Oscar and Alphonse

She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand spelling out “Goodbye.” You’re probably wondering who ‘she’ is, well ‘she’ is Emily Jones. She grew up in Boise, Idaho and was born in 1959. This is her story.

Emily always had trouble making new friends. Her mother told her to just be herself, but Emily was a very shy girl. So her mother told her to try and break out of her shyness. Emily tried to talk to people, but she just couldn’t. Every attempt she made to talk to someone new always ended the same; she would freeze up and her mind would go blank.

It wasn’t until her ninth birthday party that she made two real friends. “Let’s go to the park for your birthday,” Mom said. “You can invite some of your friends.”

“That sounds great,” added dad. “How about we invite your cousins too? We can have cake, open presents, and play.”

“That sounds good,” Emily said in a low voice. She was sad because she didn’t have many friends besides her cousins.

While at the park, all the other kids played tag but Emily wandered off into a nearby meadow filled with orange and purple flowers smelling of lilac and daisies. She saw two little figures on a blade of grass. She leaned closer to see two fuzzy, green caterpillars. She was just about to reach out her hand when her mother called “Kids, time for cake!” Emily sadly went back to the picnic.

The next day, Emily asked her mom to take her to the park. When she got to the park, the first thing she did was go to the meadow. She could not find the caterpillars at first, but then she saw them on a lilac bush near two small trees. She gently picked up the caterpillars and they wiggled in her hand; using a shiny slime, they spelled “Hello.” At first she was scared, but then she thought it was amazing! She named them Oscar and Alphonse, after two brave men in an adventure book she read.

She took them home, set them in a flower pot and took the flower pot to her room. She set that flower pot on her nightstand. Every night, she said goodnight to them, and every day she played with them because she loved them.

One day Oscar and Alphonse wrote on her hand “chrysalis.” At first she had no idea what they were talking about, but then it hit her; caterpillars turn into butterflies! Then they wrote on her hand “Home” and she immediately knew what that meant. She got very sad because she knew it meant that she had to take them home. So, she once again asked her mom to take her to the park.

When they got to the park Emily went to the meadow. She looked down at the caterpillars as they wiggled in her hand spelling “Goodbye.” As she put them on a lilac bush, she had tears in her eyes and she whispered “Goodbye my little friends.” She hoped that when she returned to this park, she would one day see them again as butterflies.

About three months later, Emily went back to the park with new friends that she made when she finally found the courage to talk to girls at school. As they were playing, she saw two butterflies, so she put out her hand to see if the two beautiful green and blue butterflies would flutter onto her hand. They softly landed on her hand, and wiggled around spelling “Hello again” and she immediately knew it was Oscar and Alphonse!