublished 3 years ago 11 min read
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From Anand Rathod on Unsplash

If not for friends and playing games, I don't know the point of going to school. As I was saying, I came home and tossed my shoes in a corner and my school bag in another corner. Owing to my patti's insistence, I developed the habit of going straight to the backyard to place the lunch bag in the common area for our servant maid Akka to wash them for the next day.

After relaxing for some time, I ate snacks my patti made at home. She makes the most delicious snacks such as murukku, mixture, ribbon pakkoda, etc. My anna loves the mixture made by her. Talking about him, he came early from school and was missing at home. My anna and I go to the same school and we come on the same school bus regularly. Today he was not there on the bus and was not there at home. I could see that he came home early and went somewhere else as I could see another pair of shoes tossed in the corner.

We have this habit of coming home and eating the snacks made by our patti and then teasing our thatha and relating to him the day's events. After finishing snacks, we say bye to patti and thatha and go play with a bunch of kids in our locality. We know all the kids in our locality. There's a big ground outside my house where my anna plays cricket with his friends and my friends and I play on the swings and slides.

Today, my thatha was sitting outside looking at the passers-by and greeting them. I was eating the mixture silently wondering where my anna had gone. My amma was not home from the office yet. I went and talked to my thatha and our servant maid akka, but I did not ask them about him. I generally pretend that I don't like my anna and my ego prevented me from asking about him. But on that day, I was curious about his absence, because he was not on the ground too. I guess he was somewhere else doing something with his friends. If only I could know what he was doing.

After finishing my snacks, I ran outside to the ground. I have to say, I hopped to the ground. That's my means of moving from one place to another. I hop. My neighbor aunty likes to see me hop and calls me a kangaroo. I laugh at that and hop more. She was standing and smiling at me today also. She called me a kangaroo with a spring attached to its legs. I enjoyed her remark and hopped to the ground.

Slowly, kids started coming one by one. My favorite plaything is the swing set. I was the champion among my friends. I could swing by sitting on the swing plank or by standing on top of it and reach greater heights in both cases. My patti generally shouts from home looking at the way I swing and I generally ignore her shouts. Today was no different. We had a contest as to who reaches the highest point and keeps swinging for a long time. There were two swings and it was a knockout round. Naturally, I was overconfident and I kept on swinging. My friends started cheering for me.

From santiago gallego on Unsplash

As I went higher, I could see a group of boys far away behind some bushes. They had boxes in their hands. I was distracted as I could see my anna among them. He was coming back home with a box in his hand. Every boy had a box in his hand. All were his friends. I accepted my defeat, jumped from the swing, and ran home. I ran so fast as to be there when my anna reached home. I was waiting there breathing heavily when he entered with a huge smile on his face. He told goodbye to his friends and turned towards me.

I was looking at the pencil box in his hand. It was an old pencil box which I used to take to school. I had discarded it as my amma got me a new pencil box. I asked him what was in it and what he was doing for such a long time. He told me to close my eyes. Irritated at not getting the answer, I closed my eyes with a frown on my face. He told me to place my hand in front with my open palms facing upward. I did as told. He placed the box in my hands. There was a click and I assumed that he opened the box. Now he told me to open my eyes.

As I opened my eyes, I was shocked at what I was seeing. There was a huge thick worm in the box. I generally like all animals, birds, and insects, but this was too much hype for something as simple as a worm. I made a face and asked what was so special with this and why he wasted his time catching worms. He said that was not an ordinary worm but that was called a caterpillar.

I have read about caterpillars but that was the first time I was seeing it with my own eyes. I have read that a caterpillar turns into a pupa out of which comes the butterfly. I've seen the pictures in my school book, but I never thought it was something real that would happen. How could this thick, green worm turn into a multi-colored butterfly? I thought my anna was playing some kind of prank on me. There were some leaves in the box. My anna said those were mulberry leaves and it was food for the caterpillar. I asked why he had kept it in the box. My anna said he was going to take care of the caterpillar until it becomes a butterfly and let it go. I thought that was a crazy idea.

The next morning, the first thing I did after waking up was open the box. I could see that the leaves had little bite marks like the ones on my school notes which amma said was due to rats eating the paper. I was happy to see that the worm had eaten his share of food. I gently poked him with a stick and he didn't move. Assuming that he was still sleeping, I closed the box and went to brush my teeth.

The school went as usual. The classes were boring. We played stick cricket and collected pencil shavings. Also, we had a competition as to who collects the most eraser dust. I have this secret habit of eating the eraser. My amma doesn't know this. But my anna saw me eating an eraser one day and has been blackmailing me ever since. I guess I should catch him red-handed doing something to get even. The thought of the caterpillar in that small box crossed my mind several times during the day. I longed for the school bell to ring and go home.

Once the school bell rang, I ran towards the bus. We usually have a contest as to who crosses the school gate first. I have scraped my knee in the past being in a hurry to win. But I didn't mind. It was good fun to run chasing my friends and them chasing me. I ran and caught the bus. My anna was sitting in the back chatting with his friends. I sat on the bus idly as it started towards our homes. My best friend got down and I said bye to her. I had not told her or others about the caterpillar, afraid that they would laugh at me and avoid me. I still had my doubts believing that the worm would turn into a butterfly.

My anna and I got down at our stop and we started running towards our house. We reached our house breathing heavily. My anna opened the box and I tried to get a peek at it as I could not reach his height. He knelt and showed me the box. The caterpillar had eaten some more mulberry leaves and had gotten fat. As soon as we opened the box, he seemed to sense the movement and tried to move his little fat body. I was thirsty from all the running and thought the caterpillar would be thirsty too. We had a lot of plants in our backyard and I have seen a white milk-like substance at the joint between leaf and branch. When I had asked my brother long back, he said that was the milk secreted by the plant. I collected this milk carefully in a leaf and kept the leaf in the box assuming that the caterpillar can drink it and satisfy his thirst.

From Joyful on Unsplash

I closed the box, carried out my everyday routine, and then went to play in the ground. I was not much cheerful as I kind of expected to see a change in the caterpillar to indicate some sign that it was going to turn into a butterfly. I still didn't believe my brother and thought that he was playing a prank on me. This could be another of his stories about me that he and his friends might share and laugh about. Yes, that is a simple worm and not a caterpillar. I made up my mind about this, never to make the mistake of believing my brother again. I played heartily for the rest of the time and came back home. Before going to sleep, I looked at the closed box, curious to open it, but my inner voice advising me against it. I went to sleep.

The next day my brother woke me up early. Surprised at him rising early, I looked at the closed box in his hand half expecting and half desiring a full-grown butterfly coming out of it. When he opened it, I saw that the caterpillar had gone. In its place, I saw a transparent liquid gold-colored substance stuck to the leaf. My brother told me that it was the next stage of the metamorphosis. I didn't understand what that meant. He said that thing was called a pupa and the caterpillar had transformed into it. I remembered reading about it but couldn't believe my eyes that the fat caterpillar could transform into so small a thing. I asked my brother how it would eat. He told me it had already stored whatever it required in the form of food. I wish I could store all the snacks in my body so that I could eat them whenever I wanted.

The day went as usual and I found that I was more distracted than the previous day. Maybe my brother was right. Maybe the pupa would turn into a butterfly. I guess, I just have to wait. I came home that day and opened the box but still, the pupa had not turned into a butterfly. Even though the pupa had food stored in its body, I put some more leaves in the box, so that the caterpillar can come out of the pupa and have food whenever he wanted.

My amma came home from the office and got us cake. I ate the cream in both the cakes and gave the cake part to my anna. Then I went to play as usual. It got late and I came back by 9 PM. I ate dinner and went to sleep. I forgot about the box.

The next morning I got ready for school and felt I was missing something. I was supposed to remember something but I couldn't recollect it. Seeing a butterfly cross me at that time, I remembered about the box and for a moment I was afraid that the butterfly that just crossed might be the one in the box. I went and opened the box slowly and took a peek, afraid of finding nothing in it. In a split second, I saw the empty shell of the pupa and a colorful thing moving next to it. I screamed with delight and my brother came running. Seeing the excitement on my face, he immediately understood what it meant. He told me to open the box but slowly. I opened it slowly and saw the outcome of our effort.

A big beautiful butterfly opened its multi-colored wings and got ready for flight. It observed its surroundings for a second, taking in everything as though wondering where to go. It took its first flight and landed on my index finger. I was extremely happy that the butterfly chose me and smiled at my brother gratefully. My brother smiled back. The butterfly flew away and went to explore the world.

When I came home from school that day, I longed for the butterfly to come back. But soon I realized that there is a greater joy in letting go than keeping the butterfly and that the joy is not in possession but nurturing.

Meaning of the Tamil terms:

Patti - Grandmother

Akka - Elder sister (A common practice to call women who are elder to the caller)

Anna - Elder brother

Thatha - Grandfather

Amma - Mother

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Author's Note:

Hey there. Thanks for reading. The above story is from my childhood. I had great fun remembering it and penning it down. The community I grew up in, for a short period of my life, was small and everyone knew everyone else. We kids got together every day after school and played till dinner time. Those were the times!!

If you liked what you read, feel free to leave a heart. See you again with a new story :)

literature
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About the Creator

vaisrinivasan

Writer of musings. Occasional traveller.

https://ko-fi.com/vaishnavi_scribbles

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